3¶ And David smote 'Hadarezer king of Zobah unto Hamath, as he went to stablish his dominion by the river Euphrates.

4 And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen : David also houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them an hundred chariots

5 And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadarezer king of Zobah, David slew of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men.

6 Then David put garrisons in Syria-damascus; and the Syrians became David's servants, and brought gifts. Thus the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.

7 And David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadarezer, and brought them to Jerusalem.

8 Likewise from Tibhath, and from Chun, cities of Hadarezer, brought David very much brass, wherewith 'Solomon made the brasen sea, and the pillars, and the vessels of brass.

9 Now when "Tou king of Hamath heard how David had smitten all the host of Hadarezer king of Zobah;

10 He sent Hadoram his son to king David, to enquire of his welfare, and 'to

2 Or, Hadadezer, in Sam.
6 Or, Toi, 2 Sam. 8. 9.
11 Or, remembrancer.

congratulate him, because he had fought against Hadarezer, and smitten him; (for Hadarezer had war with Tou;) and with him all manner of vessels of gold and silver and brass.

11 Them also king David dedicated unto the LORD, with the silver and the gold that he brought from all these nations; from Edom, and from Moab, and from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines, and from Amalek.

12 Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah slew of the Edomites in the valley of salt eighteen thousand.

13 And he put garrisons in Edom; and all the Edomites became David's servants. Thus the LORD preserved David whithersover he went.

14 So David reigned over all Israel, and executed judgment and justice among all his people.

15 And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the host; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, "recorder.

16 And Zadok the son of Ahitub, and "Abimelech the son of Abiathar, were the priests; and "Shavsha was scribe;

17 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and the sons of David were chief "about the king.

3 Heb. Darmesek.
Called in the book of Sam. Betah and Berothai. 51 Kings 7. 23. 2 Chron. 4. 15.
7 Or, Joram, 2 Sam. 8. 10. 8 Or, to salute. 9 Heb. to bless.
10 Heb. was the man of wars.
12 Called Ahimelech in Sam.
13 Called Seraiah in Sam., and Shisha, 1 Kings 4. 3.
14 Heb. at the hand of the king.

CHAP. XVIII.-This chapter is nearly the same as 2 Sam. viii. We here confine our attention to the points which did not there receive the requisite illustration.

Verse 3. "Zobah."-Concerning this place we cannot find that any thing satisfactory has been determined. The want of definite information is, in this and other instances, supplied by etymological conjectures, the number and diversity of which only demonstrate that nothing is known. We find Zobah the predominant Syrian state prior to Damascus, and the town which gave it a name, was probably of high antiquity and importance. It appears not to have been far from Damascus; and it occurs to us as very probable, that it may have been the "Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus," mentioned in the history of Abraham (Gen. xiv. 15). The names are almost identical; both are historically connected with Damascus; and Hobah, though of importance in the time of Abraham, is not again mentioned in Scripture unless we find it in Zobah. It appears that the kingdom of Zobah was to the north of Damascus ; for the present text seems to intimate that it bordered on Hamath, the capital of which is about 90 geographical miles to the north of Damascus. In 2 Chron. viii. 3, also, the names of Hamath and Zobah (Hamath-zobah) are combined in such a manner as to intimate probably, that the two states had become one in the fime of Solomon. This northward bearing of Zobah from Damascus is established, if we take it to be the same as Hobah, which is distinctly said to have been to the north of Damascus, for in all indications of relative bearings, "the left hand" means the north in Hebrew. This concurrence also helps to strengthen the probability that Zobah is the same as the very ancient Hobah of Genesis. 7. "Shields of gold."-See the note, vol. i. p. 612.

8. "Tibhath and Chun."-In 2 Sam. viii., the names are Betah and Berothai. The difference is variously explained. Probably we have in one passage the names which the towns bore among the Syrians, and in the other those by which they were known to the Jews. We do not find any satisfactory evidence for determining the sites of the places denoted by these names. The Arabic version of the present text would refer us to Emesa and Baalbec; and, without seeing any ground for a decided opinion on the subject, we think that the probability of this determination is as fair as any that can be offered in so uncertain a matter. The situation of these two places agrees very well with the assumed situation of Zobah, between the states of Hamath and Damascus. Baalbec we shall have another occasion to notice. Emesa, which is sometimes confounded with Hamath, is about 70 geographical miles N.N.E. from Damascus, and 23 S. from Hamath, near the eastern bank of the Orontes. It is a place of some note in history; and was in the time of our Saviour the seat of a petty kingdom, subject to the Romans, which had been established by an Arabian chief a short time before the annexation of Syria to the Roman empire. Under the name of Hems, which it still bears, the town was one of great strength and importance when the Moslems of Arabia invaded Syria in the

seventh century; and its name appears most conspicuously in the history of the war. Ockley, after the Arabian historian of that war, Alwákide, well describes it as, "a place of most healthful and pleasant air, compassed about with beautiful gardens and fruitful orchards, which are plentifully watered by a rivulet drawn from the river Orontes." The present Hems is a well built and flourishing town for the region in which it is found. The town is built chiefly with stone, and has good mosques and bazaars, with a fixed population of about 10,000, and a moving population of 2000 or 3000-the latter being chiefly Arabs from the eastern desert and from Palmyra (Tadmor), as this is the nearest point of departure for them, and is therefore their chief market and place of resort. Mr. Buckingham states that the neighbourhood affords no other remains of the ancient Emesa than the basework of an old castle, a sepulchral monument, and some granite pillars and sarcophagi scattered up and down, and which are sometimes used in the construction of more modern buildings.

15. "Recorder."-See the marginal explanation, which is very good. It appears to have been the business of this officer to write down the public events of the time, as they occurred, and particularly such as related to the king. This was an office of very great importance in the East, as the person who discharged its functions necessarily became acquainted with all the secrets of the state. The journals thus prepared seem to have been intended solely for the use of the government; the public having no cognizance of their contents. These journals, however, in the end doubtless furnished valuable materials towards such more digested histories as those which now lie before us. Luther, Calmet, and others, call the Hebrew functionary "chancellor ;" and perhaps, with great allowance for the difference between ancient and modern, and oriental and western usages, there is not-in our own state, for instance-any public officer, who in rank and character makes so near, though distant, an approach as the chancellor to the Hebrew mazkir () or recorder.

16. "The scribe."-This officer appears to have been a sort of secretary of state. It seems likely that his duties were distinguished from those of the recorder by this,-that the latter registered in a final form that which had been determined, or that which had become historically known as true; whereas the latter was engaged in preparing and assisting the actual progress of public business. From a comparison of passages, the "scribe" appears to have prepared and issued the royal edicts and commands-to have registered acts, decrees, and facts, for practical purposes-and to have collected information for the king's instruction and guidance. The person distinguished as "the scribe," was doubtless at the head of a number of persons engaged in these services.

17. "The Cherethites and the Pelethites."-That these formed the king's body-guard is allowed on all hands: but their specific character, and the grounds on which they were distinguished from each other, has occasioned no small amount of discussion. It will be observed that the name" Cherethites" is applied to the Philistines, or to a Philistian people, in 1 Sam. xxx., Ezek. xxv. 16, and Zeph. ii. 5, whence some think that the force was composed of Philistines who had attached themselves to David: but others, allowing this derivation of the name, think that the force was composed of those tried followers who had been with David from the beginning-had gone with him into the country of the Philistines-and had remained with him while under the protection of the king of Gath. They might take as an honourable distinction the name of the country in which they had resided with him. Gesenius, however, objects to "Cherethite" being understood as a proper name, since the analogy of the word "Pelethite" requires it to be an appellative. But Dr. Delany and others anticipate this objection by contending that "Pelethite" is also a proper name, belonging probably to those Israelites who had not, like the Cherethites, been with David from the beginning, but who had joined him while at Ziklag. Accordingly we find the name of "Peleth" in the list (chap. xii. 2) of the principal persons who there resorted to him; and it is possible that this person became their captain, and that they took their name from him. Neither of the denominating processes here supposed, is by any means without analogous example.

But others decline to consider "Cherethites and Pelethites" as proper names. The Targum has "archers and slingers." But it so happens that this is not incompatible with the foregoing explanations. In the one instance it is known that the Philistines were famous as archers, and were perhaps called Cherethites from that circumstance. And we may therefore either suppose that the corps in the text was composed of Philistine archers in the pay of David, who appears from 2 Sam. i. to have desired to make the Hebrews better acquainted with the use of the bow; or that his old followers, while in the Philistine country, had acquired such skill with that weapon as occasioned them to be called Cherethites. And then, as to the Pelethites, if they were the men who joined David at Ziklag, we know that they were mostly Benjamites; and we know also that the Benjamites were famous as slingers. Indeed the sacred historian, in noticing their arrival, says: They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in burling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow" (chap. xii. 2).

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Gesenius gives the word Cherethite () the signification of headsman or executioner; but without disputing that they formed a section of the royal body-guard, it being, as he observes, well known that capital punishments in the east are executed by the body-guard or by their chief. We indeed find Benaiah, the chief of this force, acting as executioner in 1 Kings ii. Gesenius, of course, derives the word from , carath, to cut off, chop off, or hew down. As to the Pelethites ), he considers them to have been royal messengers, or state couriers, with a reference to the Arabic and Syriac signification (equivalent to the Hebrew D.) to escape, to flee away, and hence, swift, swiftfooted. Under this interpretation, the Cherethites may be understood to be that section of the body-guard who inflicted the punishments awarded by the king; and the Pelethites those who were charged to convey the royal orders and messages to different parts of the kingdom.

The authors of these various explanations, which include some suggestions of our own, state them as alternatives; but our wish is to show that they might, and we believe did, concur. The Cherethites, whether Philistines of Jews, may, at the same time, have been archers and executioners; and the Pelethites may have been, at the same time, the men who joined David at Ziklag, and slingers, and couriers. The point of real difficulty is, to determine whether the Cherethites were Philistines, or the followers who had been with David in Philistia. We must confess that we feel undecided between these alternatives. We should not, however, have the least hesitation in rejecting the first of them, were it not that, although there may be good reasons for its rejection, we cannot allow the least weight to the considerations on which it has generally been rejected. The principal of these is, that David was not likely to form a bodyguard out of a hostile nation. But this reasoning overlooks the very important fact, that the body-guard of most Oriental sovereigns is actually composed of persons.originally slaves, or captives of neighbouring and often hostile nations, or the descendants of such, and who are far more trusted than natives would be, in the consideration that they have no ties of kindred or alliance, or interest in the country, to divide the fidelity to him on whose favour they entirely depend. And another fact of still greater force is, that when David fled from Jerusalem on the rebellion of Absalom, among those who remained faithful, and determined to share his apparently desperate lot, we find named immediately after 2 R 2 307

the Cherethites and Pelethites, 600 men of Gath, who appear to have arrived but lately at Jerusalem. David tried, most considerately, to persuade their leader to leave him and seek more promising fortunes; but Ittai nobly replied: "As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, there also will thy servant be." (2 Sam. xv. 21.) Now it will scarcely be doubted that these 600 Philistines came in expectation of being employed in David's service; and it would not be going too far to suppose that they were partly induced to come by the knowledge that he had already formed a body of native Philistines with which they expected to be incorporated.

CHAPTER XIX.

1 David's messengers, sent to comfort Hanun the son of Nahash, are villanously entreated. 6 The Ammonites, strengthened by the Syrians, are overcome by Joab and Abishai. 16 Shophach, making a new supply of the Syrians, is slain by

David.

Now 'it came to pass after this, that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his stead.

2 And David said, I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father shewed kindness to me. And David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. So the servants of David came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun, to comfort him.

3 But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? are not his servants come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land?

4 Wherefore Hanun took David's servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks, and sent them away.

5 Then there went certain, and told David how the men were served. And he sent to meet them: for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then

return.

6 And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves 'odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out of Syria-maachah, and out of Zobah.

7 So they hired thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of Maachah and his people; who came and pitched before Medeba. And the children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle.

and put the battle in array before the gate of the city and the kings that were come were by themselves in the field.

10 Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose out of all the 'choice of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians.

11 And the rest of the people he delivered unto the hand of "Abishai his brother, and they set themselves in array against the children of Ammon.

12 And he said, If the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me: but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will help thee.

13 Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the LORD do that which is good in his sight.

14 So Joab and the people that were with him drew nigh before the Syrians unto the battle; and they fled before him.

15 And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.

16 And when the Syrians saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they sent messengers, and drew forth the Syrians that were beyond the 'river: and Shophach the captain of the host of Hadarezer went before them.

17 And it was told David; and he ga thered all Israel, and passed over Jordan, and came upon them, and set the battle in array against them. So when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him.

18 But the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the host.

19 And when the servants of Hadarezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with David, and became his servants: neither would the Syrians help the children of Ammon any

8 And when David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the host of the mighty men. 9 And the children of Ammon came out, Heh. In thine eyes doth David, &c. 3 Heb. to stink. Heb. the face of the battle was. 6 Heb. Abshai. 7 That is, Euphrates. Or, Shobach, 2 Sam. 10. 16.

12 Sam. 10. 1, &c.

more.

3 Or, young men,

BEARDS (dressed)-a, Turkish Sheik-beard disposed in locks; b, Mameluke, shaved on chin; c, Turkish Officer, shaved under the lower lip; d, e, Turkish Gentlemen; d, chin and angles of mouth shaved, leaving a tuft of hair under the lower lip; e, chin shaved, and upper lip closely trimmed.

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CHAP. XIX. This chapter is nearly the same as 2 Sam. x., where there is a note explanatory of the treatmert which David's ambassadors received.

Verse 6. "Syria-maachah.”—This was a small Syrian kingdom which appears to have adjoined, on the east, the territory of the half tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan, and of which that tribe was unable to obtain possession.

7. “Thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of Maachah and his people."-It appears from the parallel text, that the king of Maachah's people were 1000, which makes the total number of hired auxiliaries 33,000, agreeing with the account there given. But there is this difference, that the number is made up of men, not chariots—thus, "The Syrians of Beth-rehob and Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and of king Maachah a thousand men, and of Ish-tob twelve thousand men." The usual and, we believe, correct explanation of this apparent discrepancy is, that the word rendered "chariots" (, rekeb) in the present text does not always bear that meaning, but is a collective name signifying "cavalry" or "riders;" which, as applied to the reconciliation of these parallel texts, would denote that there were thirty-two thousand Syrian auxiliaries, who were usually mounted on chariots or horses, but who occasionally also

18. "Seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen."-Here the word rendered "chariots" being put for the chariot-warriors, our translators have properly interpolated the words "men which fought in," as being necessary to complete the sense. This is a proof of the statement in the preceding note. But the parallel text is considerably different, being: "The men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians and forty thousand horsemen." As to the difference of seven hundred and seven thousand, some think that the former denotes the chariots, and the latter the riders: but this would give the extraordinary number of ten riders to each chariot. And as to the difference of footmen and horsemen, this may partly be explained by the preceding note; but there can be no doubt that men acting as infantry are intended, as expressed in the present text. But, upon the whole, it is difficult to reconcile the two passages completely; and Kennicott and Houbigant agree that they should be corrected by each other, and that we should read in both: "Seven thousand horsemen, seven hundred chariots, and forty thousand footmen." This also is the course taken by Boothroyd.

2 Heb. at the return of the year. 32 Sam. 12. 30. 4 Heb. the weight of 52 Sam. 21. 18. Or, continued. 7 Heb. stood. 8 Or, Gob. 9 Or, Rapha. 10 Called also, Jaare-oregim, 2 Sam. 21. 19. 11 2 Sam. 21. 20. 12 Heb. a maa of measure. 13 Heb. born to the giant, or Rapha. 14 Or, reproached. 15 Called Shammah, 1 Sam. 16. 9.

CHAP. XX.-The contents of this chapter are found dispersedly, and with little variation, in 1 Sam. xi., xii., and xxi., as indicated in the marginal references.

Verse 2. "David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold."-A great difficulty in this text arises from the weight assigned to the crown, being not less than 125 pounds, which is a weight that no one could wear on his head even on occasions of mere state. Some therefore think that we are to understand that the crown was of the value (60007.) not the weight of a talent of gold. Others suppose the weight was that of a Syrian talent, which was only one-fourth of the Hebrew talent. A third explanation is, that the word translated "their king"

malcom) should be left as a proper name, that of the Ammonitish idol Milcom or Molech; and that the crown was taken from the image of this idol, which could of course bear a heavier weight than a man. To this rather probable explanation, there is the objection, that the sequel of the verse describes David as placing this same crown on his own head. This however is met by the supposition that he caused another smaller crown to be made for himself out of this: but those who prefer this view, will probably find a better explanation in the opinion advocated by the inge