The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 157

should mark an encloBed one. Rephnim viii. 18; xx. 23; l Kings i. 38; eh. xviii.17). means "giants." Hence our Authorized His fidelity e.nd influence remained into Version, "The valley of Hinnom westward, Solomon's time (1 Kings i. 8, 10, 32, 38, 41; which is at the end of the valley of the ii. 35; iv. 4). giants northward" (Josh. xv. 8; xviii. 16; Ver. 23.-Five cubits high. This height also 2 Sam. v. 18; comp. with our present is not given in the parallel passage; it p11Ssage; and 2 Sam. v. 22 comp. with eh. means seven feet six inches. A spear like xiv. 9). a weaver's beam (so l Sam. xvii. 7; 2 Sam. Ver. 16.-David WII.B then in the hold. xxi. 19). This statement may, perhaps, sufficiently Ver. 24.-The name. There is no article identify this occasion with that of 2 Sam. v. in the Hebrew. 17, 18; where it is expressly said that" David Ver. 25.-0ver his guard. If the reference went down to the hold" (n:ri:i:r;i being the is not as above (see ver. 22). the margin of word fou,nd the.-e a, he.-e). Garrison. The the parallel (2 Sam. xxiii. 23) may be fol- Hebrew here says "officer" (::i•~)), but the lowed, which would translate "guard " as parallel passage has "garrison" (::i,:,:_J?); yet, council. This Gesenius adopts, and trans- according to Gesenius (' Thee.,' 903), the lates "privy council." There seems, how- former word has both meanings. He is ever, no necessity for this, with the references right, certainly, if he means that it has before us above given (2 Sam. viii. 18, etc., received both translations, for see 1 Kings to which may be added eh. xxvii. 6, which iv. 19 for the one, and our present passage shows Benaiah to be captain of the third supplies the other (1 Sam. x. 5; xiii. 3). division). Vera. 26-41.-These verses correspond Ver. 17.-The well of Bethlehem . . . at with vers. 24-39 in 2 Sam. xxiii., and with the gate. Nothing else is known of this them the subject ends there, though not here. well. No trace of it exists now, according The list announced here as comprising" the to Dr. Robinson (' Bibi. Res.,' i. 473). The valiant men of the armies," is unannounced traditional well is ha.If a mile distant, to the there, but, beginning with the same nC1me, north of the town, and consists of a group Asabel, it calls him "one of the thirty," and of three cisterns, while the present town is suirgests the inference that those who follow supplied with water by an aqueduct. will make up the rest. The number tho.t fol- Ver. 18.-David ... poured it out to the lows (coinciding in this respect strictly witl1 Lord. This was done after the nature of a our list here) is itself thirty, which, though libation (1 Sam. vii. 6; J udg. vi. 20; Exod. one too many, may be considered satisfac- XXX. 9; Gen. XXXV. 14). torily accounted for in the fo.ctof the untimely Var. 19.-My God forbid it me. Compare denth of Asahel, already recorded (2 Sam. the Hebrew of this with that of the ex- ii. 23). Considering the exact crisis at which pression in the parallel (2 Sam. xxiii. 17), he died, it is very likely that his plo.oe should where njn; is found in the place of our be compensated for, although his Mme were •~1:i~,F;l- It is probable that the preposition unremoved from the honourable list. Amid ,,wni is lost from before" Jehovah." Shall the difficulties that develop themselves in I drink the blood, etc.? i.e. the water which the contents of these lists, when compo.red, the has been obtained at the imminent peril of comparison of them 11,ids the conviction that, the life of these three brave men (comp. so far as they go together, tJiey do sto.nd Gen. iv. 10, 11; ix. 4-6; John vi. 53, 5¼). for "the thirty" spoken of ii{ both places, Ver. 20.-Abishai . . . was ohief of the and that a sentence or two here and there, three. It is remarkable that again the now lost or corrupted beyond recognition, name of one of the three is wanting, even would clear up the whole subject. The if we take Benafoh of ver. 22 for the second. comparison e.lao seems to make it cleo.r that Ver. 21.-Than the two. The Hebrew the compiler of Chronicles, meo.ning to go co:~:;,,~) cannot be thus translated, but pos- beyond e.n enameration of the thirty, no- possibly the words may mark the aecond aet where speaks of thirty after ver. 25. On of three. the other hand, the writer of the account in Ver. 22.-Benaiah. Hie father Jehoiada Samuel carefully sums up 11,ll (ver. 39) in was chief priest (eh. xxvii. 5). Benaiah the words, " thi.-ty and aeven in all "-an was, therefore, a Levite by tribe, though addition which means either the actual Kabzeel (Josh. xv. 21) was in Judah far thirty-one given and the two sets of three south. He was "c11,ptain of the host for each; or the thirty, with the two Bets of the third month . . . and in his course were three each and Joab over all. Our present twenty e.nd four thousand" (eh. uvii. 5). chapter, however, goes on to the number When in our var. 25 it is said that "David forty-eight in all, vers. 41-47, adding six- set him over his guard," the allusion probably teen to the thirty-two which precede. Hcside is to his uniform and prolonged command of somo minor differences, it must he snid that "the Cherethites and Pelethites" (2 Sam. at feweat three name.a, llepher, Ahijah, l\lld  148 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [OH, XI. 1-47,