indicates with some decisiveness the different (Exod. xxv.14, 15) that the poles with which cbararter and the number of the sources to bear it should not be taken out of the from which the writers of the Books of rings, but be always sto.tioua.ry there. If Samuel and those of Chronicles took. we au ppose that it was not a question of the Yer. 9.-The threshing:floor of Chidon. ark being absolutely overthrown, but simply For Chidon, the parallel place has Nachon; of its riding unsteadily, his presumptnoua- possibly these a.re two names of the same ness would not have the further defence of place, or one form is a corruption of the an instinctive impulse. other; but there is nothing to determine for Ver. 11.-Displeased. The Hebrew root. us which. Owing to the meaning of (:i:i1;) betokens a mixture of anger and grief. Nachon being "prepared," the version of It is the word used of Jonah (iv. 1, 9), and Aquila is " to the prepared tbreshingfl.oor," perhaps our English word "vexed" or with which the Jonathan Targum agrees, "hurt," would convey its meaning. B:a.d and (for this Chronicles pass&ge) the Joseph ma.de a brea.oh ; literally, hacl broken forth Targum gives Jf'l)1? ,r,~,. The threshing- a breaking forth on Uzza ; i.e. had fiercely floor WBll a circular plot of hard ground, from broken forth on Uzza.. There a.re many fifty to one hundred feet in diameter, on exactly analogous uses of both verb and which the oxen trampled out the grain. noun in the Hebrew. To this day. This Threshingfloors evidently often became phrase, also found in the pa.ra.llel pla.oe, landmarks, and helped to designate places indicates the lapse of time from the historical (Gen. 1. 10 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16). The oxen point of time to the point of record. stumbled. In the parallel place the Authorized Ver. 13.-0bed-edom the Gittite. That VerAion renders "shook it." The Hebrew Obed-edom is called " the Gittite," i.e. of verb is the same (o!=lr) in both places. Its Gath-rim.moo, a Levite city of Dan (Josh. elementary meanings a.re "to strike" and "to xxi. 24), might probably indicate the.t there throw down." Perhaps the meaning is near was another Obed-edom, from whom to dis- the Vulga.te rendering, calcitrabant, and tinguish him. Buch a one would appear eqniva.lent to the rendering, became restfoe. readily to offer in the name of Obed-edom, Ver. 10.-There seems some little uncer- son of Jeduthun, a "Mere.rite Levite •• (eh. tainty as to why Uzza was to blame in a xv. 18-24; xvi. 5, 38; xxvi. 4-15). But desire that would appear both praiseworthy the difficulty occurs that an expression in and instinctive, to steady the ark or so.ve it this last quotation seems to identify him from a.ctnally falling. Uzze. was probably with the Obed-edom of 2 Sam. vi. 11 ; and not a priest or Levite, and it is so distinctly the last sentenoe of our next verse. If they said his sin consisted in putting his hand to a.re one and the ea.me, it has been suggested the ark, that perhaps the direction of Numb. that marriage might account for the Mera.rite iv. 15 may be sufficient account of the living in a Koha.thite city (see' Bpea.ker'11 matter. SpAcial injunction had been giveu Commentary• on 2 So.m. vi. 10).
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-14.-The chapter of reverse; or, the go"d enterprise of a gooa man "vel'ihrown in a day. Before viewing this chapter in any detail, there is e. general impression which it makes, and that, tbou~h general, yet not vague, but of a commnnding sort. Here is, so to put it, a certain day in a man's life, an important day, one looked for e.nd conse- crated to high end. It rose bright and its joy spread. With intense activity the work is Bet a.bout, and it is at e.11 events designed and superintended by a good man, though it is not possible that he should, in his own person, carry out every detail of it. '!'bat great day ended in disappointment and disaster. .And though the proximate ea.use of this reverse of all that was intended, hoped, and prayed for is plainly enough told, the providence that permitted it in place of preventing it seems obscure. Such days happen in not a few lives, not least in the lives of men in exalted and responsible position. They produce sometimes a wounded spirit, a sense of aggravation and of intense disap- pointment and grief. Large thought, large care, large love, seem to have been thrown away and rebuffed . .And though fault may have been, yet that fault, the fault of a mere subordinate, visits its worst effects upon the chief persons involved in the enterprise, or on a whole community, or upon both. It may throw some light on such disappoint- ments and catastrophes in our own experience or under our own immediate observation if we view them at a little greater distance and as they befell others. Notice, then- L THE ENTERPRISE ITSELF AND THE NATURE OF IT. It is to bring age.in the ark to some place of right, of honour, of influenoe. 1, To bring it back t,o the royal city wa~ on. xw. 1-14.] 1HE FIRS'r BOOK OF '!'HE CE:RONICU:s. 197