verse is to sto.nd corrected by o.ccepting from where it is probable that" nephew" should its pe.re.llel "the Bethlehemite " in place of be read for " uncle "). It is to be noticed our Lamhi, then either we have no no.me that the name of this child of the giant, of given for the brother of Goliath, the Git- twelve fingers and twelve toes, is not men- tite; or, if we drop the word "brother" tioned. We are not rmnpelkd, therefore to ( rhonging the •nN. of Chronicles into the ntt regard it e.s remarkable that he of the fi'fth of Samuel), e.nd°inake Goliath the Gittit; verse should not be named. the man slain by Elhe.ne.n, then of such e. Ver. 8.-These were bom llllto the giant Goliath we know nothing, e.nd it is e. most in Gath. The parallel place reads, "These unlikely coincidence of no.me witli the four,'' etc. The first of the four in view conquered of David's sling. Kennicott's there is not mentioned here. The account seventy-eighth dissertation is occupied, is given in 2 Sam. xxi. 15-17. And as it o.nd ably, with· the pros e.nd com of thfa was in that enconnter that De.~id himself question; o.nd the curiosities of Jerome played ~he ~hief part (though, apparently, it on the passage may be found in his was Ab1sha1 who dealt Ishbi-benob the fatal • Qumstiones Hebraicre.' There seems no blow in" succouring" David), the notice ofit sufficient reason to depart from our read- would haveseemednecessarytocompletefully ing here, to which it were preferable to the sense of the following clauses, "They adjust the reading in the pe.re.llel ple.ce, fell by the hand of David, and by the hand which exhibits almost certainly e. glaring of his servants." Still this, it may justly corruption of text in another respect. be argued, may have been the very reason Ver.6.-Ame.n of . .. stature. The He- of the form of expression here choson brew text is mo, e.s also in eh. xi. 23; e.nd coupling David's work and that of hi~ (in the plural). in Numb. xiii. 32. An servants. This brief summary in the last eccentric e.nd probably corrupt form appears verse of this chapter, as also in the lust in the parallel place. Pliny (' Ne.t. Hist.,' ii. verse of the corresponding chapter, just 43) speaks of the Sedigiti, and places them serves to reveal to us the nezw that bound in the family of Forli, among the Him- together the three or four exploits for nar- yarites. ration. It consisted in the common descent Ver. 7.--Jonathe.n (see 1 Sam. xiii. 3, of the four giant victima. 32; oh. :u:vii. 32 (comp. also eh. ii. 13),
HOMILETICS. Ver.1.-On the wars oftlie Israelites, and on war generally. "At tho time that kings," etc. This chapter also seems to contain little of homiletic interest. Nevertheless it offers abundantly the opportunity of some consideration of the subject of the wars undertaken by the separnted people, and thence of the subject of war since and generally. 'l'his chapter repeats the word " war" three times in vers. 4--6. But yet rather the very tum of the expression in ver. 1, "At the time that kings go out to battle," far surpasses any suggestiveness that might arise merely from the repetition of a. word. At the outset of any consideration of this subject as it a.rises in connection with Scripture, attention is arrested, and it may be said universally arrested, by certain patent fa.ots. They are facts from which we cannot run away, and which, however they may suffer explanation in themselves, will soon show that they refuse to be explained away. The more necessary is it to treat them accordingly, and to face them steadily. 'l'ho facts alluded to are such as these: 1. That a very large part of the whole bulk of Old 'l'estament history is concerned with the recital of matters of war. 2. That war manifestly played a large part in the education and formation of character of the people Israel. 3. That it was by no means entirely or even principally owing to any lust of strife or even of conquest which might have possessed the people that they warred so much, but this was assigned to them as a very part of their duty and part of their mission. 4. '!'hat with a directness that cannot be mistaken, war is not only prescribed, and that age.in and again, by God to his people, but he represents himself as Leader of armies, Captain of hosts, and as "going forth" with men to battle, tho impersonation of a mighty warrior. The sovereign right of death, as of life, belongs, no doubt, to God-his to destroy, as his to create. But the observable thing in war, so far as those of tho Old Testament Scriptures a.re concerned, lies in the fact which would seem infinitely more enormous and astounding than, through our familiarity with it, it now docs- that God destroys human beings by tho agency of other human beings. The sweeping 320 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [err. x.x. 1-8