The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 582

Joab moved his 011mp northwards, and by their own le.ws. But as they were bound pltoherl In Gilen.d, on the river Jahbok; and, to serve in the lsr1101ite armies, they were he.vlng completed the counting in this pint incladed in the census, and possibly one df of the tribe of Gad, would next enter the i te maia objects was to learn the number wild regions of Manasseh. It is probable of fighting men of a.lien races dwelling in that the tribal princes and loco.I officers lsrael. They seem to he.ve been reckoned actually numbered the people, and that as belonging to the tribe in whose borders Joab, with e. powerful force, constrained they dwelt. So BIIBnah and Rechab, the them to obedience often against their will. murderers of lshbosheth, though Beerothitee It WIIB possibly this danger of resistance (and therefore Gibeonites, who again were whioh made David entrust the business to Hivites), were counted to Benjamin (eh. Joab, instead of employing the Levites. iv. 2). These Gentile communities were The land of Tahtim-hodshi Gesenins dis- chiefly to be found in the north, for which ·misses this name with the remark that it reason it was co.lied "the circuit (Gelil) of Clan SClll'cely be regarded as genuine. The the nations" (Isa. ix. 1), and in later times versions give little help; but Theniuscleverly from Gelil came the name Galilee. Th<> extracts from the LXX., "unto B11sh11n, Syriac adds "Jebusites," and we find Jeru- whioh is Edrei." Others, by a slight change salem occupied by II community of Jebusites in the Hebrew, read, "the land of the living in independence in the very neigh- Hittites," and suppose that Hodshi is a boU!'hood of the warlike tribe of Benjamin corruption of the Hebrew word for "month," (eh. v. 6). This numbering of the aborigines so that the whole might !Jave been, "They by David is referred to in 2 Chron. ii. 17, OBme to the land of the Hittites in the whew it is added that Solomon made e. (third) month." Others, again, suppose that separate census of them, and found that Hodshi is II corruption of the name of the there were in Israel no fewer than a hun- town Kadesh. But the versions would cer- dred and fifty-three thousand six hundred tainly he.ve preserved anything so common- of these aliens. place as this. When they make mistakes, Ver. 8.-Nine months and twenty days. it is almost invariably in proper no.mes This long period seems excessive, if nothing or unusual phr11Bes. The emendation of more was intended than merely counting Theuius is too ingenious to be accepted, but the heads of the people, especially as the it gives the right sense, namely, that from census was left unfinished. But there Gilead and the tribe of Go.d the numerators might very probably be difficulties with the went northward through Bashan and the aliens dwelling in Israel ; and it is still rest.of the he.If-tribe of Manasseh till they more probable that there was a complete OBme to Dan, the town on the extreme north- examination of all the military resources of east border, o.nd the limit in that direction the land. The result showed II very dif- of the Israelite realm, as Beersheba was its ferent state of things from that described in limit on the south. De.n-je.an. Nowhere l So.m. xiii. 19-22, and we can well under- else is Dan found with this addition, and the stand the existence of much elation and Syrie.c omits it even here. The Vulge.te, and war-lust among the Israelites on thl' first Septuagint (Codex; Alex.) read Danjaar flush of pride in their new empire. the woodlo.nd Do.n. Possibly the names of Ver. 9.-There were in Israel eight hun- two towns have been run into one, and the dred thousand valiant men that drew the original reading was " unto Dan and ljon " sword; and the men of 1udah were five (see l Kings xv. 20). ,Ijon was on the hundred thousand men. In Chronicles the direct road from Dan to Sidon. Zidon. numbers are, "of Israel eleven hundred This was on the extreme north-western thousand men, and of Judah four hundred boundary. It did not actually belong to and sixtv-five thousand men." These dis- David, but both it and Tyre ho.d apparently crepancies are a remarkable confirmation of placed themselves under his protection, and the truth of what is said in 1 Chron. xxvii. were bound to render some kind of military 24 that because of the outbrel!.k of the service. Divine wrath, "the number was not put in Ver. 7.-Tyre (comp. Josh. xix. 29). Tyre the e.ccouat of the Chronicles of King and the whole coast-lo.nd between it and David." Neither the writer of the Books of Bidon had been too strong for the tribe of Samuel nor of Chronicles had any official Asher, and remained unsubdued. But, like document to refer to ; o.nd as the number~ the independent states in India, it acknow- are lump sums, and derived probably from ledged the supromaoy of the paramount what was said by the enumerators, the more power. The oities of the :&:ivites, and of the exact four hundred and sixty-five thousan,l Oanaanites. It is evident from this tho.t men of the Chronicles might 8118ily in rountl even in David's time there were towns and numbers be called a half-million. The other districts were Hivites o.nd Cane.anites dwelt is a much larger discrepancy, and no satis- 111 distinot communities, governed probably factory explanation of it has been ~iven. U  li!lS 'rHE St•:CnNb nooK or SAMllBL.