Obrazy na stronie
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greater and better for their prince and ruler than that God, at all times, may be with him.-Vers. 38-40. The typical in Solomon's elevation to the sovereignty: (a) He is established in spite of all machinations against him (Ps. ii. 2; Heb. v. 5); (b) he is anointed with oil from the sanctuary (Is. Ixi. 1; Luke iv. 18); (c) he makes his entry as prince of peace amid the jubilee and praise of the My Christian! reflect here upon the trumpetsounding and the jubilee-shout, when the heavenly Solomon shall take possession of his kingdom (Rev. xi. 16), and see to it that thou also mayest be amongst those who have part in this joy.

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earnestness and courage (Matt. x. 28; see Histor. and Ethical). How grand is this Nathan, how reproving to all who sleep when they should be wakeful, who are dumb when they should counsel, who flatter when they should warn.-Ver. 11. It is a solemn duty not to conceal what can prove an injury and evil to an individual or to a community, but to expose it at the right time and in the right place, so that the injury may be averted.-people (Zach. ix. 9; Matt. xxi. 1 sq.).-STARKE: Ver. 12. What Nathan here says to Bath-sheba, Christ and his apostles, in an infinitely higher sense, say to us all, especially to every father and to every mother. He who has come into the world to deliver and to save our souls, cries, Come unto me, &c. (Matt. xi. 28, 29), and the apostle advises the jailor, who asks in terror and alarm, What shall I do to be saved? i. e., delivered, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, so shall thou and thy house be delivered. How many take kindly the good advice of a wise man, for themselves and for their children, in their earthly and outward affairs, but who wish to hear nothing of the best advice which shall bring blessedness to their souls.-Ver. 14. The purity of the counsel is confirmed by the accompanying result.-Vers. 15-21. Bath-sheba before the king. She reminds him of his duty (a) towards God, before whom he had sworn (what one has vowed before God, according to God's will, one must hold to under all circumstances; of this one must remind kings and princes); (b) towards the people whose well-being and whose woe were in his keeping (the great responsibility of him towards whom all eyes are directed); (c) towards the wife and son whose happiness and life were at stake (woe to the father through whose guilt wife and children, after his death, fall into contempt and wretchedness).-Vers. 22-27. As Nathan does not hold back from the fulfilment of his holy calling through consideration of the danger threatening his life, and of the illness of the king, so David is deterred in nothing when it was said, Behold the prophet! from listening to the man of God, though his word, like a two-edged sword, may pierce through his soul. To have a Nathan by one's side, who refers at the right time and in the right way to the will of God, is the choicest blessing for a prince. "He who fears God lays hold of such a friend" (Eccles. vi. 16).—The ministers of God and the preachers of His word should not indeed mingle in worldly business and political affairs, but their calling always requires them to testify against uproar and sedition, for he who resisteth the powers, resisteth the ordinance of God (Rom. xiii. 2).-With questions which lead to a knowledge of self, he who has the care of souls often accomplishes more than by direct reproaches and disciplinary speeches.

Vers. 41-49. The frustration of the schemes of Adonijah (Job v. 12): (a) The intelligence he obtains; (b) the effect produced by this intelli. gence. To an evil conscience (Joab) the trumpets which announce victory and joy are judgmenttrumpets, which sound forth, Thou art weighed and found wanting. The same message in which David expresses himself, Blessed be, &c., ver. 49, works terror and alarm in Adonijah and his party. So still ever sounds the "good message that the true Prince of peace, Christ, has won the victory, and is seated at the right hand of God, which to some is for thanksgiving and praise, so that they support themselves upon it, but to others it is a stone of stumbling, so that they fall and are confounded (Is. viii. 14; Luke ii. 34).-In the intoxication of sinful pleasure and of God-forgetting, frivolous jubilation, the holy God sends, oftentimes, the thunder and lightning of his judgment, so that the besotted and maddened may thereby be rendered sober and made to experience that there is an holy God in heaven who will not allow himself to be mocked. When Adonijah held a great festivity he had plenty of friends; but when the messenger came with evil tidings, no one, not even the bold Joab, stood by him; they all forsook him (Eccles. vi. 10-12).—Vers. 50-53. Adonijah covered himself with shame (Prov. xi. 2): (a) He was afraid of Solomon (he who does not fear the Lord, must at last become afraid of men). How miserable the contrast between the young, haughty Adonijah and the aged, feeble, but faithful-hearted and humble David; (b) he flies to the horns of the altar and begs for mercy: (he who said, I will be king, calls himself Solomon's servant. Ostentation and boasting, as a ride, end in cowardice and cringing. He can bring down him who is proud (Dan. iv. 34). In the old covenant the horns of the altar were the places of refuge for those who had forfeited life and sought grace; in the new covenant God has directed us to a horn of salvation (Luke i. 69), the cross of the Lord, which all must seize and hold fast to who seek forgive

life. That is the only and true asylum; he who flees thither avails himself of the word of the great Prince of peace, Go in peace, thy faith hath saved thee. The most beautiful prerogative of the crown is to do mercy for judgment; but mercy must never be for a covering of iniquity. Hence by the side of the word: Thy sins are for given thee! stands the other word: Sin no more! Kings and princes do well when, after Solomon's example, they begun their reign with an act of grace.

Vers. 28-37. David's decision: (a) His oathness and grace, and wish to pass from death unto (vers. 29, 30) is an evidence of his firm faith in the divine promise; (b) his command is a living proof of the truth of the word, Is. xl. 31, and Ps. xcii. 15 sq. (see Histor. and Ethical).-Ver. 30 sq. The word of a prince must stand firm and not be broken. Happy for the king who, under all circumstances, observes what he has promised. Fidelity in high places meets with fidelity from those below.-Ver. 36. Where the government is in firm hands there is found also a willing, joyous obedience. Upon God's blessing all is founded. With out God's Amen our Amen avails nothing. Loyal subjects know that they can wish for nothing

[BP. HALL. "Outward happiness and friendship are not known until our last act. In the im

potency of either our revenge or recompense it will easily appear who loved us for ourselves, who for their own ends." Suitable for ver. 7.

BP. HALL, for ver. 41. "No doubt at this feast there was many a health drunken to Adonijah,

many a confident boast of their prospering desiga many a scorn of the despised faction of Solomon and now, for their last dish (ver. 49) is served up astonishment, and fearful expectation of a just revenge.-E. HI.]

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B.-David's last words to Solomon, and his death.

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CHAPTER II. 1-12.

Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged 2 Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong there3 fore, and shew thyself a man; and keep the charge of the Lord [Jehovah] thy God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest 4 thyself: that the Lord [Jehovah] may continue [confirm] His word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children [sons] take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall 5 not fail thee (said he) ' a man on the throne of Israel. Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and [even] what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ñer, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were 6 on his feet. Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go 7 down to the grave in peace. But shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at thy table: for so they came to 8 me when I fled because of [before] Absalom thy brother. And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite [a son of the Jaminite]' of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by 9 the Lord [Jehovah], saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. Now therefore hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood.

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10 So [And] David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. 11 And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly.

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TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.

bears equally well the sense prosper or do wisely; cf. Josh. i. 7. The VV. generally

Ver. 4.-[Confirm is the proper sense of DP as in all the VV.

Ver. 4.-[It is better here to preserve the masculine form as in all the VV., the reference being undoubtedly to the line upon the throne.

Ver. 4.-[The Vatican Sept. omits the words concerning me, and also with all their soul.

• Ver. 4.—[De Rossi rejects as spurious the word ", which is wanting in Kennicott's MS. 170, and in the Valg, and Arab.

• Ver. 5.—[Many MSS., the Syr. and Arab., express the conjunction

7 Ver. 5.-[The Sept. have here "innocent blood "—alμa áðŵov.

• Ver. 7.—[Heb. '???.

• Ver. 8.—[Heb. "?"???— son of the Jaminite, i. e., of the descendants of Jamin, a son of Simeon (Num. xxvi. 12) The Heb. for the patriarch Benjamin is written in one word; the Gentile name is written separately, but without the article. All the instances cited by Gesenius in verbo, are either without the article, or else refer to this very Shimei. Of the VV., the Sept. and Vulg. have appreciated the distinction; Chald., Syr., and Arab. agree with the A. V.—F. G.]

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

in

to Joab and to Shimei (chap. ii. 28 sq.). This supposition is as unnecessary as arbitrary.-Upon the double murder of which Joab was guilty, Ver. 1. Now the days of David, &c. The comp. 2 Sam. iii. 27 sq., and xx. 8 sq. The first Chronicles omit the history of Adonijah, but nar- threw a false suspicion upon David (2 Sam. iii. rate instead, that David ordered a solemn act of 37); the second was coupled with scorn and homage of the entire people, in the persons of defiance of the royal authority (2 Sam. xx. 11); their representatives, towards Solomon when he hence what he has done to me (to my injury). was anointed a second time" (1 Chron. xxiii. 1, ver. 5, literally, he shed "blood of war sq., and xxix. 20-25). Such also was the case with Saul (1 Sam. xi. 12-15), and with David him self (2 Sam. v. 1-3; 1 Chron. xi. 1-3). Solomon's first anointing was rather impromptu, called for by the pressure of circumstances, upon which account it was proper that it should be followed by another done with all solemnity before the whole people. It took place also before that which is narrated in the section to be considered. | The words, "L a second time," show that the first anointing was well known to the chronicler. His narrative, besides, does not "rest upon liberty with the history" (Thenius), but is a filling-out of our own, with which it agrees very well.

Vers. 2-4. I go the way, &c. The form of expression reminds one of Josh. xxiii. 14; 1 Sam. iv. 9; but especially of Josh. i. 7. The exhortation: Be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man! does not mean: be consoled on account of my departure, bear it manfully; but it refers to what follows-be strong and brave in the "charge" of Jehovah, in the fulfilment of His prescripts. The

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does הִשְׁכִּיל .(Keil)

Instead of the second

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when he killed Abner and Amasa, not as foes, in
peace, i. e.. he furnished an unheard of exainple
open, honorable warfare, but murderously de-
"blood of war," Thenius, after the Sept.(aiμa àvān),
stroyed the inoffensive.
reads 'p, which makes good sense, certainly,
but is unnecessary.-Girdle and shoes are not here
introduced as "especial parts of oriental costume
(Thenius, Keil); nor is it thereby said, "from the
girdle of his loins, to the latchet of his shoes," ie,
over and over (Ewald); but girdle and shoes hero
are rather the marks of the warrior, as in Isai. v.
27 and Eph. vi. 14 sq., for the sword is fastened
to the girdle (2 Sam. xx. 8), and the shoes serve
for marching, and provided with both, one enters
upon battle. David also means to say: Joab
has soiled with murder and blood the insignia of
his rank and dignity as a soldier and general
issimo, and covered his office with shame and dis-
grace.-According to thy wisdom. "David
does not wish Solomon to invent a pretext for
taking Joab's life; but he exhorts him to observe
wisely the right moment and occasion, when Joab

shall furnish a reason, to hold him to account also
for his blood-guiltiness, so that no murmuring shall
arise among the people; but every one can see the
justice of the punishment" (Starke).-In peace,
e., so unpunished as if he had done only good,
and committed no crime worthy of death.

the sense consider what Jehovah wills to have considered, i. e., His laws (for then the following would be pleonastic), but rather custodies custodiam Jehovae, keep the charge which thou art bound to Jehovah, to accomplish; be a true watch-. man in the service of Jehovah and for Him (comp. 1 Chron. xxiii. 32; xii. 29; Numb. iii. 6-8, 38). This Vers. 7-9. Barzillai. Comp. 2 Sam. xvii. 27 charge is fulfilled in walking in the ways of God- sq. At thy table, i. e., not "that they shall in observing His various commandments. The ex- have the privilege of eating with the king at the pressions which here, as elsewhere, so frequently royal table itself" (Keil); but they shall receive standing side by side, denote the latter (Deut. v. their necessary food from the court, like the royal 28; viii. 11; Ps. exviii. 5 sq.), do not admit of servants (Dan. i. 5). The recollection of the noble sharply-drawn distinctions; but they "denote to- service of Barzillai leads to the mention of the gether the totality of the law upon its different crime of Shimei, committed on the same occasion (2 Sam. xvi. 5 sq., and xix. 21).—py (ver. 8) does sides and relations to men "1 not mean exactly "to have good fortune" (Ge- Bahurim, where Shimei dwelt (2 Sam. xvi. 5), was a not mean under thy power (Starke), but near thee. senius, De Wette, and others), but to be skilful, village in the neighborhood of Jerusalem (Joseph. wise. He who in all things stands upon the commandments of God, and governs himself there- Ant. 7, 9, 7), about one and a-half hours' (five miles after, is and carries himself wisely. What he does, simply, he cursed me; but emphatically, he cursed and a quarter) distant from it. David does not say will and must have a prosperous issue, and come to a right conclusion (Deut. xxix. 8; Jer. iii. me with a curse, and adds the epithet, 7, 15 sq.); xxiii. 5; Prov. xvii. 8; 2 Kings xviii. which, according to Thenius, because the primary 7).—In ver. 4 the positive promise in 2 Sam. signification of is, to be exhausted, sick, vii. 11 sq. is expressed in negative form, as also in means "heinous" in the sense of horrendus. Acchap. vii. 25; ix. 5; Jer. xxxiii. 17. The fication is, to be powerful, strong, and for this the cording to Kimchi and Gesenius, the primary signi"does not denote a completely unbroken succession, but only the opposite of a break forever" (Hengstenberg). Thy house and seed shall never be exterminated, what catastrophies soever may happen.

Vers. 5, 6. The charge which David delivers in rers. 5-9, were not, according to Ewald and Eisenlohr, originally made by him; but were first, at some subsequent time, put into his mouth in order to explain and justify Solomon's severity

remaining passages, where the word occurs, decide (Mich. ii. 10; Job vi. 25; xvi. 3; Vugate, Male dictio pessima).—For thou art a wise man, and knowest, i. e., I leave to thy discretion the how and when of the punishment. An αιτία εύλογος (Josephus), will not be wanting. With blood, the opposite of the "in peace in ver. 6, inasmuch as he has deserved it.

Vers. 10, 11. In the city of David, i. e., in Mount Zion, in which, aves that served as burial

vaults were constructed (Winer, R.-W.-B., ii. | Woe to the land whose king is a child (instead of a 8. 736). According to Thenius the entrance into man), Eccles. x. 16. Firmness and manliness, howthese vaults was on the east, in the vale Tyropoeon, ever, are not the fruit of caprice, and of an unin a sloping declivity of the mountain, opposite broken heart. It is through grace that the heart the spring Siloam. The later kings also were is made strong (Heb. xiii. 9). buried here (1 Kings xi. 43; xiv. 31; xv. 8, &c.). The still so-called kings' graves are different, and are situated on the opposite side, to the north of the Damascus gate (Robinson, Palestine, vol. i. p. 240 and 357 sq.). David had, without doubt, prepared these burial-places for himself and his successors. In what high estimation his tomb was held is clear from the circumstance that it was known even during the time of Christ (Acts ii. 29). According to 2 Sam. v. 5, six months were added to the seven years. Ver. 12 is the transition to the next section, where it is told how Solomon's administration was strengthened.

HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.

3. The special directions, which refer to individual persons, David likewise communicates, not as a private man, but as king of Israel. Joab's double murder had gone fully unpunished. At the time of its commission David was not in a condition to be able to punish him; but he felt the full weight of the deed, and in his horror of it uttered an imprecation of Joab (2 Sam. iii. 29). In the eyes of the people, nevertheless, the non-punishment must have been regarded as an insult against law and righteousness, the charge of which devolved upon the king. "It was a stain upon his reign not yet blotted out. Even upon his death-bed he cannot think otherwise than that it is his duty, as that of the supreme judge, to deliver to his successor a definite direction about it" (Hess, Gesch. David's, ii. 1. In the last words of David to Solomon, it is s. 220). It lay upon his conscience, and he denot so much the father speaking to his son, as the sired that this stain somehow ("do according to king of Israel, the head of the theocratic kingdom, thy wisdom," ver. 1) should be removed. Moreto his successor upon the throne. From this over, Joab's participation in Adonijah's revolt stand-point we must view alike the general and must have appeared as dangerous for the throne the special portions of the whole discourse. The of Solomon. As the punishment of Joab was to calling of a king of Israel consisted especially in him a matter of conscience, so also was Barzillai's this: to preserve the "kingdom of Jehovah" compensation. What Barzillai had done, he had (1 Chron. xxviii. 5; xxix. 23); to be not the repre- done for him as king, as the anointed of Jehovah. sentative, but the servant of Jehovah, the true Such fidelity and devotion to the legitimate reigning and proper king, also to observe "all the words of house (Königthum) in a time of great and almost unithe Law, and all the ordinances of Jehovah" versal falling away, ought to be publicly requited, (Deut. xvii. 14-20); but, before all, that supreme and to be recognized in honorable remembrance and chief command, Exod. xx. 3-6, to observe com- after the death of the king. This compensation pletely the covenant which Jehovah had made with must serve, no less than the righteous punishment His chosen people. With this high calling David's of Joab, to the firm establishment of the throne of soul was completely filled; and as he had con- Solomon. In direct contrast with the action of Bartinually "done what was right in the eyes of zillai was that of Shimei. He did not curse David Jehovah, and had not turned aside from anything as a private person, but he cursed him with the that had been enjoined upon him all his life long "heaviest curse as the "anointed of Jehovah," and (1 Kings xv. 5), so, also, in the last moments of therein Jehovah himself directly. For blasphemy his life, it was his greatest solicitude that his suc- against the king was on the same level with blascessor upon the throne should stand upon "the phemy against God (2 Kings xxi. 10). Both were charge of Jehovah " (ver. 3), i. e., should take care punished with death (Lev. xxiv. 14 sq.; Exod. that the law of Moses, with all its particular pre- xxii. 27; 2 Sam. xvi. 9), hence also Abishai thought scripts, in their entire circumference, should be that Shimei should be put to death (2 Sam. xix. maintained. This he earnestly and solemnly sets 22). But David wished on the day when God had forth as the foundation of a prosperous and blessed shown him a great mercy, to show mercy himself, reign, and as the condition of the fulfilment of the and upon that account spared his life. But "it promise made to him in respect of the continuance was no small matter to allow the miscreant to of his "house (2 Sam. vii.). So David appears spend his life near him (no banishment was talked here, yet once more, in his grand historical signi- of). And to permit him to spend his days quietly ficance, namely, as the type of a theocratic king, under the following reign (which had never been by which the conduct of all subsequent kings is promised him), would have been a kindness that measured (chap. iii. 3, 6, 14; ix. 4; x. 4-6; xi. might have been greatly abused as a precedent 33-38; xiv. 8; xv. 5-11; 2 Kings xiv. 3; xvi. 2; of unpunished crimes" (Hess). In fact, Shimei xviii. 3; xxii. 2). The throne of David is Israel's was a dangerous man, and capable of repeating model throne; no king of Israel has left behind what he had done to David. As for the rest. Dahim such a testament as David here. vid left Solomon to choose the manner and time of his punishment, only he was not to go unpunished.

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2. It is worthy of remark, that the man who reigned forty years, and whose life as ruler was so rich in experience, should, amongst the counsels he imparted to his successor, have placed this in the fore front; "be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man!" He knew what belongs to the office of ruler. Moral weaknesses, swaying hither and thither like a reed moved by the wind; unseasonable pliability is a greater defect in a ruler than if he be overtaken by this or that particular sin in private life. Rightly says the Scripture,

4. David's conduct on his dying-bed has frequently been regarded as a great reproach to him. The latest (secular) history passes the following judgment upon it: "If David's life and deeds had not sufficiently shown his mind, these last words of the dying man would leave no doubt about his character. We must turn away from such. blood-thirsty desire for revenge which, though innate with the Semitic races, is united here with a

5. Chronicles (I., xxix. 28) relates the death of David with the addition that "he died in a good c.d age, full of days, riches, and honor." We see how much he was honored even in death, from the fact that his weapons were preserved as relics in the sanctuary (2 Kings xi. 10). Compare the eulogy in Ecclesiasticus, chap. xlvii. 2-11. For the character of the great, and indeed greatest, king of Israel, though now so often unjustly judged, by whose name the expected Messiah was designated by the prophets (Ezekiel xxxiv. 23; xxxvii. 24; Hos. iii. 5), comp. Niemeyer, Charaktistik der Bibel, iv. s. 107– 358, and Ewald, Gesch. Isr., iii. s. 250-257, which says, with regard to the "last (poetical) words " of David (2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7): "No prince, especially one who did not inherit the kingdom, could close his life with more blessed divine peace, or a more assured and cheerful view into the future."

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

concealment of purpose and malice that are pecu- | sions objected to, to vilify David at the last, as liar to David. His vengeance, even out of the Duncker does, but on the contrary he tells them, grave itself, determines to strike, through the to his honor, to show how entirely king of Israel hand of his son, an insignificant man, to whom he David was, even on his dying-bed. (David) had once promised forgiveness when he himself was in a strait. Forgetting all the services and victories he owed to Joab, David determines, in order to gratify a long-cherished ill-feeling, to have a man, to whom he owed his kingdom and whom he himself had not ventured to touch, murdered by his son, ostensibly for two acts which Joab did, if not with David's consent, yet by no means against his will; the fruits of which David had willingly accepted, and which acts he had not made the slightest efforts to punish" (Duncker, Gesch. des Alterthums, i. s. 386). In this view it is entirely overlooked that David did not then speak as a private man, but as a theocratic king, and this judgment of him is quite false, no regard being paid to the time and the circumstances. The rough, false assassin Joab, who finally conspires with Adonijah, is made to appear as a man of high merit, and the blasphemer and traitor Shimei, as an insignificant, unfairly-treated man, while David, who departs life without one crime on his conscience as king, and who desires to fulfil the demands of justice as well as of gratitude, is said Vers. 1-9. David's last words to Solomon (a) to have displayed the whole of his wicked and with regard to the kingdom generally (vers. 1-4), malicious character at the last. "Nothing but an (b) respecting some individuals (vers. 5-9; see uncritical confusion, which wished to behold in Historical and Ethical).-Ver. 2. Various as are David a saint and a complete model of virtue the paths of men from their birth, yet they all, (which the Scriptures nowhere assert him to be), kings as well as beggars, rich and poor, go the could call forth, as contrast, the degradation of the way to the grave (Ecclesiasticus xl. 1-3). And yet king, which is as one-sided as unpsychological so many live as if they had not to travel that road (Winer, R.-W.-B., i s. 258). [Yes! but our au- (Ps. xxxix. 5, 6; xc. 11, 12). The passing nature thor forgets that David had sworn to Shimei, Thou and vanity of the world, with its allurements and shalt not die! (2 Sam. xix. 23); and "the king" it splendor, is a strong exhortation and warning from was (i. e., David as king) that "swore unto him." God to hold fast to the word that lives forever, Clearly David's act of grace to Shimei was an act of and shall not pass even when heaven and earth royal right, royal clemency, and nothing but sophis- pass away (1 Peter i. 24, 25; 1 John ii. 17; Luke try can justify his dying charge to Solomon not to xxi. 33).-Be firm and be a man! What is requilet the unfortunate man die in peace.-E. I.] When site to be one? how shall one become one? of Bunsen's Bibel-werk says: "The vengeance of Da- what use? (Heb. xiii. 9; 1 Cor. xv. 5-8; xvi. 13). vid can never be justified from the Christian point-Ver. 3. The last and best will of a father to his of view," it is quite overlooked that that point of view is not the fitting one here. David belonged to the Old Testament economy, to the time of the law, not the gospel, and his conduct must be judged in the light of the former. It is an anachronism to measure Old Testament persons by the standard of the sermon on the mount. Besides, the same apostle who exhorts the believers as follows: Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, immediately after, speaking of authoritiesand David speaks as such here-tells them that they are "ministers of God, revengers to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil" (Rom. xii. 19; xiii. 4). In the kingdom of God in which the law of earthly punishments prevailed, such a crime (like that of Joab and Shimei) could not remain unpunished. He, too, who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; who, when He suffered, threatened not (1 Peter ii. 23), announced in a parable the final judgment of His enemies: "But those mire enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me (Luke xix. 27: v. Gerlach). We scarcely find as many instances of personal love to a foe, generosity and goodness, in the life of any Old Testament hero, as in David's. It is evident that the author of our books does not relate the commis

son: (a) Trust in God's protection of yourself and all whom God has confided to your care; (b) walk in His ways; let Him lead and guide you, He will do it well (Prov. xxiii. 26; Ps. xxxv. 5); (c) keep His ways and ordinances (Eccles. xii. 13; Ps. i. 1–6; Tob. iv. 6). Such an inheritance is greater and better than all the gold and land he might leave you.-True prudence and wisdom are not born of human thought and much knowledge, but are the fruit of the fear of God, and of walking in His ways and commandments (Ps. cxi. 10; Job xxviii. 28).-God-fearing parents are more anxious about their children keeping close to God and His word, than about leaving them temporal goods.-Ver. 4. The promises of God only proceed from His grace, not our merit; but their fulfilment is always coupled with conditions, which we have to perform if we would enjoy them (Heb. xi. 6; 1 Tim. iv. 8).—Vers. 5-9. We cannot go the way of all the world in peace, as long as we have anything remaining on our conscience, or any debt to justice and grateful "love to cancel. We should forgive our enemies from our hearts, as we desire the Lord to forgive us, and especially on our dying-beds. But authority was instituted to "do justice; to prevent and punish wickedness; " it commits a sin and has a crime to answer for so long as it does not do

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