Antiquities Book 7, Chapter 15
What Charge David Gave To his Son Solomon At The Approach Of His Death, And How Many Things He Left Him For The Building Of The Temple.
1. A Little afterward David also fell into a distemper, by reason of his
age; and perceiving that he was near to death, he called his son
Solomon, and discoursed to him thus: "I am now, O my son, going to my
grave, and to my fathers, which is the common way which all men that now
are, or shall be hereafter, must go; from which way it is no longer
possible to return, and to know any thing that is done in this world. On
which account I exhort thee, while I am still alive, though already very
near to death, in the same manner as I have formerly said in my advice
to thee, to be righteous towards thy subjects, and religious towards
God, that hath given thee thy kingdom; to observe his commands and his
laws, which he hath sent us by Moses; and neither do thou out of favor
nor flattery allow any lust or other passion to weigh with thee to
disregard them; for if thou transgressest his laws, thou wilt lose the
favor of God, and thou wilt turn away his providence from thee in all
things; but if thou behave thyself so as it behooves thee, and as I
exhort thee, thou wilt preserve our kingdom to our family, and no other
house will bear rule over the Hebrews but we ourselves for all ages. Be
thou also mindful of the transgressions of Joab, 26 the captain of the
host, who hath slain two generals out of envy, and those righteous and
good men, Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether; whose death
do thou avenge as shall seem good to thee, since Joab hath been too hard
for me, and more potent than myself, and so hath escaped punishment
hitherto. I also commit to thee the son of Barzillai the Gileadite,
whom, in order to gratify me, thou shalt have in great honor, and take
great care of; for we have not done good to him first, but we only repay
that debt which we owe to his father for what he did to me in my flight.
There is also Shimei the son of Gera, of the tribe of Benjamin, who,
after he had cast many reproaches upon me, when, in my flight, I was
going to Mahanaim, met me at Jordan, and received assurances that he
should then suffer nothing. Do thou now seek out for some just occasion,
and punish him."
2. When David had given these admonitions to his son about public
affairs, and about his friends, and about those whom he knew to deserve
punishment, he died, having lived seventy years, and reigned seven years
and six months in Hebron over the tribe of Judah, and thirty-three years
in Jerusalem over all the country. This man was of an excellent
character, and was endowed with all virtues that were desirable in a
king, and in one that had the preservation of so many tribes committed
to him; for he was a man of valor in a very extraordinary degree, and
went readily and first of all into dangers, when he was to fight for his
subjects, as exciting the soldiers to action by his own labors, and
fighting for them, and not by commanding them in a despotic way. He was
also of very great abilities in understanding, and apprehension of
present and future circumstances, when he was to manage any affairs. He
was prudent and moderate, and kind to such as were under any calamities;
he was righteous and humane, which are good qualities, peculiarly fit
for kings; nor was he guilty of any offense in the exercise of so great
an authority, but in the business of the wife of Uriah. He also left
behind him greater wealth than any other king, either of the Hebrews or,
of other nations, ever did.
3. He was buried by his son Solomon, in Jerusalem, with great
magnificence, and with all the other funeral pomp which kings used to be
buried with; moreover, he had great and immense wealth buried with him,
the vastness of which may be easily conjectured at by what I shall now
say; for a thousand and three hundred years afterward Hyrcanus the high
priest, when he was besieged by Antiochus, that was called the Pious,
the son of Demetrius, and was desirous of giving him money to get him to
raise the siege and draw off his army, and having no other method of
compassing the money, opened one room of David's sepulcher, and took out
three thousand talents, and gave part of that sum to Antiochus; and by
this means caused the siege to be raised, as we have informed the reader
elsewhere. Nay, after him, and that many years, Herod the king opened
another room, and took away a great deal of money, and yet neither of
them came at the coffins of the kings themselves, for their bodies were
buried under the earth so artfully, that they did not appear to even
those that entered into their monuments. But so much shall suffice us to
have said concerning these matters.
FOOTNOTES
1 (return) [ It ought to be here noted, that Joab, Abishai, and Asahel
were all three David's nephews, the sons of his sister Zeraiah, as 1
Chronicles 2:16; and that Amasa was also his nephew by his other sister
Abigail, ver. 17.]
2 (return) [ This may be a true observation of Josephus's, that Samuel
by command from God entailed the crown on David and his posterity; for
no further did that entail ever reach, Solomon himself having never had
any promise made him that his posterity should always have the right to
it.]
3 (return) [ These words of Josephus concerning the tribe of Issachar,
who foreknew what was to come hereafter," are best paraphrased by the
parallel text. 1 Chronicles 12:32, "Who had understanding of the times
to know what Israel ought to do;" that is, who had so much knowledge in
astronomy as to make calendars for the Israelites, that they might keep
their festivals, and plough and sow, and gather in their harvests and
vintage, in due season.]
4 (return) [ What our other copies say of Mount Sion, as alone properly
called the city of David, 2 Samuel 5:6-9, and of this its siege and
conquest now by David, Josephus applies to the whole city Jerusalem,
though including the citadel also; by what authority we do not now know
perhaps, after David had united them together, or joined the citadel to
the lower city, as sect. 2, Josephus esteemed them as one city. However,
this notion seems to be confirmed by what the same Josephus says
concerning David's and many other kings of Judah's sepulchers, which as
the authors of the books of Kings and Chronicles say were in the city of
David, so does Josephus still say they were in Jerusalem. The sepulcher
of David seems to have been also a known place in the several days of
Hyrcanus, of Herod, and of St. Peter, Antiq. B. XIII. ch. 8. sect. 4 B.
XVI. ch. 8. sect. 1; Acts 2:29. Now no such royal sepulchers have been
found about Mount Sion, but are found close by the north wall of
Jerusalem, which I suspect, therefore, to be these very sepulchers. See
the note on ch. 15. sect. 3. In the meantime, Josephus's explication of
the lame, and the blind, and the maimed, as set to keep this city or
citadel, seems to be the truth, and gives the best light to that history
in our Bible. Mr. Ottius truly observes, [up. Hayercamp, p. 305,] that
Josephus never mentions Mount Sion by that name, as taking it for an
appellative, as I suppose, and not for a proper name; he still either
styles it The Citadel, or The Upper City; nor do I see any reason for
Mr. Ottius's evil suspicions about this procedure of Josephus.]
5 (return) [ Some copies of Josephus have here Solyma, or Salem; and
others Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem. The latter best agree to what Josephus
says elsewhere, [Of the War, B. VI. ch. 10.,] that this city was called
Solyma, or Salem, before the days of Melchisedec, but was by him called
Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem. I rather suppose it to have been so called
after Abraham had received that oracle Jehovah Jireh, "The Lord will
see, or provide," Genesis 22;14. The latter word, Jireh, with a little
alteration, prefixed to the old name Salem, Peace, will be Jerusalem;
and since that expression, "God will see," or rather, "God will provide
himself a lamb for a burnt-offering," ver. 8, 14, is there said to have
been proverbial till the days of Moses, this seems to me the most
probable derivation of that name, which will then denote that God would
provide peace by that "Lamb of God which was to take away the sins of
the world." However, that which is put into brackets can hardly be
supposed the genuine words of Josephus, as Dr. Hudson well judges.]
6 (return) [ It deserves here to be remarked, that Saul very rarely, and
David very frequently, consulted God by Urim; and that David aimed
always to depend, not on his own prudence or abilities but on the Divine
direction, contrary to Saul's practice. See sect. 2, and the note on
Antiq. B. III. ch. 8. sect. 9; and when Saul's daughter, [but David's
wife,] Michal, laughed at David's dancing before the ark, 2 Samuel 6:16,
&c., and here, sect. l, 2, 3, it is probable she did so, because her
father Saul did not use to pay such a regard to the ark, to the Urim
there inquired by, or to God's worship before it, and because she
thought it beneath the dignity of a king to be so religious.]
7 (return) [ Josephus seems to be partly in the right, when he observes
here that Uzzah was no priest, [though perhaps he might be a Levite,]
and was therefore struck dead for touching the ark, contrary to the law,
and for which profane rashness death was the penalty by that law,
Numbers 4:15, 20. See the like before, Antiq. B. VI. ch. 1. sect. 4. It
is not improbable that the putting this ark in a cart, when it ought to
have been carried by the priests or Levites, as it was presently here in
Josephus so carried from Obededom's house to David's, might be also an
occasion of the anger of God on that breach of his law. See Numbers
4:15; 1 Chronicles 15:13.]
8 (return) [ Josephus here informs us, that, according to his
understanding of the sense of his copy of the Pentateuch, Moses had
himself foretold the building of the temple, which yet is no where, that
I know of, in our present copies. And that this is not a mistake set
down by him unwarily, appears by what he observed before, on Antiq. B.
IV. ch. 8. sect. 46, how Moses foretold that, upon the Jews' future
disobedience, their temple should be burnt and rebuilt, and that not
once only, but several times afterward. See also Josephus's mention of
God's former commands to build such a temple presently, ch. 14. sect. 2,
contrary to our other copies, or at least to our translation of the
Hebrew, 2 Samuel 7:6, 7; 1 Chronicles 17:5, 6.]
9 (return) [ Josephus seems, in this place, with our modern interpreters
to confound the two distinct predictions which God made to David and to
Nathan, concerning the building him a temple by one of David's
posterity; the one belongeth to Solomon, the other to the Messiah; the
distinction between which is of the greatest consequence to the
Christian religion.]
10 (return) [ Whether Syria Zobah, 2 Samuel 3:8; 1 Chronicles 18:3-8, be
Sophene, as Josephus here supposes; which yet Ptolemy places beyond
Euphrates, as Dr. Hudson observes here, whereas Zobah was on this side;
or whether Josephus was not here guilty of a mistake in his geography; I
cannot certainly determine.]
11 (return) [ David's reserving only one hundred chariots for himself
out of one thousand he had taken from Hadadezer, was most probably in
compliance with the law of Moses, which forbade a king of Israel "to
multiply horses to himself," Deuteronomy 17:16; one of the principal
uses of horses in Judea at that time being for drawing their chariots.
See Joshua 12:6; and Antiq. B. V. ch. 1. sect. 18. It deserves here to
be remarked, that this Hadad, being a very great king, was conquered by
David, whose posterity yet for several generations were called Benhadad,
or the son of Hadad, till the days of Hazael, whose son Adar or Ader is
also in our Hebrew copy [2 Kings 13:24: written Benhadad, but in
Josephus Adad or Adar. And strange it is, that the son of Hazael, said
to be such in the same text, and in Josephus, Antiq. B. IX. ch. 8. sect.
7, should still be called the son of Hadad. I would, therefore, here
correct our Hebrew copy from Josephus's, which seems to have the true
reading, nor does the testimony of Nicolaus of Damascus, produced in
this place by Josephus, seem to be faultless, when it says that he was
the third of the Hadads, or second of the Benhadads, who besieged
Samaria in the days of Ahab. He must rather have been the seventh or
eighth, if there were ten in all of that name, as we are assured there
were. For this testimony makes all the Hadads or Benhadads of the same
line, and to have immediately succeeded one another; whereas Hazael was
not of that line, nor is he called Hadad or Benhadad in any copy. And
note, that from this Hadad, in the days of David, to the beginning of
Hazael, were near two hundred years, according to the exactest
chronology of Josephus.]
12 (return) [ By this great victory over the Idameans or Edomites, the
posterity of Esau, and by the consequent tribute paid by that nation to
the Jews, were the prophecies delivered to Rebecca before Jacob and Esau
were born, and by old Isaac before his death, that the elder, Esau, [or
the Edomites,] should serve and the younger, Jacob, [or the Israelites,]
and Jacob [or the Israelites] should be Esau's [or the Edomites'] lord,
remarkably fulfilled. See Antiq. B. VIII. ch 7. sect. 6; Genesis 25;9,3;
and the notes on Antiq. B. I. ch. 18. sect. 5, 6.]
13 (return) [ That a talent of gold was about seven pounds weight, see
the description of the temple ch. 13. Nor could Josephus well estimate
it higher, since he here says that David wore it on his head
perpetually.]
14 (return) [ Whether Josephus saw the words of our copies, 2 Samuel
12:31, and 1 Chronicles 20:3, that David put the inhabitants, or at
least the garrison of Rabbah, and of the other Ammonite cities, which he
besieged and took, under, or cut them with saws, and under, or with
harrows of iron, and under, or with axes of iron, and made them pass
through the brick-kiln, is not here directly expressed. If he saw them,
as is most probable he did, he certainly expounded them of tormenting
these Ammonites to death, who were none of those seven nations of Canaan
whose wickedness had rendered them incapable of mercy; otherwise I
should be inclinable to think that the meaning, at least as the words
are in Samuel, might only be this: That they were made the lowest
slaves, to work in sawing of timber or stone, in harrowing the fields,
in hewing timber, in making and burning bricks, and the like hard
services, but without taking away their lives. We never elsewhere, that
I remember, meet with such methods of cruelty in putting men to death in
all the Bible, or in any other ancient history whatsoever; nor do the
words in Samuel seem naturally to refer to any such thing.]
15 (return) [ Of this weight of Absalom's hair, how in twenty or thirty
years it might well amount to two hundred shekels, or to somewhat above
six pounds avoirdupois, see the Literal Accomplishment of Prophecies, p.
77, 78. But a late very judicious author thinks that the LXXX. meant not
its weight, but its value, Was twenty shekels.—Dr. Wall's Critical Notes
on the Old Testament, upon 2 Samuel 14:26. It does not appear what was
Josephus's opinion: he sets the text down honestly as he found it in his
copies, only he thought that "at the end of days," when Absalom polled
or weighed his hair, was once a week.]
16 (return) [ This is one of the best corrections that Josephus's copy
affords us of a text that in our ordinary copies is grossly corrupted.
They say that this rebellion of Absalom was forty years after what went
before, [Footnote of his reconciliation to his father,] whereas the
series of the history shows it could not be more than four years after
it, as here in Josephus; whose number is directly confirmed by that copy
of the Septuagint version whence the Armenian translation was made,
which gives us the small number of four years.]
17 (return) [ This reflection of Josephus's, that God brought to nought
the dangerous counsel of Ahithophel, and directly infatuated wicked
Absalom to reject it, [which infatuation is what the Scripture styles
the judicial hardening the hearts and blinding the eyes of men, who, by
their former voluntary wickedness, have justly deserved to be destroyed,
and are thereby brought to destruction,] is a very just one, and in him
not unfrequent. Nor does Josephus ever puzzle himself, or perplex his
readers, with subtle hypotheses as to the manner of such judicial
infatuations by God, while the justice of them is generally so obvious.
That peculiar manner of the Divine operations, or permissions, or the
means God makes use of in such cases, is often impenetrable by us.
"Secret things belong to the Lord our God; but those things that are
revealed belong to us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all
the words of this law," Deuteronomy 29:29. Nor have all the subtleties
of the moderns, as far as I see, given any considerable light in this,
and many other the like points of difficulty relating either to Divine
or human operations.—See the notes on Antiq. B. V ch. 1. sect. 2; and
Antiq. B. IX. ch. 4. sect. 3.]
18 (return) [ Those that take a view of my description of the gates of
the temple, will not be surprised at this account of David's throne,
both here and 2 Samuel 18:21, that it was between two gates or portals.
Gates being in cities, as well as at the temple, large open places, with
a portal at the entrance, and another at the exit, between which
judicial causes were heard, and public consultations taken, as is well
known from several places of Scripture, 2 Chronicles 31:2; Psalm 9:14;
137:5; Proverbs 1:21; 8:3, 31; 31:23, and often elsewhere.]
19 (return) [ Since David was now in Mahanairn, and in the open place of
that city gate, which seems still to have been built the highest of any
part of the wall, and since our other copies say he went up to the
chamber over the gate, 2 Samuel 18:33, I think we ought to correct our
present reading in Josephus, and for city, should read gate, i.e.
instead of the highest part of the city, should say the highest part of
the gate. Accordingly we find David presently, in Josephus, as well as
in our other copies, 2 Samuel 19:8, sitting as before, in the gate of
the city.]
20 (return) [ By David's disposal of half Mephibosheth's estate to Ziba,
one would imagine that he was a good deal dissatisfied, and doubtful
whether Mephibosheth's story were entirely true or not; nor does David
now invite him to diet with him, as he did before, but only forgives
him, if he had been at all guilty. Nor is this odd way of mourning that
Mephibosheth made use of here, and 2 Samuel 19:24, wholly free from
suspicion by hypocrisy. If Ziba neglected or refused to bring
Mephibosheh an ass of his own, on which he might ride to David, it is
half to suppose that so great a man as he was should not be able to
procure some other beast for the same purpose.]
21 (return) [ I clearly prefer Josephus's reading here, when it supposes
eleven tribes, including Benjamin, to be on the one side, and the tribe
of Judah alone on the other, since Benjamin, in general, had been still
father of the house of Saul, and less firm to David hitherto, than any
of the rest, and so cannot be supposed to be joined with Judah at this
time, to make it double, especially when the following rebellion was
headed by a Benjamite. See sect. 6, and 2 Samuel 20:2, 4.]
22 (return) [ This section is a very remarkable one, and shows that, in
the opinion of Josephus, David composed the Book of Psalms, not at
several times before, as their present inscriptions frequently imply,
but generally at the latter end of his life, or after his wars were
over. Nor does Josephus, nor the authors of the known books of the Old
and New Testament, nor the Apostolical Constitutions, seem to have
ascribed any of them to any other author than to David himself. See
Essay on the Old Testament, pages 174, 175. Of these metres of the
Psalms, see the note on Antiq. B. II. ch. 16. sect. 4.]
23 (return) [ The words of God by Moses, Exodus 30:12, sufficiently
satisfy the reason here given by Josephus for the great plague mentioned
in this chapter:—"When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel
after their number, then shall they give a ransom for his soul unto the
Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague amongst them,
when numberest them." Nor indeed could David's or the neglect of
executing this law at this numeration of half a shekel apiece with them,
when they came numbered. The great reason why nations are so committed
by and with their wicked kings and governors that they almost constantly
comply with them in their of or disobedience to the Divine laws, and
suffer Divine laws to go into disuse or contempt, in order to kings and
governors; and that they sub-political laws and commands of those
governors, instead of the righteous laws of God, which all mankind ought
ever to obey, let their kings and governors say what they please to the
contrary; this preference of human before Divine laws seeming to me the
principal character of idolatrous or antichristian nations. Accordingly,
Josephus well observes, Antiq. B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 17, that it was the
duty of the people of Israel to take care that their kings, when they
should have them, did not exceed their proper limits of power, and prove
ungovernable by the laws of God, which would certainly be a most
pernicious thing to their Divine settlement. Nor do I think that
negligence peculiar to the Jews: those nations which are called
Christians, are sometimes indeed very solicitous to restrain their kings
and governors from breaking the human laws of their several kingdoms,
but without the like care for restraining them from breaking the laws of
God. "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto men more
than to God, judge ye," Acts 4:19. "We ought to obey God rather than
men," ver. 29.]
24 (return) [ What Josephus adds here is very remarkable, that this
Mount Moriah was not only the very place where Abraham offered up Isaac
long ago, but that God had foretold to David by a prophet, that here his
son should build him a temple, which is not directly in any of our other
copies, though very agreeable to what is in them, particularly in 1
Chronicles 21:25, 28; 22:1, to which places I refer the reader.]
25 (return) [ Of the quantity of gold and silver expended in the
building of Solomon's temple, and whence it arose, see the description
of ch. 13.]
26 (return) [ David is here greatly blamed by some for recommending Joab
and Shimei to be punished by Solomon, if he could find a proper
occasion, after he had borne with the first a long while, and seemed to
have pardoned the other entirely, which Solomon executed accordingly;
yet I cannot discern any fault either in David or Solomon in these
cases. Joab's murder of Abner and Amasa were very barbarous, and could
not properly be forgiven either by David or Solomon; for a dispensing
power in kings for the crime of willful murder is warranted by no law of
God, nay, is directly against it every where; nor is it, for certain, in
the power of men to grant such a prerogative to any of their kings;
though Joab was so nearly related to David, and so potent in the army
under a warlike administration, that David durst not himself put him to
death, 2 Samuel 3:39; 19:7. Shimei's cursing the Lord's anointed, and
this without any just cause, was the highest act of treason against God
and his anointed king, and justly deserved death; and though David could
forgive treason against himself, yet had he done no more in the case of
Shimei than promised him that he would not then, on the day of his
return and reinauguration, or upon that occasion, himself put him to
death, 2 Samuel 19:22; and he swore to him no further, ver. 23, as the
words are in Josephus, than that he would not then put him to death,
which he performed; nor was Solomon under any obligation to spare such a
traitor.]
age; and perceiving that he was near to death, he called his son
Solomon, and discoursed to him thus: "I am now, O my son, going to my
grave, and to my fathers, which is the common way which all men that now
are, or shall be hereafter, must go; from which way it is no longer
possible to return, and to know any thing that is done in this world. On
which account I exhort thee, while I am still alive, though already very
near to death, in the same manner as I have formerly said in my advice
to thee, to be righteous towards thy subjects, and religious towards
God, that hath given thee thy kingdom; to observe his commands and his
laws, which he hath sent us by Moses; and neither do thou out of favor
nor flattery allow any lust or other passion to weigh with thee to
disregard them; for if thou transgressest his laws, thou wilt lose the
favor of God, and thou wilt turn away his providence from thee in all
things; but if thou behave thyself so as it behooves thee, and as I
exhort thee, thou wilt preserve our kingdom to our family, and no other
house will bear rule over the Hebrews but we ourselves for all ages. Be
thou also mindful of the transgressions of Joab, 26 the captain of the
host, who hath slain two generals out of envy, and those righteous and
good men, Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether; whose death
do thou avenge as shall seem good to thee, since Joab hath been too hard
for me, and more potent than myself, and so hath escaped punishment
hitherto. I also commit to thee the son of Barzillai the Gileadite,
whom, in order to gratify me, thou shalt have in great honor, and take
great care of; for we have not done good to him first, but we only repay
that debt which we owe to his father for what he did to me in my flight.
There is also Shimei the son of Gera, of the tribe of Benjamin, who,
after he had cast many reproaches upon me, when, in my flight, I was
going to Mahanaim, met me at Jordan, and received assurances that he
should then suffer nothing. Do thou now seek out for some just occasion,
and punish him."
2. When David had given these admonitions to his son about public
affairs, and about his friends, and about those whom he knew to deserve
punishment, he died, having lived seventy years, and reigned seven years
and six months in Hebron over the tribe of Judah, and thirty-three years
in Jerusalem over all the country. This man was of an excellent
character, and was endowed with all virtues that were desirable in a
king, and in one that had the preservation of so many tribes committed
to him; for he was a man of valor in a very extraordinary degree, and
went readily and first of all into dangers, when he was to fight for his
subjects, as exciting the soldiers to action by his own labors, and
fighting for them, and not by commanding them in a despotic way. He was
also of very great abilities in understanding, and apprehension of
present and future circumstances, when he was to manage any affairs. He
was prudent and moderate, and kind to such as were under any calamities;
he was righteous and humane, which are good qualities, peculiarly fit
for kings; nor was he guilty of any offense in the exercise of so great
an authority, but in the business of the wife of Uriah. He also left
behind him greater wealth than any other king, either of the Hebrews or,
of other nations, ever did.
3. He was buried by his son Solomon, in Jerusalem, with great
magnificence, and with all the other funeral pomp which kings used to be
buried with; moreover, he had great and immense wealth buried with him,
the vastness of which may be easily conjectured at by what I shall now
say; for a thousand and three hundred years afterward Hyrcanus the high
priest, when he was besieged by Antiochus, that was called the Pious,
the son of Demetrius, and was desirous of giving him money to get him to
raise the siege and draw off his army, and having no other method of
compassing the money, opened one room of David's sepulcher, and took out
three thousand talents, and gave part of that sum to Antiochus; and by
this means caused the siege to be raised, as we have informed the reader
elsewhere. Nay, after him, and that many years, Herod the king opened
another room, and took away a great deal of money, and yet neither of
them came at the coffins of the kings themselves, for their bodies were
buried under the earth so artfully, that they did not appear to even
those that entered into their monuments. But so much shall suffice us to
have said concerning these matters.
FOOTNOTES
1 (return) [ It ought to be here noted, that Joab, Abishai, and Asahel
were all three David's nephews, the sons of his sister Zeraiah, as 1
Chronicles 2:16; and that Amasa was also his nephew by his other sister
Abigail, ver. 17.]
2 (return) [ This may be a true observation of Josephus's, that Samuel
by command from God entailed the crown on David and his posterity; for
no further did that entail ever reach, Solomon himself having never had
any promise made him that his posterity should always have the right to
it.]
3 (return) [ These words of Josephus concerning the tribe of Issachar,
who foreknew what was to come hereafter," are best paraphrased by the
parallel text. 1 Chronicles 12:32, "Who had understanding of the times
to know what Israel ought to do;" that is, who had so much knowledge in
astronomy as to make calendars for the Israelites, that they might keep
their festivals, and plough and sow, and gather in their harvests and
vintage, in due season.]
4 (return) [ What our other copies say of Mount Sion, as alone properly
called the city of David, 2 Samuel 5:6-9, and of this its siege and
conquest now by David, Josephus applies to the whole city Jerusalem,
though including the citadel also; by what authority we do not now know
perhaps, after David had united them together, or joined the citadel to
the lower city, as sect. 2, Josephus esteemed them as one city. However,
this notion seems to be confirmed by what the same Josephus says
concerning David's and many other kings of Judah's sepulchers, which as
the authors of the books of Kings and Chronicles say were in the city of
David, so does Josephus still say they were in Jerusalem. The sepulcher
of David seems to have been also a known place in the several days of
Hyrcanus, of Herod, and of St. Peter, Antiq. B. XIII. ch. 8. sect. 4 B.
XVI. ch. 8. sect. 1; Acts 2:29. Now no such royal sepulchers have been
found about Mount Sion, but are found close by the north wall of
Jerusalem, which I suspect, therefore, to be these very sepulchers. See
the note on ch. 15. sect. 3. In the meantime, Josephus's explication of
the lame, and the blind, and the maimed, as set to keep this city or
citadel, seems to be the truth, and gives the best light to that history
in our Bible. Mr. Ottius truly observes, [up. Hayercamp, p. 305,] that
Josephus never mentions Mount Sion by that name, as taking it for an
appellative, as I suppose, and not for a proper name; he still either
styles it The Citadel, or The Upper City; nor do I see any reason for
Mr. Ottius's evil suspicions about this procedure of Josephus.]
5 (return) [ Some copies of Josephus have here Solyma, or Salem; and
others Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem. The latter best agree to what Josephus
says elsewhere, [Of the War, B. VI. ch. 10.,] that this city was called
Solyma, or Salem, before the days of Melchisedec, but was by him called
Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem. I rather suppose it to have been so called
after Abraham had received that oracle Jehovah Jireh, "The Lord will
see, or provide," Genesis 22;14. The latter word, Jireh, with a little
alteration, prefixed to the old name Salem, Peace, will be Jerusalem;
and since that expression, "God will see," or rather, "God will provide
himself a lamb for a burnt-offering," ver. 8, 14, is there said to have
been proverbial till the days of Moses, this seems to me the most
probable derivation of that name, which will then denote that God would
provide peace by that "Lamb of God which was to take away the sins of
the world." However, that which is put into brackets can hardly be
supposed the genuine words of Josephus, as Dr. Hudson well judges.]
6 (return) [ It deserves here to be remarked, that Saul very rarely, and
David very frequently, consulted God by Urim; and that David aimed
always to depend, not on his own prudence or abilities but on the Divine
direction, contrary to Saul's practice. See sect. 2, and the note on
Antiq. B. III. ch. 8. sect. 9; and when Saul's daughter, [but David's
wife,] Michal, laughed at David's dancing before the ark, 2 Samuel 6:16,
&c., and here, sect. l, 2, 3, it is probable she did so, because her
father Saul did not use to pay such a regard to the ark, to the Urim
there inquired by, or to God's worship before it, and because she
thought it beneath the dignity of a king to be so religious.]
7 (return) [ Josephus seems to be partly in the right, when he observes
here that Uzzah was no priest, [though perhaps he might be a Levite,]
and was therefore struck dead for touching the ark, contrary to the law,
and for which profane rashness death was the penalty by that law,
Numbers 4:15, 20. See the like before, Antiq. B. VI. ch. 1. sect. 4. It
is not improbable that the putting this ark in a cart, when it ought to
have been carried by the priests or Levites, as it was presently here in
Josephus so carried from Obededom's house to David's, might be also an
occasion of the anger of God on that breach of his law. See Numbers
4:15; 1 Chronicles 15:13.]
8 (return) [ Josephus here informs us, that, according to his
understanding of the sense of his copy of the Pentateuch, Moses had
himself foretold the building of the temple, which yet is no where, that
I know of, in our present copies. And that this is not a mistake set
down by him unwarily, appears by what he observed before, on Antiq. B.
IV. ch. 8. sect. 46, how Moses foretold that, upon the Jews' future
disobedience, their temple should be burnt and rebuilt, and that not
once only, but several times afterward. See also Josephus's mention of
God's former commands to build such a temple presently, ch. 14. sect. 2,
contrary to our other copies, or at least to our translation of the
Hebrew, 2 Samuel 7:6, 7; 1 Chronicles 17:5, 6.]
9 (return) [ Josephus seems, in this place, with our modern interpreters
to confound the two distinct predictions which God made to David and to
Nathan, concerning the building him a temple by one of David's
posterity; the one belongeth to Solomon, the other to the Messiah; the
distinction between which is of the greatest consequence to the
Christian religion.]
10 (return) [ Whether Syria Zobah, 2 Samuel 3:8; 1 Chronicles 18:3-8, be
Sophene, as Josephus here supposes; which yet Ptolemy places beyond
Euphrates, as Dr. Hudson observes here, whereas Zobah was on this side;
or whether Josephus was not here guilty of a mistake in his geography; I
cannot certainly determine.]
11 (return) [ David's reserving only one hundred chariots for himself
out of one thousand he had taken from Hadadezer, was most probably in
compliance with the law of Moses, which forbade a king of Israel "to
multiply horses to himself," Deuteronomy 17:16; one of the principal
uses of horses in Judea at that time being for drawing their chariots.
See Joshua 12:6; and Antiq. B. V. ch. 1. sect. 18. It deserves here to
be remarked, that this Hadad, being a very great king, was conquered by
David, whose posterity yet for several generations were called Benhadad,
or the son of Hadad, till the days of Hazael, whose son Adar or Ader is
also in our Hebrew copy [2 Kings 13:24: written Benhadad, but in
Josephus Adad or Adar. And strange it is, that the son of Hazael, said
to be such in the same text, and in Josephus, Antiq. B. IX. ch. 8. sect.
7, should still be called the son of Hadad. I would, therefore, here
correct our Hebrew copy from Josephus's, which seems to have the true
reading, nor does the testimony of Nicolaus of Damascus, produced in
this place by Josephus, seem to be faultless, when it says that he was
the third of the Hadads, or second of the Benhadads, who besieged
Samaria in the days of Ahab. He must rather have been the seventh or
eighth, if there were ten in all of that name, as we are assured there
were. For this testimony makes all the Hadads or Benhadads of the same
line, and to have immediately succeeded one another; whereas Hazael was
not of that line, nor is he called Hadad or Benhadad in any copy. And
note, that from this Hadad, in the days of David, to the beginning of
Hazael, were near two hundred years, according to the exactest
chronology of Josephus.]
12 (return) [ By this great victory over the Idameans or Edomites, the
posterity of Esau, and by the consequent tribute paid by that nation to
the Jews, were the prophecies delivered to Rebecca before Jacob and Esau
were born, and by old Isaac before his death, that the elder, Esau, [or
the Edomites,] should serve and the younger, Jacob, [or the Israelites,]
and Jacob [or the Israelites] should be Esau's [or the Edomites'] lord,
remarkably fulfilled. See Antiq. B. VIII. ch 7. sect. 6; Genesis 25;9,3;
and the notes on Antiq. B. I. ch. 18. sect. 5, 6.]
13 (return) [ That a talent of gold was about seven pounds weight, see
the description of the temple ch. 13. Nor could Josephus well estimate
it higher, since he here says that David wore it on his head
perpetually.]
14 (return) [ Whether Josephus saw the words of our copies, 2 Samuel
12:31, and 1 Chronicles 20:3, that David put the inhabitants, or at
least the garrison of Rabbah, and of the other Ammonite cities, which he
besieged and took, under, or cut them with saws, and under, or with
harrows of iron, and under, or with axes of iron, and made them pass
through the brick-kiln, is not here directly expressed. If he saw them,
as is most probable he did, he certainly expounded them of tormenting
these Ammonites to death, who were none of those seven nations of Canaan
whose wickedness had rendered them incapable of mercy; otherwise I
should be inclinable to think that the meaning, at least as the words
are in Samuel, might only be this: That they were made the lowest
slaves, to work in sawing of timber or stone, in harrowing the fields,
in hewing timber, in making and burning bricks, and the like hard
services, but without taking away their lives. We never elsewhere, that
I remember, meet with such methods of cruelty in putting men to death in
all the Bible, or in any other ancient history whatsoever; nor do the
words in Samuel seem naturally to refer to any such thing.]
15 (return) [ Of this weight of Absalom's hair, how in twenty or thirty
years it might well amount to two hundred shekels, or to somewhat above
six pounds avoirdupois, see the Literal Accomplishment of Prophecies, p.
77, 78. But a late very judicious author thinks that the LXXX. meant not
its weight, but its value, Was twenty shekels.—Dr. Wall's Critical Notes
on the Old Testament, upon 2 Samuel 14:26. It does not appear what was
Josephus's opinion: he sets the text down honestly as he found it in his
copies, only he thought that "at the end of days," when Absalom polled
or weighed his hair, was once a week.]
16 (return) [ This is one of the best corrections that Josephus's copy
affords us of a text that in our ordinary copies is grossly corrupted.
They say that this rebellion of Absalom was forty years after what went
before, [Footnote of his reconciliation to his father,] whereas the
series of the history shows it could not be more than four years after
it, as here in Josephus; whose number is directly confirmed by that copy
of the Septuagint version whence the Armenian translation was made,
which gives us the small number of four years.]
17 (return) [ This reflection of Josephus's, that God brought to nought
the dangerous counsel of Ahithophel, and directly infatuated wicked
Absalom to reject it, [which infatuation is what the Scripture styles
the judicial hardening the hearts and blinding the eyes of men, who, by
their former voluntary wickedness, have justly deserved to be destroyed,
and are thereby brought to destruction,] is a very just one, and in him
not unfrequent. Nor does Josephus ever puzzle himself, or perplex his
readers, with subtle hypotheses as to the manner of such judicial
infatuations by God, while the justice of them is generally so obvious.
That peculiar manner of the Divine operations, or permissions, or the
means God makes use of in such cases, is often impenetrable by us.
"Secret things belong to the Lord our God; but those things that are
revealed belong to us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all
the words of this law," Deuteronomy 29:29. Nor have all the subtleties
of the moderns, as far as I see, given any considerable light in this,
and many other the like points of difficulty relating either to Divine
or human operations.—See the notes on Antiq. B. V ch. 1. sect. 2; and
Antiq. B. IX. ch. 4. sect. 3.]
18 (return) [ Those that take a view of my description of the gates of
the temple, will not be surprised at this account of David's throne,
both here and 2 Samuel 18:21, that it was between two gates or portals.
Gates being in cities, as well as at the temple, large open places, with
a portal at the entrance, and another at the exit, between which
judicial causes were heard, and public consultations taken, as is well
known from several places of Scripture, 2 Chronicles 31:2; Psalm 9:14;
137:5; Proverbs 1:21; 8:3, 31; 31:23, and often elsewhere.]
19 (return) [ Since David was now in Mahanairn, and in the open place of
that city gate, which seems still to have been built the highest of any
part of the wall, and since our other copies say he went up to the
chamber over the gate, 2 Samuel 18:33, I think we ought to correct our
present reading in Josephus, and for city, should read gate, i.e.
instead of the highest part of the city, should say the highest part of
the gate. Accordingly we find David presently, in Josephus, as well as
in our other copies, 2 Samuel 19:8, sitting as before, in the gate of
the city.]
20 (return) [ By David's disposal of half Mephibosheth's estate to Ziba,
one would imagine that he was a good deal dissatisfied, and doubtful
whether Mephibosheth's story were entirely true or not; nor does David
now invite him to diet with him, as he did before, but only forgives
him, if he had been at all guilty. Nor is this odd way of mourning that
Mephibosheth made use of here, and 2 Samuel 19:24, wholly free from
suspicion by hypocrisy. If Ziba neglected or refused to bring
Mephibosheh an ass of his own, on which he might ride to David, it is
half to suppose that so great a man as he was should not be able to
procure some other beast for the same purpose.]
21 (return) [ I clearly prefer Josephus's reading here, when it supposes
eleven tribes, including Benjamin, to be on the one side, and the tribe
of Judah alone on the other, since Benjamin, in general, had been still
father of the house of Saul, and less firm to David hitherto, than any
of the rest, and so cannot be supposed to be joined with Judah at this
time, to make it double, especially when the following rebellion was
headed by a Benjamite. See sect. 6, and 2 Samuel 20:2, 4.]
22 (return) [ This section is a very remarkable one, and shows that, in
the opinion of Josephus, David composed the Book of Psalms, not at
several times before, as their present inscriptions frequently imply,
but generally at the latter end of his life, or after his wars were
over. Nor does Josephus, nor the authors of the known books of the Old
and New Testament, nor the Apostolical Constitutions, seem to have
ascribed any of them to any other author than to David himself. See
Essay on the Old Testament, pages 174, 175. Of these metres of the
Psalms, see the note on Antiq. B. II. ch. 16. sect. 4.]
23 (return) [ The words of God by Moses, Exodus 30:12, sufficiently
satisfy the reason here given by Josephus for the great plague mentioned
in this chapter:—"When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel
after their number, then shall they give a ransom for his soul unto the
Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague amongst them,
when numberest them." Nor indeed could David's or the neglect of
executing this law at this numeration of half a shekel apiece with them,
when they came numbered. The great reason why nations are so committed
by and with their wicked kings and governors that they almost constantly
comply with them in their of or disobedience to the Divine laws, and
suffer Divine laws to go into disuse or contempt, in order to kings and
governors; and that they sub-political laws and commands of those
governors, instead of the righteous laws of God, which all mankind ought
ever to obey, let their kings and governors say what they please to the
contrary; this preference of human before Divine laws seeming to me the
principal character of idolatrous or antichristian nations. Accordingly,
Josephus well observes, Antiq. B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 17, that it was the
duty of the people of Israel to take care that their kings, when they
should have them, did not exceed their proper limits of power, and prove
ungovernable by the laws of God, which would certainly be a most
pernicious thing to their Divine settlement. Nor do I think that
negligence peculiar to the Jews: those nations which are called
Christians, are sometimes indeed very solicitous to restrain their kings
and governors from breaking the human laws of their several kingdoms,
but without the like care for restraining them from breaking the laws of
God. "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto men more
than to God, judge ye," Acts 4:19. "We ought to obey God rather than
men," ver. 29.]
24 (return) [ What Josephus adds here is very remarkable, that this
Mount Moriah was not only the very place where Abraham offered up Isaac
long ago, but that God had foretold to David by a prophet, that here his
son should build him a temple, which is not directly in any of our other
copies, though very agreeable to what is in them, particularly in 1
Chronicles 21:25, 28; 22:1, to which places I refer the reader.]
25 (return) [ Of the quantity of gold and silver expended in the
building of Solomon's temple, and whence it arose, see the description
of ch. 13.]
26 (return) [ David is here greatly blamed by some for recommending Joab
and Shimei to be punished by Solomon, if he could find a proper
occasion, after he had borne with the first a long while, and seemed to
have pardoned the other entirely, which Solomon executed accordingly;
yet I cannot discern any fault either in David or Solomon in these
cases. Joab's murder of Abner and Amasa were very barbarous, and could
not properly be forgiven either by David or Solomon; for a dispensing
power in kings for the crime of willful murder is warranted by no law of
God, nay, is directly against it every where; nor is it, for certain, in
the power of men to grant such a prerogative to any of their kings;
though Joab was so nearly related to David, and so potent in the army
under a warlike administration, that David durst not himself put him to
death, 2 Samuel 3:39; 19:7. Shimei's cursing the Lord's anointed, and
this without any just cause, was the highest act of treason against God
and his anointed king, and justly deserved death; and though David could
forgive treason against himself, yet had he done no more in the case of
Shimei than promised him that he would not then, on the day of his
return and reinauguration, or upon that occasion, himself put him to
death, 2 Samuel 19:22; and he swore to him no further, ver. 23, as the
words are in Josephus, than that he would not then put him to death,
which he performed; nor was Solomon under any obligation to spare such a
traitor.]