Page:02.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.A.vol.2.EarlyProphets.djvu/1091

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always keep quiet, and not forfeit his life again by fresh crimes.^[1]

Verse 27

The banishment of Abiathar to his own private possession involved his deposition from the priesthood. And, as the historian adds, thus was the word of the Lord concerning the house of Eli fulfilled (1Sa 2:30-33). למלּא corresponds to the New Testament ἵνα πληρωθῇ. For further remarks on this prophecy and its fulfilment, see at 1Sa 2:30.^[2]
Thus was the high-priesthood of the house of Eli extinguished, and henceforth this dignity passed through Zadok into the sole possession of the line of Eleazar.

Verses 28-33

1Ki 2:28-33Execution of Joab. - When the report (of the execution of Adonijah and the deposition of Abiathar) came to Joab, he fled to the tent of Jehovah (not to the tabernacle, but to the holy tent upon Zion) to seek protection at the altar (see at 1Ki 1:50). The words נטה לא...יואב כּי are introduced as a parenthesis to explain Joab's flight: “for Joab had leaned after Adonijah,” i.e., taken his side (אהרי נטה, as in Exo 23:2; Jdg 9:3), “but not after Absalom.”^[3]
There is no

↑ There is no meaning in the objection of Thenius, that Abiathar did not carry the ark himself, since this was not the duty of the high priest. For, in the first place, it is questionable whether Abiathar did not lend a helping hand at the removal of the ark during Absalom's conspiracy. And, secondly, the duty binding upon the high priest, to superintend and conduct the removal of the ark, might very well be called carrying the ark. The conjecture, that for ארון we should read אפוד, founders on the preterite נשׂאת; for Abiathar had not only worn the ephod once before, but he wore it till the very hour in which Solomon deposed him from his office.
↑ Nothing is related concerning the subsequent fate of Abiathar, since the death of a high priest who had been deprived of his office was a matter of no importance to the history of the kingdom of God. At any rate, he would not survive his deposition very long, as he was certainly eighty years old already (see Comm. on Sam. p. 267). - The inference which Ewald (Gesch. iii. pp. 269,270) draws from 1Sa 2:31-36 as to the manner of his death, namely, that he fell by the sword, is one of the numerous fictions founded upon naturalistic assumptions with which this scholar has ornamented the biblical history.
↑ Instead of אבשׁלום the lxx (Cod. Vat.), Vulgate, Syr., and Arab. have adopted the reading שּׁלמה, and both Thenius and Ewald propose to alter the text accordingly. But whatever plausibility this reading may have, especially if we alter the preterite נטה into the participle נטה after the ἦν κεκλικώς of the lxx, as Thenius does, it has no other foundation than an arbitrary rendering of the lxx, who thought, but quite erroneously, that the allusion to Absalom was inapplicable here. For אחר נטה, to take a person's side, would suit very well in the case of Adonijah and Absalom, but not in that of Solomon, whose claim to the throne was not a party affair, but had been previously determined by God.

[1] There is no meaning in the objection of Thenius, that Abiathar did not carry the ark himself, since this was not the duty of the high priest. For, in the first place, it is questionable whether Abiathar did not lend a helping hand at the removal of the ark during Absalom's conspiracy. And, secondly, the duty binding upon the high priest, to superintend and conduct the removal of the ark, might very well be called carrying the ark. The conjecture, that for ארון we should read אפוד, founders on the preterite נשׂאת; for Abiathar had not only worn the ephod once before, but he wore it till the very hour in which Solomon deposed him from his office.

[2] Nothing is related concerning the subsequent fate of Abiathar, since the death of a high priest who had been deprived of his office was a matter of no importance to the history of the kingdom of God. At any rate, he would not survive his deposition very long, as he was certainly eighty years old already (see Comm. on Sam. p. 267). - The inference which Ewald (Gesch. iii. pp. 269,270) draws from 1Sa 2:31-36 as to the manner of his death, namely, that he fell by the sword, is one of the numerous fictions founded upon naturalistic assumptions with which this scholar has ornamented the biblical history.

[3] Instead of אבשׁלום the lxx (Cod. Vat.), Vulgate, Syr., and Arab. have adopted the reading שּׁלמה, and both Thenius and Ewald propose to alter the text accordingly. But whatever plausibility this reading may have, especially if we alter the preterite נטה into the participle נטה after the ἦν κεκλικώς of the lxx, as Thenius does, it has no other foundation than an arbitrary rendering of the lxx, who thought, but quite erroneously, that the allusion to Absalom was inapplicable here. For אחר נטה, to take a person's side, would suit very well in the case of Adonijah and Absalom, but not in that of Solomon, whose claim to the throne was not a party affair, but had been previously determined by God.

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