and more obscure expressions. Very seldom do we find divergences in the subject-matter which alter the meaning or make it appear to be different. To supplement and complete the commentary already given in 2nd Samuel, we will now shortly treat of these divergences. In 1Ch 17:1, the statement that David communicated his purpose to build a temple to the Lord to the prophet Nathan, “when Jahve had given him rest from all his enemies round about,” is wanting. This clause, which fixes the time, has been omitted by the chronicler to avoid the apparent contradiction which would have arisen in case the narrative were taken chronologically, seeing that the greatest of David's wars, those against the Philistines, Syrians, and Ammonites, are narrated only in the succeeding chapter. As to this, cf. the discussion on 2Sa 7:1-3.
Verse 10
In 1Ch 17:10, וּלמיּמים, like וּלמן־היּום (2Sa 7:11), is to be connected with the preceding בּראשׁונה in this sense: “As in the beginning (i.e., during the sojourn in Egypt), and onward from the days when I appointed judges,” i.e., during the time of the judges. למן is only a more emphatic expression for מן, to mark off the time from the beginning as it were (cf. Ew. §218, b), and is wrongly translated by Berth. “until the days.” In the same verse, והכנעתּי, “I bow, humble all thine enemies,” substantially the same as the והניחתי, “I give thee peace from all thine enemies” (Sam.); and the suffix in אויביך is not to be altered, as Berth. proposes, into that of the third person אויביו, either in the Chronicle or in Samuel, for it is quite correct; the divine promise returning at the conclusion to David direct, as in the beginning, 1Ch 17:7 and 1Ch 17:8, while that which is said of the people of Israel in 1Ch 17:9 and 1Ch 17:10 is only an extension of the words, “I will destroy all thine enemies before thee” (1Ch 17:8).
Verses 11-16
In 1Ch 17:11, עם־אבתיך ללכת, “to go with thy fathers,” used of going the way of death, is similar to “to go the way of all the world” (1Ki 2:2), and is more primitive than the more usual אבות עם שׁכב (2Sa 7:12). מבּניך יהיה עשׁר, too, is neither to be altered to suit ממּעיך יצא אשׁר of Samuel; nor can we consider it, with Berth., an alteration made by the author of the Chronicle to get rid of the difficulty, that here the birth of Solomon is only promised, while Nathan's speech was made at a time when David had rest from all his enemies round about (2Sa 8:1), i.e., as is usually supposed, in the latest years of his life, and consequently after Solomon's birth. For the difficulty had already been got rid of by the omission of those words in 1Ch 17:1; and the word, “I have
