Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/245

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Chronicle as an appendix, we find the arrangement and succession of the events to be the same in both books, since the sections which in 2Sa 9:1-13 and 2Sa 11:1-12, 2Sa 11:25, stand between the histories of the wars, contain sketches of David's family life, which the author of the Chronicle has, in accordance with his plan, omitted. Even as to individual details the two narratives are perfectly agreed, the divergences being inconsiderable; and even these, in so far as they are original, and are not results of careless copying, - as, for instance, the omission of the word נציבים,   1Ch 18:6, as compared with 1Ch 18:13 and 2Sa 8:6, and the difference in the numbers and names in 1Ch 18:4, 1Ch 18:8, as compared with 2Sa 4:4, 2Sa 4:8, are, - partly mere explanations of obscure expressions, partly small additions or abridgments. For the commentary, therefore, we may refer to the remarks on 2nd Samuel, where the divergences of the Chronicle from the record in Samuel are also dealt with. With 1Ch 18:1-13 cf. 2Sa 8:1-14; and with the register of public officials, 2Sa 18:14-17, cf. 2Sa 8:15-18.
Examples of paraphrastic explanation are found in 1Ch 18:1, where the figurative expression, David took the bridle of the mother out of the hands of the Philistines, i.e., deprived them of the hegemony, is explained by the phrase, David took Gath and her cities out of the hands of the Philistines, i.e., took from the Philistines the capital with her daughter cities; and in 1Ch 18:17, כּהנים is rendered by, the first at the king's hand. Among the abridgments, the omission of David's harsh treatment of the Moabites who were taken prisoners is surprising, no reason for it being discoverable; for the assertion that the chronicler has purposely omitted it in order to free David from the charge of such barbarous conduct, is disposed of by the fact that he does not pass over in silence the similar treatment of the conquered inhabitants of Rabbah in 1Ch 20:3. Instead of this, the chronicler has several historical notes peculiar to himself, which are wanting in the text of Samuel, and which prove that the author of the Chronicle has not derived his account from the second book of Samuel. Such, e.g., is the statement in 1Ch 18:8, that Solomon caused the brazen sea and the pillars and vessels of the court of the temple to be made of the brass taken as booty in the war against Hadadezer; in 1Ch 18:11, the word מאדום, which is wanting in Samuel, as מארם, which in 1Ch 18:11 of that book is used in place of it, probably stood originally in the