Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/247

narrated, viz., how Joab, after he had taken the water-city, i.e., the city lying on both banks of the upper Jabbok (the Wady Ammân), with the exception of the Acropolis built on a hill on the north side of the city, sent messages to David, and called upon him to gather together the remainder of the people, i.e., all those capable of bearing arms who had remained in the land; and how David, having done this, took the citadel. Instead of this, we have in the Chronicle only the short statement, “And Joab smote Rabbah, and destroyed it” (1Ch 20:1, at the end). After this, both narratives (1Ch 20:2, 1Ch 20:3, and 2Sa 12:30, 2Sa 12:31) coincide in narrating how David set the heavy golden crown of the king of the Ammonites on his head, brought much booty out of the city, caused the prisoners of war taken in Rabbah and the other fenced cities of the Ammonites to be slain in the cruellest way, and then returned with all the people, i.e., with the whole of his army, to Jerusalem. Thus we see that, according to the record in the Chronicle also, David was present at the capture of the Acropolis of Rabbah, then put on the crown of the Ammonite king, and commanded the slaughter of the prisoners; but no mention is made of his having gone to take part in the war. By the omission of this circumstance the narrative of the Chronicle becomes defective; but no reason can be given for this abridgment of the record, for the contents of 2Sa 12:26-31 must have been contained in the original documents made use of by the chronicler. On the differences between 2Sa 12:31 (Sam.) and 1Ch 20:3 of the Chronicle, see on 2Sa 12:31. ויּשׂר, “he sawed asunder,” is the correct reading, and ויּשׂם in Samuel is an orthographical error; while, on the contrary, בּמּגרות in the Chronicle is a mistake for בּמגזרות in Samuel. The omission of בּמּלבּן אותם והעביר is probably explained by the desire to abridge; for if the author of the Chronicle does not scruple to tell of the sawing asunder of the prisoners with saws, and the cutting of them to pieces under threshing instruments and scythes, it would never occur to him to endeavour to soften David's harsh treatment of them by passing over in silence the burning of them in brick-kilns.
The passages parallel to the short appendix-like accounts of the valiant deeds of the Israelitish leaders in 1Ch 20:4-8 are to be found, as has already been remarked, in 2Sa 21:18-22. There, however, besides the three exploits of which we are informed by the chronicler in 2Sa 21:15-17, a fourth is recorded,