Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Samuel 15:22
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
After this assurance of his devotedness, David let Ittai do as he pleased. ועבר לך, "go and pass on." עבר does not mean to pass by, but to go forward. Thus Ittai and his men and all his family that was with him went forward with the king. By "the little ones" (taph) we are to understand a man's whole family, as in many other instances (see at Exo 12:37). Sa2 15:22-23 The king crosses the Kidron, and sends the priests back with the ark to Jerusalem. - Sa2 15:23. All the land (as in Sa1 14:25) wept aloud when all the people went forward; and the king went over the brook Kidron, and all the people went over in the direction of (lit. in the face of) the way to the desert. The brook Kidron is a winter torrent, i.e., a mountain torrent which only flows during the heavy rains of winter (χείμαῤῥος τοῦ Κεδρών, Joh 18:1). It is on the eastern side of Jerusalem, between the city and the Mount of Olives, and derives its name from the appearance of the water when rendered muddy through the melting of the snow (cf. Job 6:16). In summer it is nothing more than a dry channel in the valley of Jehoshaphat (see Robinson, Pal. i. 396, and v. Raumer, Pal. p. 309, note 81). "The wilderness" (midbar) is the northern part of the desert of Judah, through which the road to Jericho and the Jordan lay. Sa2 15:24 Zadok the priest and all the Levites (who were in Jerusalem) left the city with the fugitive king, bearing the ark of the covenant: "And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar came up, till all the people had come completely over from the city." ויּעל, ἀνέβη, ascendit (lxx, Vulg.), may probably be accounted for from the fact that Abiathar did not come to join the fugitives till the procession halted at the Mount of Olives; so that עלה, like ἀναβαίνειν, merely refers to his actually going up, and ויּעל affirms that Abiathar joined them until all the people from the city had arrived. The rendering proposed by Michaelis and Bttcher ("he offered sacrifices") is precluded by the fact that עלה never means to sacrifice when written without עולה, or unless the context points distinctly to sacrifices, as in Sa2 24:22; Sa1 2:28. The ark of the covenant was put down, because those who went out with the king made a halt, to give the people who were still coming time to join the procession. Sa2 15:25-26 Then the king said to Zadok, "Take back the ark of God into the city! If I find favour in the eyes of Jehovah, He will bring me back and let me see Him (i.e., himself: the reference is to God) and His dwelling (i.e., the ark of the covenant as the throne of the divine glory in the tent that had been set up for it). But if He thus say, I have not delight in thee; behold, here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good to Him." Thus David put his fate in believing confidence into the hand of the Lord, because he felt that it was the Lord who was chastising him for his sons through this rebellion. Sa2 15:27-28 He also said still further to Zadok, "Thou seer! return into the city in peace." אתּה הרואה, with ה interrog., does not yield any appropriate sense, as ה cannot stand for הלוא here, simply because it does not relate to a thing which the person addressed could not deny. Consequently the word must be pointed thus, הראה (with the article), and rendered as a vocative, as it has been by Jerome and Luther. ראה, seer, is equivalent to prophet. He applies this epithet to Zadok, as the high priest who received divine revelations by means of the Urim. The meaning i…
This public page shows a contextual excerpt from the locally available source text.
How to use this source
This excerpt is attributed to its named commentary. It is included as a historical study resource and should be evaluated in light of Scripture and other relevant evidence.
