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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 10:1 - 10:1
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In 1 Sam this narrative forms the conclusion of Saul's last war with the Philistines. The battle was fought on the plain of Jezreel; and when the Israelites were compelled to retire, they fell back upon Mount Gilboa, but were hard pressed by the Philistines, so that many fell upon the mountain. The Philistines pressed furiously after Saul and his sons, and slew the latter (as to Saul's sons, see on 1Ch 8:33); and when the archers came upon Saul he trembled before them (יָחֶל from חוּל), and ordered his armour-bearer to thrust him through. Between הַמֹּורִים and בַּקֶּשֶׁת the superfluous אֲנָשִׁים is introduced in Samuel, and in the last clause מְאֹד is omitted; and instead of מֵהַמֹּורִים we have the unusual form מִן־הַיֹּורִים (cf. 2Ch 35:23). In Saul's request to his armour-bearer that he would thrust him through with the sword, וּדְקָרֻנִי (1Sa 31:4) is omitted in the phrase which gives the reason for his request; and Bertheau thinks it did not originally stand in the text, and has been repeated merely by an oversight, since the only motive for the command, “Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith,” was that the Philistines might not insult Saul when alive, and consequently the words, “that they may not thrust me through,” cannot express the reason. But that is scarcely a conclusive reason for this belief; for although the Philistines might seek out Saul after he had been slain by his armour-bearer, and dishonour his dead body, yet the anxiety lest they should seek out his corpse to wreak their vengeance upon it could not press so heavily upon him as the fear that they would take vengeance upon him if he fell alive into their hands. It is therefore a more probable supposition that the author of the Chronicle has omitted the word וּדְקָרֻנִי only as not being necessary to the sense of the passage, just as עִמֹּו is omitted at the end of 1Ch 10:5. In 1Ch 10:6 we have וְכָל־בֵּיתֹו instead of the כָּל־אֲנָשָׁיו גַּם כֵלָיו וְנֹשֵׂא of Samuel, and in 1Ch 10:7 יִשְׂרָאֵל אַנְשֵׁי is omitted after the words נָסוּ כִּי (Samuel). From this Bertheau concludes that the author of the Chronicle has designedly avoided speaking of the men of Saul's army or of the Israelites who took part in the battle, because it was not his purpose to describe the whole course of the conflict, but only to narrate the death of Saul and of his sons, in order to point out how the supreme power came to David. Thenius, on the contrary, deduces the variation between the sixth verse of the Chronicles and the corresponding verse in Samuel from “a text which had become illegible.” Both are incorrect; for כָּל־אֲנָשָׁיו are not all the men of war who went with him into the battle (Then.), or all the Israelites who took part in the battle (Berth.), but only all those who were about the king, i.e., the whole of the king's attendants who had followed him to the war. כָּל־בֵּיתֹו is only another expression for כָּל־אֲנָשָׁיו, in which the כֵּלָיו נֹשֵׂא is included. The author of the Chronicle has merely abridged the account, confining himself to a statement of the main points, and has consequently both omitted יִשְׂרָאֵל אַנְשֵׁי in 1Ch 10:7, because he had already spoken of the flight of the warriors of Israel in 1Ch 10:1, and it was here sufficient to mention only the flight and death of Saul and of his sons, and has also shortened the more exact statement as to the inhabitants of that district, “those on the other side of the valley and on the other side of Jordan” (Samuel), into בָּאֵמֶק אֲשֶׁר. In this abridgement also Thenius scents a “defective text.” As the inhabitants of the district around Gilboa abandoned their cities, they were taken possession of by the Philistines.