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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 14:2 - 14:2
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Instead of נִשֵּׂא כִּי, that He (Jahve) had lifted up (נִשֵּׂא, perf. Pi.), as in 2Sa 5:12, in the Chronicle we read לְמַעְלָה נִשֵּׂאת כִּי, that his kingdom had been lifted up on high. The unusual form נִשֵּׂאת may be, according to the context, the third pers. fem. perf. Niph., nisaa't having first been changed into נִשֶּׂאֶת, and thus contracted into נִשֵּׂאת; cf. Ew. §194, b. In 2Sa 19:43 the same form is the infin. abs. Niph. לְמַעְלָה is here, as frequently in the Chronicles, used to intensify the expression: cf. 1Ch 22:5; 1Ch 23:17; 1Ch 29:3, 1Ch 29:25; 2Ch 1:1; 2Ch 17:12. With regard to the sons of David, see on 1Ch 3:5-8.
In the account of the victories over the Philistines, the statement (2Sa 5:17) that David went down to the mountain-hold, which has no important connection with the main fact, and would have been for the readers of the Chronicle somewhat obscure, is exchanged in 1Ch 14:8 for the more general expression לִפְנֵיהֶם וַיֵּצֵא, “he went forth against them.” In 1Ch 14:14, the divine answer to David's question, whether he should march against the Philistines, runs thus: מֵעֲלֵיהֶם הָסֵב אַחֲרֵיהֶם תַּעֲלֶה לֹא, Thou shalt not go up after them; turn away from them, and come upon them over against the baca-bushes; - while in 2Sa 5:23, on the contrary, we read: אֶל־אַחֲרֵיהֶם הָסֵב תַעֲלֶה הָסֵב אֶל־אַ לֹע, Thou shalt not go up (i.e., advance against the enemy to attack them in front); turn thee behind them (i.e., to their rear), and come upon them over against the baca-bushes. Bertheau endeavours to get rid of the discrepancy, by supposing that into both texts corruptions have crept through transcribers' errors. He conjectures that the text of Samuel was originally אַחֲרֵיהֶם תַּעֲלֶה לֹא, while in the Chronicle a transposition of the words עֲלֵיהֶם and אַחֲרֵיהֶם was occasioned by a copyist's error, which in turn resulted in the alteration of עֲלֵיהֶם into מֵעֲלֵיהֶם. This supposition, however, stands or falls with the presumption that by תַּעֲלֶה לֹא (Sam.) an attack is forbidden; but for that presumption no tenable grounds exist: it would rather involve a contradiction between the first part of the divine answer and the second. The last clause, “Come upon them from over against the baca-bushes,” shows that the attack was not forbidden; all that was forbidden was the making of the attack by advancing straight forward: instead of that, they were to try to fall upon them in the rear, by making a circuit. The chronicler consequently gives us an explanation of the ambiguous words of 2 Samuel, which might easily be misunderstood. As David's question was doubtless expressed as it is in 1Ch 14:10, הפל עַל הַאֶעֱלֶה, the answer תַּעֲלֶה לֹא might be understood to mean, “Go not up against them, attack them not, but go away behind them;” but with that the following וגו לָהֶם וּבָאתָ, “Come upon them from the baca-bushes,” did not seem to harmonize. The chronicler consequently explains the first clauses of the answer thus: “Go not up straight behind them,” i.e., advance not against them so as to attack them openly, “but turn thyself away from them,” i.e., strike off in such a direction as to turn their flank, and come upon them from the front of the baca-bushes. In this way the apparently contradictory texts are reconciled without the alteration of a word. In 1Ch 14:17, which is wanting in Samuel, the author concludes the account of these victories by the remark that they tended greatly to exalt the name of David among the nations. For similar reflections, cf. 2Ch 17:10; 2Ch 20:29; 2Ch 14:13; and for שֵׁם וַיֵּצֵא, 2Ch 26:15.