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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 17:21 - 17:21
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The combining of וְנֹורָאֹות גְּדֻלֹּות with שֵׁם לְךָ לָשׂוּם as one sentence, “to make Thee a name with great and fearful deeds,” is made clearer in 2nd Samuel by the interpolation of לָכֶם וְלַעֲשֹׂות, “and for you doing great and fearful things.” This explanation, however, does not justify us in supposing that וְלַעֲשֹׂות has been dropped out of the Chronicle. The words וְנֹורָאֹות גְּדֻלֹּות are either to be subordinated in a loose connection to the clause, to define the way in which God has made Himself a name (cf. Ew. §283), or connected with שׂוּם in a pregnant sense: “to make Thee a name, (doing) great and fearful things.” But, on the other hand, the converse expression in Samuel, “fearful things for Thy land, before Thy people which Thou redeemedst to Thee from Egypt (from) the nations and their gods,” is explained in Chronicles by the interpolation of לְגָרֵשׁ: “fearful things, to drive out before Thy people, which ... nations.” The divergences cannot be explained by the hypothesis that both texts are mutilated, as is sufficiently shown by the contradictions into which Thenius and Bertheau have fallen in their attempts so to explain them.
All the remaining divergences of one text from the other are only variations of the expression, such as involuntarily arise in the endeavour to give a clear and intelligible narrative, without making a literal copy of the authority made use of. Among these we include even לְהִתְפַּלֵּל עַבְדְּךָ מָצָא, “Thy servant hath found to pray” (1 Chr. 1725), as compared with לְהִתְפַּלֵּל אֶת־לִבֹּו עַבְדְּךָ מָצָא, “Thy servant hath found his heart,” i.e., found courage, to pray (2Sa 7:28); where it is impossible to decide whether the author of the books of Samuel has added אֶת־לִבֹּו as an explanation, or the author of the Chronicle has omitted it because the phrase “to find his heart” occurs only in this single passage of the Old Testament. להת עַבְדְּךָ מָצָא signifies, Thy servant has reached the point of directing this prayer to Thee.