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3And David took more wives in Jerusalem; and David begat more sons 4and daughters. And these are the names of those born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua and Shobab, Nathan and Solomon. 5And Ibhar, and Elishua, and 6Elpelet. And Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia. 7And Elishama, and Beeliada, and Eliphelet.
8And the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel; and all the Philistines went up to seek David: and David heard it, and went out against them. 9And the Philistines came and spread themselves in the 10valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines, and wilt Thou give them into my hand? And the Lord said 11unto him, Go up, and I will give them into thy hand. And they went up to Baal-perazim; and David smote them there: and David said, God hath broken my enemies by my hand, like the breaking of waters; therefore they 12called the name of that place Baal-perazim. And they left their gods there; and David ordered, and they were burnt with fire.
13, 14And the Philistines came again and spread themselves in the valley. And David inquired again of God; and God said unto him, Go not up after them; turn away from them, and come upon them by the bacas. 15And it shall be, when thou hearest the sound going on the tops of the bacas, then go out to the battle; for God is gone out before thee to smite the camp of the Philistines. 16And David did as God commanded him: and they smote the camp of the 17Philistines, from Gibeon even unto Gezer. And David’s fame went out into all lands; and the Lord brought his fear upon all nations.
1. David’s Palace-building and Family: 1Ch_14:1-7.—The text of the older parallel, 2Sa_5:11-16, agrees in the main with the present, only here and there more precise.—And cedar-wood, and masons, and carpenters, literally, “and timbers (beams) of cedars, and craftsmen of walls, and craftsmen of timbers” (Vulg. artifices parietum lignorumque).
1Ch_14:2. And David perceived (concluded from the high honour which was conferred upon him by this message from the Phenician king) that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel, definitely transferred the kingdom to him, established (“bestätigt,” Luther) him as king.—For his kingdom was lift up on high. ðִùֵּׂàú , if genuine, would be an irregularly formed 3 fem. perf. Niph. (not, as 2 Sam. 14:43, an inf. abs. Niph.) from ðùׂà , intensified by the ìְîַòְìָä , “on high;” comp. 1Ch_22:5, 1Ch_23:17, 1Ch_29:3-25. But perhaps, as in 2Sa_5:12, the perf. Piel ðִùֵּׂà is to be read, and Jehovah taken as the subject: “and that He had exalted his kingdom.” For îַîְìַëְúּåֹ , 2 Samuel 5, our text presents the later (occurring also 1Ch_17:11; 1Ch_17:14) form îַìְëåּúåֹ , perhaps merely by a slip of the pen; see Wellh. p. 164.
1Ch_14:3. And David took more wives in Jerusalem. Before ðָùִׁéí in 2 Samuel stands ôìâùׁéí , which may have fallen accidentally out of our passage, as the concubines of David are mentioned in 1Ch_3:9. Comp. on 1Ch_3:5-9, where the names of the thirteen sons of David born in Jerusalem, and the partly different spelling here and there, are fully handled.
2. The First War with the Philistines: 1Ch_14:8-12 (comp. 2Sa_5:17-21).—To seek David, to attack, ìְáַ÷ֵּùׁ , sensu hostili, as in 1Sa_23:15; 1Sa_23:25; 1Sa_24:3; 1Sa_26:2.—And David heard it, and went out against them, properly, “before them;” comp. 1Ch_12:17. Into this general and indefinite expression our author has changed the more concrete, but also more obscure, statement of Samuel: “and went down to the hold” (the hold of Zion), perhaps designedly.
1Ch_14:9. And spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim; comp. on 1Ch_11:15, 2Sa_5:18 : “sat down in the valley of Rephaim.” The perhaps more original åַéִּðָּֽèְùׁåּ , 2Sa_5:18; 2Sa_5:22, the Chronist has here and 1Ch_14:13 exchanged for the simpler and more intelligible åַéִּôְùְׁèåּ .
1Ch_14:11. Like the breaking of waters, like an outburst of water ( áְּôֶøֶõ îַéí ). We may think of the rending or outbursting of enclosing dams by rapid floods, perhaps after a water-spout. The situation of Baal-perazim cannot be exactly ascertained. Mount Perazim, Isa_28:21, is not essentially different from it.
1Ch_14:12. And they left their gods there. 2 Samuel 5 : “their idols” ( òöáéäí ). The present phrase is the stronger; it yields, along with the following statement regarding the burning of these gods, a bitterly sarcastic sense. The burning took place, moreover, on the ground of the divine command in Deu_7:5; Deu_7:25. The text of Samuel weakens the statement in a strange way: “and David and his men took them away.” If the more concrete and stronger statement of our author is a traditional expansion of that text, the tradition on which it rests is at all events credible; comp. Movers, p. 224. By this victory, David wiped out the old disgrace of Israel, which rested on the people since Eli’s time. “As then Israel lost the ark, 1Sa_4:11, so now the sacred things of the Philistines fell into the hands of the Israelites” (Berth.).
3. The Second War with the Philistines: 1Ch_14:13-17 (comp. 2Sa_5:22-25).—And spread themselves in the valley, that is, as the parallel text (so as the Sept. and Syr.; see Crit. Note) shows, in the same valley as above, 1Ch_14:9, scarcely in another at Gibeon, as Movers, p. 243, thinks.
1Ch_14:14. Go not up after them, that is, as Samuel shows: “go not directly towards them; seek not to drive them before thee by a direct attack.” Perhaps also our text is somewhat faulty, and to be amended, according to 2Sa_5:23 : ìֹà úַֽòֲìֶ֑ä äָñֵá àֶì àַֽçֲøֵéäֶí , by the change of àçøéäí in òֲìֵéäֶí (Berth.).—And come uponthem by the bacas, literally, over against the bacas. These we must suppose, as the divine command implies a going round the Philistine army, to be behind them. The baca, mentioned only here and 2 Samuel 5, and perhaps Psa_84:7, is, according to Abulfadi (in Celsius, Hierobot. i. 339), a plant related to the balsam tree, and resembling it, which, when cut, discharges a white, sharp, and warm resin in the manner of tears, and appears to have received its name from áëà , flare. The older expositors, wavering uncertainly, render the term variously: Sept. ἄðéïò , Vulg. pyrus; Luther, after the Jewish expositors, mulberry tree.
1Ch_14:15. The sound going on the tops of the bacas, namely, the rustling of their leaves in the wind (Sept.: ôὴí öùíὴí ôïῦ óõóóåéóìïῦ áὐôῶí ), not the sound occasioned by the entrance of God (supernatural, as in Gen_3:8). As the baca has much larger leaves than the ordinary balsam, the rustling of them may occasion a sufficiently loud sound; the rendering “baca trees ” (Kamph.) is therefore unnecessary.
1Ch_14:16. And they smote the camp of the Philistines, from Gibeon even unto Gezer. Two places of this name lie to the north-west of Jerusalem, the former (now el Jib) 2½, the latter 4½, hours distant from it. If the battle-field is to be sought between the two, in the region of Upper and Nether Beth-horon, the valley, 1Ch_14:13, may still be the valley of Rephaim; only the site of it should be sought not so far south, as Thenius and Bertheau suppose (who also read for Gibeon in our passage, “ Geba,” according to 2Sa_5:25), and the battle must be regarded as moving in a north-westerly direction from its starting-point (comp. Wellh. on 2Sa_5:25, also Ew. Gesch. d. V. Isr. ii. 610).
1Ch_14:17. And David’s fame went out into all lands; and the Lord brought his fear upon all nation, literally, “ gave his fear upon all nations;” comp. Est_8:17. A pragmatic reflection of our author added to the original text, as its absence in 2Sa_5:25 shows. Comp. the similar reflections in 2Ch_17:10; 2Ch_20:29. On åַéֵּöֵà ùֵׁí especially, comp. 2Ch_24:15.
Footnotes:
Kethib: çִéøָí . Keri: çåּøָí , as always in Chronicles (Sept. ×åéñÜì , as ever).
For áòî÷ the Sept. and Syr. read áòî÷ øôàéí , which is perhaps original; comp. 2Sa_5:22.