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III. 33 Died Abner as a fool dieth?

Did Abner die, as cowards or malefactors are wont to do?

III. 34 Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters: a man falleth before wicked men, so fellest thou.

Their hands use to be bound, and their feet fettered; and so they are forced to undergo a foreseen death: it was not so with thee, 0 Abner; thy hands and thy feet were free; as the valiantest man may be surprised by the violence of a wicked enemy, so wert thou surprised and slain.

V. 6 Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither.

This our city is so defenced of itself, that we care not for all thy forces; and if there were none but the blind and the lame, impotent persons, in it, thou shalt never be able to take it; those very blind and laine do boldly defy thee.

V. 8 Wherefore they said; (or, as the margin, because they said, even) the blind and the lame, &c.

Because they had said (even the blind and the lame, in a presumption of the strength of their forts, had said) He shall not come into the city, nor enter into our houses.

VI. 7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, for his presumption in touching the ark, which should have been carried on the shoulders of sacred persons, not on a cart, as the Philistines had placed it; and, though it might be carried by the sons of Levi, yet might it not be touched by them.

VI. 14 And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.

And David testified the joy of his heart, by the vehement and cheerful motions of his body, in a grave and holy manner, dancing before the ark of God; and, for the more freedom and ease of that motion, had girded a linen garment close about him.

VI. 20 Who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the hand- ̧ maids of his servants.

Who, casting off the robes of majesty (which would have become his person, and this action,) and, arraying himself basely, exposed himself and his gestures to the scorn and derision, even of bo s and girls in the street.

VI. 23 Had no child unto the day of her death.

Michal was punished with barrenness, all the days of her life.

VII. 14 I will chasten him with the rod of men.

If he offend me, I will chastise him gently and favourably; as loving parents use to correct their dearest children.

VII. 15 My mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.

I will not utterly take away the kingdom from his posterity, as I

took it from Saul, to give it unto thee; but will perpetuate it spiritually to thy seed.

VIII. 2 And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive.

He subdued the country of Moab, and divided it out, as he thought good; casting down their cities; and so proportioning his execution, that he put to death two parts of the inhabitants, and suffered one third part, at the least, to live and become tributary.

IX. 7 Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.

Thou shalt be provided for, upon my charge, all thy life long.

X. 6 Saw that they stank before David.

That they had made themselves odious unto David, in offering so foul an affront to his ambassadors.

XI. 1 After the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle.

In the turning of the year, even in the spring time, when kings are wont to draw their forces out of the garrison into the field.

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XII. 5 He that hath done this thing shall surely die; (or, is the son of death.)

He, that did this thing, hath well deserved death.

XII. 8 I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, &c.

I gave into thy power and command thy master's house, and thy master's wives; both the persons and houses and substance, that pertained to Saul, to be at thy disposing.

XII. 17 The elders of his house.

The chief officers of his house.

XII. 25 And he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD. And he called his name Jedidiah, Beloved of God, because of that gracious word of promise and acceptance, which the Lord had formerly spoken concerning him. 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15, &c.

XII. 31 And put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln, And he put them to very sore and painful deaths, upon the command of God; causing them to be sawn to death, and to be torn with harrows of iron, and hewn with axes; and, as they had been guilty of burning their children in the fire to Molech, so he caused them to be used, burning them in the brick kiln,

XIII. 13 Thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Every one that hears it will condemn thee of great wickedness and folly; in that, by this lewd act, thou wilt cast thyself out of the likelihood of succeeding in the kingdom of Israel,

XIII. 20 He is thy brother; regard not this thing.

He is thy brother, and therefore, though he, of all other, should not have done this villainy to thee; yet, since he hath done it, have thou so much respect to the honour of our blood and family, as not to prosecute it against him.

XIV. 9 My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my fathers' house and the king and his throne be guiltless.

If there be ought amiss, in forbearing to execute revenge upon the offender, I take it wholly upon myself; thou, O king, and thy throne shalt be herein guiltless.

XIV. 14 For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; [because God hath not taken away his life, he hath also devised means,] that his banished be not expelled from him.

Our very life consists in his, and we are utterly lost, if such a hope of succession be rigorously cut off; which, it is a sign that God would have continued, in that he hath not, all this while of his banishment, taken him away, but hath now made this means unto thee for his restoring.

XIV. 26 After the king's shekel.

According to the ordinary weight of the shekel, in civil use of trade; every shekel weighing two drams and sixteen grains.

XV. 19 Abide thou with the king.

Abide thou with this king that would be; this usurper Absalom. So also verse 35.

XVI. 10 So let him curse, because the LORD hath said unto him, Curse David.

The Lord hath, for my trial and affliction, thought good to make use of this man's tongue, to revile and curse me; which, though it be a sin in this wicked man, yet it is most wisely and justly ordered of God, for my humiliation, and exercise of my patience. XVI. 12 It may be that the LORD will look on mine affliction, and that the LORD will requite me good for his cursing this day. It may be, that the Lord will have pity upon my sorrow and aggravated affliction; and will graciously reward my patient suffering with a blessing, instead of those curses which are thrown at me this day.

XVI. 23 Was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God. The counsel of Ahitophel was held so wise, so certain, so successful, as if it had come from the very oracle of God.

XVII. 3 The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace.

It is but one man, whom thou seekest: if he were taken away, which I shall this night undertake to do, all will be quiet; all the people will return to thee in peace.

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XVII. 9 When some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, &c.

When some of thy men shall be discomfited in the first encounter, the rest will be, with the noise thereof, disheartened.

XVII. 23 Home to his house, to his city, and put his houshold in order, and hanged himself.

He returned home, and made his will; and, as one that took care for all things, save his soul, when that was done, hanged himself.

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XVIII. 8 And the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

And the wood, by reason of the thickets and ditches and pits that were in it, was the occasion, that more were slain, than could have been slain in an open field, upon a clear pursuit, by the sword of the enemy.

XVIII. 9 And his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.

And his head was caught fast within the grains of a spreading oak; and thus, his mule running from under him, he was hanged betwixt heaven and earth.

XVIII. 18 For he said, I have no son to keep my name in rememberance and he called the pillar after his own name.

For he said; Those two sons which I had are now dead, and I have no means to keep a remembrance of my name; this pillar therefore shall remain for a monument of me.

XIX. 13 And say ye to Amasa, Art thou not of my bone, and of my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if thou be not captain of the host before me continually, in the room of Joab.

Go, say to Amasa, Art not thou my near kinsman, my sister's son; of the same flesh and blood with me? As I look for any favour from God, or would avoid his heaviest judgments, my full purpose and resolution is, that thou shalt be the general of all my forces, during thy life, in the stead of Joab; whom, upon the just reason of his murders and insolency, I have decreed to discard.

XIX. 22 Do not I know that I am this day king over Israel? Do not I know, that this is the day, wherein I am restored unto and settled in the kingdom of Israel?

XIX. 29 Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land.

Trouble not thyself about these matters. I have, in my first sentence, set an order in these affairs, which I do still decree to make good; that Ziba should till and husband those lands to thy use, so as he may receive one moiety of the profits for his labour, and the rest may accrue unto thee, whom I have made the Lord of them.

XX. 2 So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri.

So the men of Israel, taking advantage of that emulation which

was betwixt them and the men of Judah, fell off from their lawful king, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri.

XX. 18 Then she spake, saying, They were wont to speak in old time, saying, They shall surely ask counsel at Abel: and so they ended the matter.

They said in the beginning of this war; Surely they will treat with the men of Abel, for peace, according to the charge which God hath given in his Law; which if you had done, this business had been at an end.

XXI. 2 And Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.

And Saul thought to slay the Gibeonites, in a misgrounded zeal to the children of Israel and Judah; in that he desired to free the land of all that were strangers in blood, according to the misapplied charge which they had of old received from God; and to put it clearly into the hands of the Israelites.

XXII. 8 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.

God did by manifest tokens declare his power, and his gracious will, to deliver me; and to avenge mine enemies: he caused the earth therefore to tremble and shake; and the very heavens seemed to be moved, in the sense of his heavy displeasure against my ad

versaries.

XXII. 9 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

He gave testimonies of his fury and indignation against mine enemies: so vehement was his wrath, that even smoke seemed, to speak after the manner of men, to come out of his nostrils; and so hot a fire out of his mouth, that even coals were kindled by it. XXII. 10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.

This lower part of the heaven was so affected, as if God had, in the demonstration of his power, come down into it; and, if we may describe him by our weak human representations, under his feet, in the lowest region of his air, there was a palpable darkness. XXII. 11 IIe rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.

He used the ministration of his angels and of his winds, to exhibit his powerful presence unto men; and in them was his mighty power acknowledged.

XXII. 12 He made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.

And, as we men are wont by tents and pavilions to shelter ourselves from the view of others, so did he cast darkness and thick clouds round about the place of his appearance.

XXII. 13 Through the brightness before him were coals of fire

kindled.

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