Scripture Notes | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 23, 1868

Scripture Notes.

BEARING FALSE WITNESS.

1 SAM. xxii, 9, 10. Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub. And he enquired of the Lord for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine.

There was no good reason why Doeg should at all mention Ahimelech’s conduct, which he knew did not proceed from malice; but if he must report it, he should have declared, how Ahimelech was imposed upon by David, and that he intended to show respect to Saul in that very action. But on the contrary, he spoke as if David came to take Ahimelech’s advice about his subsequent proceedings, and as if Ahimelech was joined in a conspiracy with David against Saul; though nothing could be more contrary to the truth than this insinuation! Doeg therefore slandered Ahimelech, and bare false witness against him, though the general charges adduced accorded with facts. (Ex. xx, 16; Matt. xxvi, 57–62.) It is observable, that Doeg, after Saul’s example, did not deign to call David by his name, but contemptuously spoke of him, as “the son of Jesse.”—Scott.

MAKING THRESHING-FLOORS.

CHAP. xxiii, 1. Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshing-floors.

Make a threshing-floor thus: dig the place thoroughly; afterwards sprinkle it well with the lees of oil, and give it time to soak in. Then beat the clods very fine; make it level, and beat it well down with a pavior’s rammer. When this is done, sprinkle afresh with the oil lees, and let it dry. This being done, the mice cannot burrow in it, no grass can grow through it, nor will the rain dissolve the surface, or raise the mud.—Cato De Re Rustica, in Dr. A. Clarke.

DAVID’S RELIGIOUS INTEGRITY.

CHAP. xxiv, 4–6. And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily. And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. And he said unto his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.

The Lord intended to give David an opportunity of exercising faith, patience, and generous kindness; of showing the tendency and efficacy of his religious principles, the tenderness of his conscience, and the steadfastness of his loyalty; for the confutation of his accusers, a rebuke to Saul, and an example to all who read it. He was satisfied with performing his present duty; left his protection and future advancement to God; and deemed it an atrocious offense to “stretch forth his hand,” to hurt even so wicked a prince as Saul, and in defense of his own life.—Scott.

Who can help admiring David’s magnanimity and piety? What man but David, with a crown so near, would have resisted the temptation? Glorious moderation and fortitude of mind! Was ever resolution more generous and loyal?—Dodd, on ch. xxvi, 12.

CRIMINALITY OF SUICIDE.

CHAP. xxxi, 4, 5. Then said Saul unto his armor-bearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armor-bearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him.

Ahithophel and Judas the traitor murdered themselves; and I do not recollect any other instances in Scripture of this practice; unless Abimelech be added, who, when mortally wounded, ordered his armor-bearer to despatch him; and Zimri, who burned his palace and himself in it. For suicide, whether from real or supposed insanity, or otherwise, seems to have very rarely occurred in Israel; while suicide among the Greeks and Romans, and other Gentiles, was considered as virtue, and never ascribed to insanity. So that the very numerous instances of self-murder, in this and other Christian countries, and generally considered as lunacy, have, in fact, no parallel, either in Israel, or among idolaters; and seem to be occasioned in this peculiar form, by an association of the Christian sentiment, that suicide is crime and murder, with a vain attempt in all parties to extenuate it, by ascribing it to madness. But when the character of the suicides mentioned in Scripture is considered, it confirms the opinion, which has been advanced, of the enormous guilt and direful consequences of this crime. (Ex. xx, 13.) Men, either madly presuming on the mercy of God, or despairing of it, in order to escape temporal sufferings or disgrace, despise his gift of life, and thus rush uncalled into his tribunal, by an act of direct rebellion against his authority, and in proud defiance of his justice, with the guilt of all their unrepented crimes on their heads! Yet so exceedingly has Satan blinded men’s minds, that this worst of murders has been held honorable in very many ages, places, and situations, and has often been committed out of vain glory, in imitation of, or from affection to, those who have obtained renown among their fellow-sinners. Saul’s sons and servants died in the performance of their duty to him and to their country; but he and his armor-bearer died in direct violation of God’s commandment.—Scott.

[Took a sword.] Took the sword, that is, his armor-bearer’s. If Doeg were his armor-bearer, then Saul and his executioner both fell by that weapon, with which they had before massacred the priests of God. So Brutus and Cassius killed themselves with the same swords, with which they stabbed Cæsar; and Calippus was stabbed with the same sword, with which he stabbed Dio.—Delany, in Dr. A. Clarke.

HANGING BODIES TO THE WALL.

VERSE 10. And they put his armor in the house of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.

[To the wall.] Hooks are still seen on the outside walls of “Fort Emperor,” the citadel of Algiers, on which naked criminals were thrown, and exposed both alive and dead. And see Dr. Shaw. The preservation of trophies of enemies in temples erected to the Deity, is still kept up; witness the flags, &c., now in the “church of Alexander,” and other churches in St. Petersburg, “St. Paul’s,” London, “St. John’s,” Malta, that of the “Hotel of the Invalids,” Paris, &c.—Jenks.

THROWING AWAY A SHIELD.

2 SAM. i, 21. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings; for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.

[Vilely.] It was always reckoned very scandalous, and a great crime, ever punishable with death, to cast away a shield, both with the Greeks, ancient Germans, &c.”—Gill. So the Spartan mother told her son to return from battle “with his shield, or upon it.”—Jenks.

WILFULNESS OF ISRAEL.

CHAP. ii, 8, 9. But Abner, the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s host, took Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim, and made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel.

The nation in general had rejected the judges, whom God had raised up for them, and had demanded a king; and, in the same rebellious spirit, they refused the prince whom the Lord had selected for them, who was a man of approved abilities and character; and preferred the surviving son of their rejected king, though in every respect an improper person.—Scott.