The famine -- the pestilence -- the temple arrangements -- David's last hymn and prophetic utterance.

2 SAMUEL 21-24; 1 CHRONICLES 21-27

WITH the suppression of the federal revolution under Sheba, the political history of David, as related in the

Second Book of Samuel, closes. Accordingly, the account of this, the second part of his reign, concludes,

like that of the first (2 Samuel 8:16), with an enumeration of his principal officers (2 Samuel 20:23 to the end).

What follows in the Second Book of Samuel (21-24), must be regarded as an Appendix, giving, first, an

account of the famine which desolated the land (21:1-14), probably in the earlier part, and of the pestilence

which laid it waste, probably towards the close of David's reign (24); secondly, some brief notices of the

Philistine wars (21:15-22), and a detailed register of David's heroes (23:8-39), neither of which will require

comment on our part; and, lastly, David's final Psalm of thanksgiving (22), and his last prophetic utterances

(23:1-7). All these are grouped together at the end of the Second Book of Samuel, probably because it was

difficult to insert them in any other place consistently with the plan of the work, which, as we have

repeatedly noted, was not intended to be a biography or a history of David, chronologically arranged.

Perhaps we should add, that the account of the pestilence was placed last in the book (24), because it forms

an introduction to the preparations made for the building of the Temple by Solomon. For, as we understand

it, no sooner had the place been divinely pointed out where the Sanctuary should be reared, than David

commenced such preparations for it as he could make. And here the First Book of Chronicles supplements

most valuable notices, not recorded in any other part of Scripture. From these we learn what David did and

ordered in his kingdom with a view to the building of the Temple and the arrangement of its future serv ices

(1 Chronicles 22-29). We have thus four particulars under which to group our summary of what we have

designated as the Appendix to the History of David, the famine; the pestilence; the Temple arrangements;

and the last Psalm and prophecy of the king.

1. The Famine (2 Samuel 21:1-14). - There is not a more harrowing narrative in Holy Scripture than that

connected with the famine which for three years desolated Palestine. Properly to understand it, we require to

keep two facts in view. First, the Gibeonites, who, at the time of Joshua, had secured themselves from

destruction by fraud and falsehood (Joshua 9:3, etc.), were really heathens - Hivites, or, as they are called in

the sacred text, Amorites, which was a general designation for all the Canaanites (Genesis 10:16; 15:16;

Joshua 9:1; 11:3; 12:8, etc.). We know, only too well, the character of the Canaanite inhabitants of the land;

and although, after their incorporation with Israel, the Gibeonites must have been largely influenced for

good, their habits of thinking and feeling would change comparatively little,39 - the more so because, as

there would be few, if any, intermarriages between them and native Israelites, they would be left, at least

socially, isolated. This will account for their ferocious persistence in demanding the uttermost punishment

prescribed by the law.

The provisions of this law must be our second point of consideration. Here we have again to bear in mind

the circumstances of the times, the existing moral, social, and national conditions, and the spiritual stage

which Israel had then reached. The fundamental principle, laid down in Numbers 35, was that of the holiness

of the land in which Jehovah dwelt among His people. This holiness must be guarded (ver. 34). But one of

the worst defilements of a land was that by innocent blood shed in it. According to the majestic view of the

Old Testament, blood shed by a murderer's hand could not be covered up - it was, so to speak, a living thing

which cried for vengeance, until the blood of h im that had shed it silenced its voice (ver. 33), or, in other

words, until the moral equipoise had been restored. While, therefore, the same section of the law provided

safety in case of unintentional homicide (vers. 10-29), and regulated the old practice of "avenging blood," it

also protected the land against crime, which it would not allow to be compensated for by money (ver. 31).

Hence the Gibeonites were strictly within the letter of the law in demanding retaliation on the house of Saul,

in accordance with the universally acknowledged Old Testament principle of the solidarity of a family; and

David had no alternative but to concede their claim. This is one aspect of the question. The other must be