population of about five or six millions, which is not excessive.

According to 1 Chronicles 21:12, the famine was to be of three years duration. The number "seven" in 2

Samuel 24:13 must be a clerical error.

This is the proper rendering of 2 Samuel 24:15.

This seems to have been the original, while that of Ornan (1 Chronicles 21:15) and others are the

Hebraised forms of the name.

2 Samuel 24:23, reads in the Hebrew: "The whole, O king, does Aravnah give unto the king," and not as in

the Authorized Version.

Of the two statements of the price, we unhesitatingly take that in 1 Chronicles 21:25 (the other in 2 Samuel

depending on a clerical error, very common and easily accounted for in numerals). Bearing in mind that the

common shekel was of half the value of the sacred, and that the proportion of gold to silver was about ten to

one, the six hundred shekels of gold would amount to about £380. In Siphre 146 a., various attempts are

made to conciliate the two diverging accounts - it need scarcely be said ineffectually. The learned reader will

find a full discussion of the question in Ugolini's tractate Altare Exterius (Ugolini Thesaurus, Fol. Vol. 10. pp.

Solomon was probably at this time about twenty years of age.

These were not only foreign settlers, but the descendants of the original inhabitants of the land whose

lives had been spared. Such was their number that Solomon could employ no fewer than one hundred and

fifty thousand of them to bear burdens, and to hew stones (1 Kings 5:15; 2 Chronicles 2:17).

This, and not "in my trouble," is the correct rendering of 1 Chronicles 22:14.

Although, as we have often explained, cle rical errors occur in the numerals in the historical books, it may

be well to give the real equivalent of the silver and gold, mentioned in 1 Chronicles 22:14. Bearing in mind

the distinction between the sacred and the common shekel (2 Samuel 14:26; 1 Kings 10:17, compared with 2

Chronicles 9:16), it would amount to under £4,000,000. Immense as this sum is, Keil has shown that it is by

no means out of proportion with the treasures taken as booty in antiquity (comp. Bibl. Comment. Vol. 5. pp.

It is, of course, impossible here to enter into any critical examination of the chapters in 1 Chronicles,

summarized in our text.

Keil. We quote, of course, only the substance of his remarks.

According to some "in me" or "into me," as Hosea 1:2. In that case, the first clause would indicate

inspiration, and the second its human utterance.

The Rabbis and others regard this as referring to all David's Psalms and prophecies.

Not merely over Israel, but over mankind, indicating the future Kingdom of God, and the full application of

the prophecy in its Messianic sense.

Here the effects of that great salvation are described. The Rabbis, however, connect it with the previous

verse, and regard it as a farther description of this ruler.