---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse 2 Samuel 21:1. Then there was a famine — Of this famine we know nothing; it is not mentioned in any part of the history of David. Because he slew th"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-samuel/21"
---

Verse [2 Samuel 21:1](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/1). ***Then there was a famine*** — Of this famine we know nothing; it is not mentioned in any part of the history of David.
***Because he slew the Gibeonites.*** — No such fact is mentioned in the life and transactions of Saul; nor is there any reference to it in any other part of Scripture.

Verse [2 Samuel 21:2](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/2). ***The remnant of the Amorites*** — The Gibeonites were *Hivites*, not Amorites, as appears from [Joshua 11:19](../../../kjv/joshua/11/19): but *Amorites* is a name often given to the Canaanites in general, [Genesis 15:16](../../../kjv/genesis/15/16); [Amos 2:9](../../../kjv/amos/2/9), and elsewhere.

Verse [2 Samuel 21:3](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/3). ***Wherewith shall I make the atonement*** — It is very strange that a choice of this kind should be left to such a people. Why not ask this of God himself?

Verse [2 Samuel 21:6](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/6). ***Seven men of his sons*** — Meaning sons, grandsons, or other near branches of his family. It is supposed that the persons chosen were principal in assisting Saul to exterminate the Gibeonites. But where is the proof of this?

Verse [2 Samuel 21:8](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/8). ***Five sons of Michal - whom she brought up*** — Michal, Saul's daughter, was never married to *Adriel*, but to David, and afterwards to Phaltiel; though it is here said *she bore* ילדה yaledah, not *brought up*, as we falsely translate it: but we learn from [1 Samuel 18:19](../../../kjv/1-samuel/18/19), that *Merab*, one of Saul's daughters, was married to Adriel.
Two of Dr. *Kennicott's* MSS. have *Merab*, not Michal; the *Syriac* and *Arabic* have *Nadab*; the *Chaldee* has properly *Merab*; but it renders the passage thus: - *And the five sons of Merab which* *Michal the daughter of Saul brought up, which she brought forth to* *Adriel the son of Barzillai*. This cuts the knot.

Verse [2 Samuel 21:9](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/9). ***In the beginning of barley harvest.*** — This happened in Judea about the vernal equinox, or the 21st of *March*.

Verse [2 Samuel 21:10](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/10). ***Rizpah - took sackcloth*** — Who can read the account of Rizpah's maternal affection for her sons that were now hanged, without feeling his mind deeply impressed with sorrows?
Did God require this sacrifice of Saul's sons, probably all innocent of the alleged crime of their father? Was there no other method of averting the Divine displeasure? Was the requisition of the Gibeonites to have Saul's sons sacrificed to God, to be considered as an oracle of God? Certainly not; God will not have man's blood for sacrifice, no more than he will have swine's blood. The famine might have been removed, and the land properly purged, by offering the sacrifices prescribed by the law, and by a general humiliation of the people.
***Until water dropped upon them*** — Until the time of the *autumnal* rains, which in that country commence about October. Is it possible that this poor broken-hearted woman could have endured the fatigue, (and probably in the open air,) of watching these bodies for more than five months? Some think that the *rain* *dropping on them out of heaven* means the removal of the famine which was occasioned by *drought*, by now sending *rain*, which might have been shortly after these men were hanged; but this by no means agrees with the manner in which the account is introduced: "They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest. And Rizpah - took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest, until water dropped upon them out of heaven." No casual or immediately providential rain can be here intended; the reference must be to the *periodical* rains above mentioned.

Verse [2 Samuel 21:12](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/12). ***Took the bones of Saul*** — The reader will recollect that the men of Jabesh-gilead burned the bodies of Saul and his sons, and buried the remaining bones under a tree at Jabesh. See [1 Samuel 31:12-13](../../../kjv/1-samuel/31/12-13). These David might have digged up again, in order to bury them in the family sepulchre.

Verse [2 Samuel 21:15](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/15). ***Moreover the Philistines had yet war*** — There is no mention of this war in the parallel place, [1 Chronicles 20:4](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/20/4), &c.
***David waxed faint.*** — This circumstance is nowhere else mentioned.

Verse [2 Samuel 21:16](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/16). ***Being girded with a new*****sword**] As the word *sword* is not in the original, we may apply the term *new* to his *armour* in general; he had got new arms, a new coat of mail, or something that defended him well, and rendered him very formidable: or it may mean a strong or sharp sword.

Verse [2 Samuel 21:17](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/17). ***That thou quench not the light of Israel.*** — David is here considered as the *lamp* by which all Israel was guided, and without whom all the nation must be involved in darkness. The lamp is the emblem of *direction* and *support*. Light is used in this sense by Homer: -
Ουδε τι Πατροκλῳ γενομην φαος, αυδ ' ἑταροισιπ
Τοις αλλοις, οἱ δη πολεες δαμεν Ἑκτορι διῳ.
*Iliad*, lib. xviii. ver. 102.

"I have neither been a LIGHT to Patroclus nor to his
companions, who have been slain by the noble Hector."

Verse [2 Samuel 21:18](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/18). ***A battle - at Gob*** — Instead of *Gob*, several editions, and about *forty* of *Kennicott's* and *De Rossi's* MSS., have *nob*; but *Gezer* is the name in the parallel place, [1 Chronicles 20:4](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/20/4).

Verse [2 Samuel 21:19](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/19). ***Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim - slew - Goliath the**********Gittite*** — Here is a most manifest corruption of the text, or gross mistake of the transcriber; *David*, not *Elhanan*, slew *Goliath*. In [1 Chronicles 20:5](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/20/5), the parallel place, it stands thus: "Elhanan, the son of Jair, slew Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-staff *was* like a weaver's beam." This is plain; and our translators have *borrowed* some words from Chronicles to make both texts agree. The corruption may be easily accounted for by considering that ארגים *oregim*, which signifies *weavers*, has slipped out of one line into the other; and that בית הלחמי *beith* *hallachmi*, the *Beth-lehemite*, is corrupted from את לחמי *eth* *Lachmi*; then the reading will be the same as in Chronicles. Dr. *Kennicott* has made this appear very plain in his *First* *Dissertation on the Hebrew Text*, p. 78, &c.

Verse [2 Samuel 21:20](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/20). ***On every hand six fingers*** — This is not a solitary instance: *Tavernier* informs us that the eldest son of the emperor of Java, who reigned in 1648, had *six fingers* on each hand, and *six toes* on each foot. And *Maupertuis*, in his seventeenth letter, says that he met with two families near Berlin, where *sedigitism* was equally transmitted on both sides of father and mother. I saw once a young girl, in the county of Londonderry, in Ireland, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, but her stature had nothing gigantic in it. The daughters of *Caius Horatius*, of patrician dignity, were called *sedigitae*, because they had *six fingers* on each hand. *Volcatius*, a poet, was called *sedigitus* for the same reason. See *Pliny's* Hist. Nat., lib. xi., cap. 43.
THERE are evidently many places in this chapter in which the text has suffered much from the ignorance or carelessness of transcribers; and indeed I suspect the whole has suffered so materially as to distort, if not misrepresent the principal facts. It seems as if a Gibeonite has had something to do with the copies that are come down to us, or that the first fourteen verses have been inserted from a less authentic document than the rest of the book. I shall notice some of the most unaccountable, and apparently exceptionable particulars: -
1. The *famine*, [2 Samuel 21:1](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/1), is not spoken of anywhere else, nor at all referred to in the books of *Kings* or *Chronicles*; and, being of three years' duration, it was too remarkable to be omitted in the history of David.
2. The circumstance of Saul's *attempt to exterminate the* *Gibeonites* is nowhere else mentioned; and, had it taken place, it is not likely it would have been passed over in the history of Saul's transgressions. Indeed, it would have been such a breach of the good faith by which the whole nation was bound to this people, that an attempt of the kind could scarcely have failed to raise an insurrection through all Israel.
3. The wish of David that the Gibeonites, little better than a heathenish people, *should bless the inheritance of the Lord*, is unconstitutional and unlikely.
4. That God should leave the choice of the atonement to such a people, or indeed to any people, seems contrary to his established laws and particular providence.
5. That he should require seven innocent men to be hung up in place of their offending father, in whose iniquity they most likely never had a share, seems inconsistent with justice and mercy.
6. In [2 Samuel 21:8](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/8), there is mention made of *five sons of Michal*, which she bore (ילדה *yaledah*) unto Adriel. Now, 1. Michal was never the wife of Adriel, but of David and Phaltiel. 2. She never appears to have had any children, see [2 Samuel 6:23](../../../kjv/2-samuel/6/23); this I have been obliged to correct in the preceding notes by putting *Merab* in the place of *Michal*.
7. The seven sons of Saul, mentioned here, are represented as a *sacrifice* required by God, to make an *atonement* for the sin of Saul. Does God in any case require *human blood* for sacrifice? And is it not *such a sacrifice* that is represented here? Dr. Delaney and others imagine that these seven sons were *principal agents* in the execution of their father's purpose; but of this there is *no* *proof*. Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, certainly had no hand in this projected massacre, he was ever *lame*, and could not be so employed; and yet he would have been one of the seven had it not been for the covenant made before with his father: *But the king* *spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan - because of the Lord's oath* *that was between them*, [2 Samuel 21:7](../../../kjv/2-samuel/21/7).
8. The circumstance of Rizpah's watching the bodies of those victims, upon a rock, and probably in the open air, both day and night, from March to October, or even *for a much less period*, is, as it is here related, very extraordinary and improbable.
9. The hanging the bodies *so long* was against an express law of God, which ordained that those who were hanged on a tree should be taken down before sunset, and *buried the same day, lest the land* *should be defiled*, ([Deuteronomy 21:22-23](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/21/22-23)). Therefore, 1. God did not command a breach of his own law. 2. David was too exact an observer of that law to require it. 3. The people could not have endured it; for, in that sultry season, the land would indeed have been *defiled* by the *putrefaction* of the dead bodies; and this would, in all likelihood, have added *pestilence* to *famine*.
10. The story of collecting and *burying the bones* of Saul and Jonathan is not very likely, considering that the men of Jabesh-gilead had burned their bodies, and buried the remaining bones under a tree at Jabesh, [1 Samuel 31:12-13](../../../kjv/1-samuel/31/12-13); yet still it is possible.
11. Josephus takes as much of this story as he thinks proper, but says not one word about Rizpah, and her long watching over her slaughtered sons.
12. Even the *facts* in this chapter, which are mentioned in other places, (see [1 Chronicles 20:4](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/20/4), c.,) are greatly distorted and corrupted for we have already seen that *Elhanan* is made here to *kill Goliath* *the Gittite*, whom it is well known David slew; and it is only by means of the parallel place above that we can restore this to historical truth.
That there have been attempts to remove some of these objections, I know; and I know also that these attempts have been in general without success.
Till I get farther light on the subject, I am led to conclude that the whole chapter is not *now* what it would be, coming from the pen of an inspired writer; and that this part of the Jewish records has suffered much from rabbinical glosses, alterations, and additions. The *law*, the *prophets*, and the *hagiographa*, including *Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes*, c., have been ever considered as possessing the *highest title to Divine inspiration* and therefore have been most carefully preserved and transcribed; but the historical books, especially *Samuel, Kings*, and *Chronicles*, have not ranked so high, have been less carefully preserved, and have been the subjects of frequent alteration and corruption. Yet still the great foundation of God standeth sure and is sufficiently attested by his own broad seal of consistency, truth, and holiness.

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