SECTION VIII. SUCCESSOR OF DAVID; EVERLASTING KING; JEHOVAH. 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7. "These are later words of David. v. 1. "The oracle of David, the son of Jessai, "Even the oracle of the high-raised hero, Anointed by the God of Jacob, "And the delightful author of the songs of Israel 5. "Truly thus is my house with God "For an everlasting covenant he hath fixed with me "For [this is] all my salvation and all [my] desire. 6. "But the wicked shall not grow. "As prickles, to be moved away, all of them; "For they cannot be taken by the hand. 7. "And the man who shall touch them "Will be filled with the iron and shaft of the spear: "But with fire shall they be utterly burned in their dwelling." The evidence in favour of the version here proposed is to my apprehension strong and satisfactory. 66 The internal characters, also, of the passage appear to be irresistible proofs of its being a prophecy, and a prophecy of the Messiah in his divine glory, his righteous reign, the punishment of his enemies, and his showering down blessings upon the world. Of HIM, in a Psalm which I cannot but regard as parallel to this magnificent ode, it is declared; "He shall judge thy people with righteousness:-he shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers, a flowing stream, upon the earth." Its commencement, than which one more splendid, or more adapted to awaken expectation, is not found in the whole Bible, is far from being answered by the description of a good earthly magistrate: and the reference to the great covenant made with David, for the destined glory of his family, is an indisputable evidence that the subject held up in this sublime picture is no other than the Divine Messiah. It thus bears the marks of a grand and definite prediction, suiting the character and circumstances of the dying prophet, who "KNEW that God had sworn to him with an oath, "of the fruit of his body to place upon his throne” a GREAT SUCCESSOR, whose throne should be established for ever. This future Personage is here described, in accordance with the other prophetic scriptures and the language of the New Testament, as a gracious and beneficent Sovereign, the Holy and Just One,' the Hope and the Salvation of the saints, the persecuted and crucified man, the Sun of righteousness,* yea, JEHOVAH himself, whose faithful people are supremely blessed, but his persecutors and enemies are devoted 3 2 See Acts ii. 30. vii. 52. xxii. 14. James v. 6. 3 Haggai ii. 7. Is. xlix. 6. Mal. iii. 20. to an awful destruction, literally fulfilled in the final catastrophe of Jerusalem and Judæa. 5 "This chapter opens with a noble ode of David, (v. 1—7,) in which he celebrates the grace of God, which had conferred upon him the Spirit of prophecy, and had given to him this important prediction of the future Mighty Sovereign of the kingdom of God.David's greatest glory consisted, not in his being a king, but in that he was a king peculiarly chosen by the Most High, the Creator of the world, and placed over his own people. To this office God himself had anointed him by Samuel, and had endowed him with especial gifts by his own Spirit. Among those gifts was that prophetic inspiration, by which David was at times transported into the ecstasy of an especial divine foresight and operation. Jesus himself attests this, when he says, (Matt. xxii. 43,) "David, in the Spirit, called him Lord;" that is, by prophetic inspiration. Under this inspiration, he now speaks of the promise which had been before made to him, of the future kingdom of the Messiah.- -v. 3. This promised One is the Great King, who is also in this passage equally described as a Prophet and Teacher of religion, a King of the truth, who should found and establish his kingdom upon earth, not by carnal weapons, but by the arms of the Spirit, his doctrine and his miracles. This is the great work which Jesus accomplished, as he said (John xvii. 4-6.)— -A kingdom of true worshippers of God and virtuous friends of mankind, a kingdom of love and peace, hath our glorious Sovereign established. Now David goes on to say, how this glorious kingdom will gradually, like the sun, send forth its beams in all directions, and spread light and joy through the world, v. 4. -What a grand picture of the rising Sun of truth! Christ is the Light of the world; it is he who is come to all nations, to give light upon earth. Under this bright sunshine, the beauteous blossoms and fruits of the knowledge of truth and holiness burst forth in many lands. Great was the multitude of believers, as the young grass in the meadows, as the dew on the herbs of the field: their sentiments and feelings were so pure, their love to God, their delight in obedience, so upright, that they were justly considered as young plants in the garden of God, giving a new grace and beauty to human nature.- -v. 5.-David did indeed rejoice that God had promised to maintain his earthly posterity upon his royal throne at Jerusalem; but far greater was his joy, that the Lord had made with him an everlasting covenant, had given him the promise of an everlasting kingdom.v. 6, 7.-Without doubt, David alludes chiefly to those enemies of the kingdom of God, the triumph over whom is described in Psalm ii, and cx., all who set themselves against the truth, worthless men and evil-doers, compared to thorns and thistles which cause to others nothing but pain and distress: --i. e. the opposers of the kingdom of God are enemies to mankind; they strive to ruin the souls of those who associate with them; whoever would be happy must avoid and flee from them; and God will, by degrees, root them out of the earth. So was it with the enemies of Jesus Christ. The Jews were first vanquished by the apostles through the truth, and then were conquered by the Romans with worldly arms, and extirpated from the land of Canaan. The triumphs of Christ over the heathen nations are still advancing. One after another, either they are won by the truth, or they will be blotted out from the earth. The time is coming in which the song of praise shall sound through the whole earth, " The Lord is King; "let the world rejoice! The heavens declare his righteousness, and "all the people see his glory. Ashamed must be all those who serve graven images, who boast themselves in idols. The kingdom " and the power and the might belong unto God and our Christ!"Seiler's Gr. Erbauungsb. vol. iii. pp. 335-338. 66 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE TO SECT. VIII. Note [A], page 262. All who have studied this beautiful fragment of inspired poetry, must confess that it presents great difficulties to the effort of one who desires to perform the task of an exact and impartial interpreter. J. D. Michaelis, a scholar of the first order in oriental and biblical subjects, and a critic not apt to be discouraged by obstacles, says concerning it, "This ode has very many difficulties which, for the most part, arise from the circumstance that, in the latter chapters of the Second Book of Samuel, the manuscripts have come down to us more disfigured by mistakes than in any other part of the Old Testament and those mistakes are of a date earlier than any of the ancient versions, which frequently in other cases supply us with the means of discovering and correcting errors of transcription in the Hebrew text. It is a great loss to us that, of such an important ode, we have only this single edition, and that there is not a correspondent copy in the Psalms or in the Books of Chronicles." Anmerkung. The observations also of the judicious Dathe deserve to be introduced, as well for the principle which they maintain as for their reference to the passage before us. "Some perhaps will wonder that, in my translation of this portion I have closely adhered to the existing text, and have not adopted the conjectural emendations of some recent critics, by which they have laboured to remove those difficulties. I do not deny that the structure of the words is rendered more easy by these proposed alterations; but I acknowledge that, in passages like this, which, however difficult, do yet admit of a grammatical explication, I prefer being satisfied with that explication, rather than indulge in alterations by conjecture, ingenious as they may appear. With regard to the classical authors, the most skilful in the art of criticism always condemn that ill-employed restlessness of alteration, when something harsh and unusual occurs in a passage. Much more do I judge that we should abstain from any such attempt in this portion of Scripture, which may have derived whatever difficulties of construction it has, from the author himself, who undoubtedly wrote it in an advanced age, a time of life when it is usual for persons to express themselves in a more concise and abrupt manner."—Vers. Vet. Test. vol. i. p. 397. to. In the translation presented above, this caution has been attended The three alterations of the reading which are introduced, have all external evidence as well as internal probability to support them; and the third consists only in the division of two words, without the alteration of a letter. V. 1. "Later." perhaps in reference to the Psalm immediately preceding, chap. xxii. for though this was most probably the last inspired hymn that David wrote, we can scarcely attribute it to his extreme and decrepid age, described in 1 Kings i. The serious reader may observe an illustrative and edifying parallelism of sentiment and expression, in several parts of the lxxiid Psalm; and this adds probability to the supposition that the epigraph to that Psalm expresses an historical truth, designating it as among the last of the public "prayers of David, the son of Jesse ;" and consequently coincident in time and occasion with these "later words." See Ps. lxxii. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7. "Hero;" the proper meaning of 7. V. 4. "JEHOVAH." This very important addition is made upon |