manded an affault; ftrictly injoining all those that reached the fummit of the tower, to throw the lame and the blind into the ditch; and proclaiming at the fame time, that whosoever should first gain that advantage, and should fmite the Jebufites, and the lame and the blind, fhould be made captain general of his army. This prize had its defired effect; a general emulation was infpired; the city was quickly taken; and Joab had the felicity to be foremost, and was accordingly declared chief.

COMMENTATORS are mightily at a lofs to know what can be meant by the lame and the blind, in the text; nor are their doubts ill-grounded; this text being incumbered with more difficulties than are ordinarily to be met with. Some understand the lame and the blind in the ordinary sense of the words; as if the Jebufites, confiding in the ftrength of their fortrefs, fhould infinuate, that the weakest of their people, the very lame and blind, were able to defend it against David. But then it is urged on the other hand, that thefe lame and blind are faid to be hated of David's foul: and could a man of David's humanity deteft men for mere unblame

unblameable infirmities? Then again it is faid, Whofoever fmiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind Now this connecting particle seems to speak the Jebusites as different from the lame and the blind, as the lame and the blind from one another. Thefe difficulties have given rife to another opinion; that these lame and blind were the idols of the Jebusites; the ftatues of those heathen divinities, of which David hath faid in derifion, eyes have they, and fee notfeet have they, and walk not: and therefore the Jebufites thus taunted David in return for his reproaches on their religion; confiding that these their divinities, however reviled by him, were yet able to protect them againft him.

Now this conftruction thoroughly accounts for David's deteftation of thefe lame and blind, feeing he abhorred idolatry and accounts alfo for the phraseology of the text, in which they seem to be confidered as beings different from the Jebusites.

THE fuperftition also of a heathen nation, not very remote from the Jebusites, seems to concur in confirming this interpretation. For why might not the Jebusites place as F 3

much

much confidence in the ftatues of their GODS depofited in their citadel, as the Trojans did in the statue of Pallas deposited in theirs? And they, we know, perfuaded themfelves, that their city could not be taken, until that ftatue was removed.

BUT there is one difficulty ftill remaining, which is this; if we follow the reading in the margin of the bible, (which I take to be the true construction of the original text) then the reason why David commands the lame and the blind to be fmitten, was, because they had faid that David should not have admiffion into the place; now what lame and blind could fay this, but men fo mutilated?

To this I answer, that in my humble opinion, these expreffions of lame and blind, when applied to the Jebufites, are to be figuratively understood, and not according to the letter; when David reviles the heathen idols, as being lame and blind, &c. he adds, And they that make them are like unto them, and fo are all they that put their trust in them. It is plain then, that David conficered these Jebufites in their idolatry to be as ftupid and senseless as the idols they adored.

And

And therefore, the reproaches of lame and blind were equally applied by David to both *

Now, if this be the true explication of the paffage before us, as fome of the ableft critics and commentators warrant me to believe, then, I think, we can have no more room to doubt that the cxvth pfalm was an epinicion, or triumphal fong for this victory; it being plainly a hymn of humiliation and thanksgiving to GOD, for a victory gained over a heathen people, who put their confidence in their idols, and despised the GoD of David+.

AND however this hymn be adapted to the people of the Jews, by many peculiarities; yet it is remarkable, that it hath always been used as a hymn of thanksgiving for victories, by all princes of true piety, from the earliest

*Tho' after all, poffibly there might have been some pretended oracle published among the people, as delivered by fome of these idols, that they would protect the citadel against David.

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give the glory---Wherefore should the heathen fay, Where is now their God?--But our God is in heaven. --Their idols are filver and gold, the work of mens hands---They have mouths, and Speak not; eyes have they, and fee not, &c. They that make them are like unto them; and fo are all they that put their trust in them.

christian ages, and, very probably, from the age of David.

CHAP. VII.

DAVID inlarges Jerufalem. His Alliance with Hiram. He builds a Palace, and marries more Wives.

DAVI

AVID now poffeffed of the ftrong fort of Sion, fixed his refidence there, made it his capital, and called it after his own name, The city of David: and, in order to make it worthy of its name, he fet himfelf, with all diligence, to build, to adorn, and to fottify it: and David built round about (fays the text) from Millo and inward. This Millo is supposed to be a valley betwixt the two mountains on which Jerufalem was built, Sion to the north, and Acra to the fouth. The Hebrew word fignifies filled up, and this valley was filled up, partly by David, and partly by Solomon. The meaning of the text then seems to be, that he fetched his compafs from Millo, or, as the Seventy have it, from Acra; filled all that space with a