Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/143

Rh it the city of David. And he built the city round about, from Millo even round about: and Joab repaired the rest of the city. And David waxed greater and greater; for the of hosts was with him.

8. from Millo even round about] Lit. "the Millo," meaning perhaps "The filling up," was some part of the defences of the "city of David," either a solid tower or perhaps an armoury, or a piece of supplementary work intended to strengthen an existing wall (LXX. 2 Chron. xxxii. 5,, "support"). See Smith, op. cit. II. 40 f.

Joab] This tradition about Joab is not mentioned in Sam.

repaired the rest of the city] lit. revived, cp. Neh. iv. 2 (= Heb. iii. 34). Pesh. translates: "Joab gave his right hand to the rest of the men who were in the city"; and it has been proposed to render the clause spared or kept alive the rest of the city (i.e. the remaining people, the Benjamites who dwelt there with the Jebusites [Judg. i. 21]). The rendering repaired is to be preferred.

10—41 a (cp. 2 Sam. xxiii. 8—39).&emsp;

This section seems to consist of elements drawn from different sources and brought together (probably by the author of Sam.) in order to give as complete a list as possible of the heroes who at different times in David's career did good service to Israel.

The names of twelve of these heroes reappear in chap. xxvii. as the commanders of David's twelve "courses."

Vv. 11—14 (= 2 Sam. xxiii. 8—12) deal with two (in Sam. three) heroes otherwise unknown.

Vv. 15—19 (= ibid. 13—17) are independent of the foregoing and narrate an exploit of three unnamed heroes.

Vv. 20—25 (= ibid. 18—23) seem in turn to be independent of 15—19, and vv. 21, 25 in particular seem to be quoted from some lost poem. These verses contain the eulogy of Abishai and Benaiah.

Vv. 26—41 a (= ibid. 24—39) contain thirty names of heroes whose exploits are not recorded. It is to be noted that Chron., vv. 41 b—47, adds some sixteen names at the end which are not given in Sam.

Joab is not included in the formal list because he has been already mentioned (ver. 6).

Lists of names are favourite features in oriental Histories. Thus Ibn Hishām in his Life of Mohammed gives a list of the 83 Moslems who took refuge in Abyssinia from the persecution of the Koreish, of the 75 inhabitants of Medina who swore allegiance to the Prophet before the Hegira, and even of the 314 Moslems who were present at the battle of Bedr.