Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/154

90 and answered and said unto them, If ye be come peaceably unto me to help me, mine heart shall be knit unto you: but if ye be come to betray me to mine adversaries, seeing there is no wrong in mine hands, the God of our fathers look thereon, and rebuke it. Then the spirit came upon Amasai, who was chief of the thirty, and he said, Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse: peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers; for thy God helpeth thee. Then David received them, and made them captains of the band. Of Manasseh also there fell away some to David, when he came with the Philistines against Saul to

surprised he took up a favourable position in advance from which he could hold parley with them. The south of Judah with its ravines and cliffs affords many such positions.

the God of our fathers, etc.] Cp. the equally fine assertion of integrity of conduct and of faith in God made by David in 1 Sam. xxiv. 11 ff. If it be felt that in the later idealisation, which must be recognised, we lose our knowledge of the real David, it should be remembered that this very idealisation is in itself proof of the greatness of David in mind and soul. The strong but simple faith and the magnanimous bearing of David, which such a passage as the present portrays, are no doubt true to fact, for they provide precisely that historical basis without which the reverent and loving idealisation of later generations had never come into existence.

18. the spirit came upon A.] Lit. a spirit (i.e. from God) clothed itself with (i.e. entered into) Amasai. Cp. 2 Chr. xxiv. 20; Judg. vi. 34.

Amasai] Probably to be identified with "Amasa" (2 Sam. xvii. 25, xix. 13).

chief of the thirty] Thus the Kethīb; the A. V., following the Ḳerī, has "chief of the captains"; so also xi. 11, where see note.

Thine are we, David, and on thy side] Lit. "For thee, David, and with thee." This response "Thine are we helpeth thee" is a fine fragment of Hebrew poetry, having an early simplicity of style, which it is peculiarly interesting to find in so late a book as Chronicles. It is assuredly not the composition of the Chronicler, but must be derived from some independent source, and is perhaps a really old traditional saying about David. See the Introd. § 5, p. xxxv.

for thy God helpeth thee] David's frequent escapes from Saul were felt to be due to Divine protection.

19—22.&emsp;

19. when he came with the Philistines] See 1 Sam, xxviii. 1, 2, xxix. 1—11.