[500]. 1 Kings xi. 21.
[501]. This was Ithra who ‘went in’ to Abigail, the daughter of Nahash, the sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother (2 Sam. xvii. 25). The form of expression may imply that Abigail was seduced. If so, the hostility of Joab would be easily accounted for.
[502]. It is probable that ‘Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon’ (2 Sam. xvii. 27) was a brother of the last king of Ammon, and it is even possible that he may have been the cause of the Ammonite war. If he had been a rival of his brother Khanun, and had received shelter and protection from David, we should have an explanation of the otherwise gratuitous insult offered by Khanun to the ambassadors of the Israelitish king.
[503]. That the forest was on the eastern bank of the Jordan is plain from Josh. xvii. 15-18 and 2 Sam. xix. 31.
[504]. It is called Abel-Maim, ‘Abel of the Waters,’ in 2 Chron. xvi. 4, compared with 1 Kings xv. 20. In 2 Sam. xx. 14, we should perhaps read, ‘And all the young warriors’ (bakhûrîm for bêrîm) ‘were gathered together,’ as the Septuagint has ‘all in Kharri,’ and the Vulgate ‘viri electi.’
[505]. 2 Sam. xxiv. 6, according to Lucian’s recension of the Greek translation (‘Khettieim Kadês’). See Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quæ supersunt, i. p. 587.
[506]. 2 Sam. xix. 29. Ziba, the steward of Mephibosheth, who was lame, had accused his master of aiming at the kingdom, and David had accordingly given him all Mephibosheth’s property. David not only had believed the accusation, but in spite of Mephibosheth’s protests and excuses, must have continued to do so, since Ziba, so far from being punished, was allowed to retain half his master’s possessions. The Jewish historian evidently takes a different view from that of David, and regards the accusation as false. Mephibosheth is more correctly written Merib-Baal in 1 Chron. viii. 34; ix. 40.
[507]. ‘Adriel, the son of Barzillai the Meholathite’ (2 Sam. xxi. 8), cannot be the same as Phaltiel or ‘Phalti the son of Laish of Gallim’ (1 Sam. xxv. 44), to whom Saul had given Michal after David’s flight, and from whom David afterwards took her (2 Sam. iii. 16). As Michal never seems to have subsequently left the harîm of David (2 Sam. vi. 23), it would appear that the name of Michal in 2 Sam. xxi. 8 must be a mistake for that of some other daughter of Saul.
[508]. See 2 Sam. xxiv. 23, where the Septuagint has ‘Orna(n) the king.’ The various spellings of the name Araunah, Araniah (2 Sam. xxiv. 18), and Ornan (1 Chron. xxi. 15) show that it was a foreign word, the pronunciation of which was not clear to the Israelites. Araniah is an assimilation to a Hebrew name.
[509]. 2 Sam. xxiv. 6.