2 Samuelchapter 12
31 verses · BSB2 Samuel book hub →
Key verse
The rich man had a great number of sheep and cattle,
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 14.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Nathan comes with a lawsuit disguised as a story: a rich man with many flocks who took the poor man's one ewe lamb, that lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. David's anger is kindled and he passes sentence, and Nathan turns it: 'Thou art the man.' The judgment stands: the sword shall never depart from thy house. David's confession is four words, 'I have sinned against Jehovah,' and the pardon is immediate (Jehovah also hath put away thy sin) but the child dies. Psalm 51 belongs to this hour. 'I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.' Then Solomon is born, and Jehovah names him Jedidiah.
Context
History · Nathan, Gad · 2 Samuel overview
Where the chapter sits
2 Samuel 12 falls in The Fall: Bathsheba and Uriah (chapters 11–12). ‘And it came to pass … that David sent Joab.’ The rooftop, the adultery, the murder, Nathan's ‘thou art the man,’ the child's death, Solomon's birth.
Nathan's rebuke. The parable of the ewe lamb; ‘thou art the man.’
Before it: Rise: David over all Israel, chapters 1–10. After it: Consequences: Amnon, Absalom, Sheba, the census, chapters 13–24.
The whole shape of 2 Samuel→The world behind this chapter
2 Samuel 12The history
Nathan's story is a legal complaint, not a fable. A prophet coming to court with a case of one man wronging another puts the king in his role as supreme judge, and David rules on it out loud before he knows he is the defendant. The sentence he pronounces, fourfold restitution, is the exact penalty the Law sets for a stolen and slaughtered sheep.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The picture in the story is realistic. A poor family's single lamb really did live in the house, share the family's food, and grow up as a pet, because a single animal could not be left in an open field and there was nowhere else to keep it.
David's mourning is done backwards on purpose. Normally you fasted and wore rough clothes after a death; he fasts and lies on the ground while the child is still alive, then washes, changes, worships, and eats when the child dies. His explanation is that prayer had a purpose while there was still something to ask for.
Rabbah falls at the end. The crown taken there weighed a talent of gold, around seventy-five pounds, far too heavy to wear for long, which is why some read the Hebrew as the crown of Milcom, the Ammonite god, lifted off a statue. The captured population is put to work with saws, iron picks, and axes; the older reading that they were tortured with these tools has largely given way to the plainer one, that they were conscripted into labor gangs, which is what victorious kings in that world normally did with a beaten city.
What it meant to them
The line the first hearers would never forget is the one that turns the sword back on the house that used it. Forgiveness came the moment David said 'I have sinned', and the consequences ran through his family for the rest of the book anyway.
The next child born to that marriage is Solomon, and the prophet brings a second name for him: Jedidiah, loved by the LORD. Mercy and consequence are running in the same chapter, and the hearers were meant to hold both.
Sources cited
- Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
A. Thou art the man: the parable of the ewe lamb
1. (vv. 1-3)
a.Nathan comes to David as a judge is asked to judge, laying out a case rather than an accusation, and David never suspects that he sits as the accused. The poor man's one ewe lamb, fed from his own dish and carried in his bosom like a daughter, gives the rich man's crime its full weight before David hears a single name. Matthew Henry notes that Nathan does not shrink from a king's rank any more than Uriah's low rank shielded him from the king's hand. The parable's method, drawing a right verdict from the very mouth that will be condemned by it, sets the pattern for the chapter that follows.
2 Samuel 12:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
2 Samuel 12:1-6
“But sometimes, when the powerful of this world are taken to task, they are first to be searched by certain similitudes, as on a matter not concerning them; and, when they have pronounced a right sentence as against another man, then in fitting ways they are to be smitten with regard to their own guilt; so that the mind puffed up with temporal power may in no wise lift itself up against the reprover, having by its own judgment trodden on the neck of pride, and may not try to defend itself, being bound by the sentence of its own mouth.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 2patristic
2 Samuel 12:1
“Nathan came to David as if to ask his judicial decision on the case about to be submitted to him (compare 2Sa 14:2-11; 1Ki 20:35-41). The circumstances of the story are exquisitely contrived to heighten the pity of David for the oppressed, and his indignation against the oppressor 1Sa 25:13, 1Sa 25:22.”
2 Samuel 12:2, 1 voice
2 Samuel 12:2
“The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds. In which the wealth of men lay in those times and countries; these in the parable signify David's wives and concubines, which were many; he had six wives in Hebron, and he took more wives and concubines out of Jerusalem, when he was come from Hebron, 2Sa 3:2; and besides his master's, or Saul's wives, given to him, 2Sa 12:8.”
2 Samuel 12:3, 2 voices
2 Samuel 12:3
“But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb,.... Uriah had but one wife, who was much younger than he, called a lamb, an ewe lamb, a little one.”
2 Samuel 12:3
“And lay in his bosom - This can only mean that this lamb was what we call a pet or favourite in the family, else the circumstance would be very unnatural, and most likely would have prevented David from making the application which he did, as otherwise it would have appeared absurd. It is the only part of this parable which is at variance with nature and fact.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 4-6)
a.A traveller arrives and the rich man spares his own flock to take the poor man's lamb instead, and David's anger is kindled before he sees that the story is his own. His sentence names both the Law's fourfold restitution for a stolen sheep, Exodus 22:1, and his own fitting portion of it, for he will lose four sons to the sword he has just called down on another man. The older writers count that fourfold word against David himself, the child of Bathsheba, then Amnon, Absalom and Adonijah, though the count is their reading of the text and not the text's own arithmetic. Adam Clarke reads David's own mouth as passing his own sentence, the Hebrew calling the man a son of death before the Lord God of Israel need say a word more.
2 Samuel 12:5, 2 voices
2 Samuel 12:5
“The man - shall surely die - Literally בן מות ben maveth, “he is a son of death,” a very bad man, and one who deserves to die. But the law did not sentence a sheep-stealer to death; let us hear it: If a man steal an ox or a sheep, he shall restore Five Oxen for an ox, and Four Sheep for a sheep, Exo 22:1; and hence David immediately says, He shall restore the lamb Fourfold.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:5
“The sympathies of the king had been deeply enlisted, his indignation aroused, but his conscience was still asleep; and at the time when he was most fatally indulgent to his own sins, he was most ready to condemn the delinquencies and errors of others. HE APPLIES IT TO DAVID, WHO CONFESSES HIS SIN, AND IS PARDONED.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Samuel 12:6, 1 voice
2 Samuel 12:6
“Fourfold - The exact number prescribed by the Law (see the marginal references), and acted upon by Zaccheus. The Septuagint has “sevenfold,” as in Pro 6:31.”
3. (vv. 7-9)
a.Thou art the man is Nathan's whole reply, and the phrase occurs nowhere else in Scripture, the parable's judge becoming the accused in three words. Nathan recites what the Lord had given David, the kingdom, the house of Israel and Judah, and more besides for the asking, before naming what David took that was never his to take. The charge is put in the sharpest terms the text allows, thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and hast taken his wife, with the Ammonite blade named only as the instrument David chose. Jamieson Fausset and Brown read the rebuke as necessary precisely because David's public standing made a private sin into a public wound on the name of the Lord.
2 Samuel 12:7, 1 voice
2 Samuel 12:7
“He was pardoned, so far as related to the restoration of the divine favor. But as from his high character for piety, and his eminent rank in society, his deplorable fall was calculated to do great injury to the cause of religion, it was necessary that God should testify His abhorrence of sin by leaving even His own servant to reap the bitter temporal fruits.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Samuel 12:8, 1 voice
2 Samuel 12:8
“Thy master’s wives into thy bosom - Perhaps this means no more than that he had given him absolute power over every thing possessed by Saul; and as it was the custom for the new king to succeed even to the wives and concubines, the whole harem of the deceased king, so it was in this case; and the possession of the wives was a sure proof that he had got all regal rights. But could David, as the son-in-law of Saul, take the wives of his father-in-law?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:9, 2 voices
2 Samuel 12:9
“Thou hast killed Uriah - Thou art the Murderer, as having planned his death; the sword of the Ammonites was Thy instrument only.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:9
“In all this he despised the word of the Lord (so it is in the Hebrew), not only his commandment in general which forbade such things, but the particular word of promise which God had, by Nathan, sent to him some time before, that he would build him a house. If he had had a due value and veneration for this sacred promise, he would not thus have polluted his house with lust and blood.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
4. (vv. 10-12)
a.The sword shall never depart from thine house sets a sentence that the next twelve chapters simply narrate rather than repeat, Amnon dying by his brother's hand, Absalom dying in rebellion, Adonijah dying under Solomon. Verse eleven names the shape it will take, evil raised up out of David's own house and his wives given to his neighbour in the sight of the sun, and 16:22 answers it exactly, Absalom with his father's concubines on the same roof where the whole affair of chapter eleven began. John Gill reads the doubled charge of verse ten, thou hast despised me and hast taken the wife of Uriah, as marking how heinous the offence stood even after the sentence was passed. The public reversal promised in verse twelve, before all Israel and before the sun, is the measure the private sin is held to.
2 Samuel 12:10, 2 voices
2 Samuel 12:10
“Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house,.... During his life, and as appeared in the slaughter of his sons Ammon and Absalom before his death, and of Adonijah quickly after, and in his posterity through their wars with the children of Israel, and other nations: because thou hast despised me; his commandments, and that in effect was despising him the lawgiver: and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife; which being repeated shows that it was very displeasing to God, and a very heinous crime in his sight.”
2 Samuel 12:10
“Can the mercy and the sword consist with each other? Yes, those may lie under great and long afflictions who yet shall not be excluded from the grace of the covenant. The reason given is, Because thou hast despised me.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 12:11, 2 voices
2 Samuel 12:11
“See the marginal references. In both the points of David’s crime the retribution was according to his sin. His adultery was punished by Absalom’s outrage, his murder by the bloodshed of domestic fights, which cost the lives of at least three of his favorite sons, Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah.”
2 Samuel 12:11-12
“As face answers to face in a glass, so does the punishment often answer to the sin; here is blood for blood and uncleanness for uncleanness. And thus God would show how much he hates sin, even in his own people, and that, wherever he find it, he will not let it go unpunished.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
5. (v. 13)
a.David's confession is five words in the Hebrew and Nathan's answer is immediate, the Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Psalm 51 sets itself in this chapter by its own title, though this database stores the Psalms without their Hebrew titles and the link cannot be shown from the floor by query, and the bench reads Psalm 32 beside it as the same confession in a different key. Matthew Henry notes that David's own line in the psalm, against thee, thee only, have I sinned, takes up the very charge Nathan has just laid, that the sin was first and finally against the Lord. Albert Barnes reads thou shalt not die as the death of the soul turned aside, not an exemption from every consequence that follows.
2 Samuel 12:13, 3 voices
2 Samuel 12:13-14
Are you ashamed, sir, to do as David did—David, the king and the prophet, the ancestor of Christ according to the flesh? He was told of the rich man who had a great number of flocks and yet, when a guest arrived, took the poor man's one ewe lamb and killed it; and when he recognized that he was himself condemned by the story, he said, "I have sinned against the Lord." Therefore do not take it ill, sir, if what was said to King David is said to you, "You are the man."
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· LETTER 51.7patristic
2 Samuel 12:13
“For a comment on David’s words, read Ps. 51; Psa 32:1-11. Thou shalt not die - Not spoken of the punishment of death as affixed to adultery by the Mosaic Law: the application of that law Lev 20:10; Deu 22:22; Joh 8:5 to an absolute Eastern monarch was out of the question. The death of the soul is meant (compare Eze 18:4, Eze 18:13, Eze 18:18).”
2 Samuel 12:13
“It is probable that he said more to this purport; but this is enough to show that he was truly humbled by what Nathan said, and submitted to the conviction. He owns his guilt-- I have sinned, and aggravates it--It was against the Lord: on this string he harps in the psalm he penned on this occasion. 1 , Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
6. (v. 14)
a.The ground given for the child's death is not the adultery or the murder alone but the occasion David's deed gave the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, a public reproach on the name he was anointed to serve. Nathan had already pronounced pardon in the verse before, and this verse pronounces a consequence that the pardon does not erase. Matthew Henry reads the two verses together as proof that forgiveness and temporal chastening are not the same mercy, and that God may put away the guilt of sin while still letting its wages fall. The child's coming sickness, three verses ahead, is this sentence taking its course.
B. Seven days on the earth, and a father who rises and eats
1. (vv. 15-17)
a.the LORD struck the child: in the next clause after Nathan departs, and the sickness that follows is the sentence of verse fourteen already at work. David fasts, lies all night on the earth, and refuses to be raised up by the elders of his own house, a mourning so total that his own household cannot reach him. John Wesley reads the intensity as proof the king was not grieving a possible loss so much as carrying the weight of his own sin before the God who had just named it. The scene stands beside the parable's ewe lamb that lay in the poor man's bosom, another life bound up in a father's love and now under sentence.
2 Samuel 12:15, 1 voice
2 Samuel 12:15
“The diseases and death of infants that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, especially as they are sometimes sadly circumstanced, are sensible proofs of the original sin in which they are conceived.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 12:16, 2 voices
2 Samuel 12:16
“David - besought God for the child - How could he do so, after the solemn assurance that he had from God that the child should die? The justice of God absolutely required that the penalty of the law should be exacted; either the father or the son shall die. This could not be reversed.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:16-17
“Nathan had told him that certainly the child should die; yet, while it is in the reach of prayer, he earnestly intercedes with God for it, chiefly (as we may suppose) that its soul might be safe and happy in another world, and that his sin might not come against the child, and that it might not fare the worse for that in the future state.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 12:17, 1 voice
2 Samuel 12:17
“Elders - The chief officers of his kingdom and household. He would not - This excessive mourning did not proceed simply from the fear of the loss of the child; but from a deep sense of his sin, and the divine displeasure manifested herein.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2. (vv. 18-19)
a.The servants fear to tell David the child has died, reasoning that a man who would not be comforted while there was hope will do himself harm once hope is gone. David reads the answer in their whispering before anyone speaks it, and his question is as plain as Nathan's sentence had been, is the child dead. Matthew Henry notes the household's fear says as much about the seven days just past as anything recorded, for they had watched a king brought lower than any subject by grief for a son not yet named. The answer, he is dead, closes the sentence of verse fourteen exactly as it was spoken.
3. (vv. 20-23)
a.David rises, washes, changes his apparel and goes first to the house of the Lord to worship before he eats, reversing every sign of mourning the household had just watched him carry for seven days. His servants ask the plain question, and his answer turns on one line, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me, spoken while fasting could still move God and set aside once it no longer could. Adam Clarke reads the line as at least the shape of a hope beyond this life, whether or not David meant to state the doctrine outright, and John Wesley reads it as David's own confidence that he would find his son in the state where the dead are kept. The worship before the meal is itself an answer to the household's confusion, for David has already made his case to God and now receives whatever God gives.
2 Samuel 12:20, 3 voices
2 Samuel 12:20-23
Thus David wept for his son who was about to die; he did not grieve for him when dead. He wept that he might not be snatched from him, but he ceased to weep when he was snatched away, for he knew that he was with Christ. And that you may know what I declare is true, he wept for his incestuous son Amnon when he was killed, and he mourned for the parricide Absalom when he perished, saying, "My son Absalom, my son Absalom!"
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· CONSOLATION ON THE DEATH OF EMPEROR VALENTINIAN 47.48patristic
2 Samuel 12:20
“David arose from the earth, and washed - Bathing, anointing the body, and changing the apparel, are the first outward signs among the Hindoos of coming out of a state of mourning or sickness.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:20
“And came - That is, to the tabernacle, to confess his sin before the Lord, to own his justice in this stroke, to deprecate his just displeasure, to acknowledge God's rich mercy, in sparing his own life; and to offer such sacrifices as were required in such cases.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:22, 1 voice
2 Samuel 12:22
“Who can tell - David, and indeed all others under the Mosaic dispensation, were so satisfied that all God’s threatenings and promises were conditional, that even in the most positive assertions relative to judgments, etc., they sought for a change of purpose. And notwithstanding the positive declaration of Nathan, relative to the death of the child, David sought for its life, not knowing but that might depend on some unexpressed condition, such as earnest prayer, fasting, humiliation, etc., and in these he continued while there was hope.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:23, 3 voices
2 Samuel 12:23
“I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me - It is not clear whether David by this expressed his faith in the immortality of the soul; going to him may only mean, I also shall die, and be gathered to my fathers, as he is. But whether David expressed this or not, we know that the thing is true; and it is one of the most solid grounds of consolation to surviving friends that they shall by and by be joined to them in a state of conscious existence.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:23
“I fast - Seeing fasting and prayer cannot now prevail with God for his life. I shall go to him - Into the state of the dead in which he is, and into heaven, where I doubt not I shall find him.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:23
“We shall be with them shortly, to part no more. Though David's marrying Bath-sheba had displeased the Lord, yet he was not therefore commanded to divorce her; so far from this that God gave him that son by her on whom the covenant of royalty should be entailed. Bath-sheba, no doubt, was greatly afflicted with the sense of her sin and the tokens of God's displeasure.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
C. Solomon born, and named Jedidiah
1. (vv. 24-25)
a.Bathsheba bears a son named Solomon, peaceable, and the Lord loved him, the grace side of the chapter standing beside its judgment. Nathan, the same prophet who had just pronounced the sentence, is sent to give the child a second name, Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord, which Adam Clarke calls the first instance in Scripture of a prophet naming another man's child. The two names carried by one boy hold both halves of the chapter, the household's peace after its sword and the love of God reaching the very union that began in sin. Jamieson Fausset and Brown read the Lord's love for Solomon as a mark of grace measured against the marriage's own beginning, not a verdict that erased it.
2 Samuel 12:24, 3 voices
2 Samuel 12:24
“And David comforted Bathsheba his wife,.... Which is the first time she is so called, Uriah being dead, and David having married her; which though at first displeasing to the Lord, because the circumstances attending it, was afterwards confirmed by him. Bathsheba no doubt was very much distressed, and greatly disconsolate, on account of the sin she had committed, and because of the wrath and displeasure of God, and because of the death of the child, which was a token of it; and she might have some scruples in her mind whether it was lawful to continue cohabiting with David.”
2 Samuel 12:24
“David comforted Bath-sheba - His extraordinary attachment to this beautiful woman was the cause of all his misfortunes. He called his name Solomon - This name seems to have been given prophetically, for שלמה sholomah signifies peaceable, and there was almost uninterrupted peace during his reign.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:24
“They called him Solomon--peaceful, because his birth was a token of God's being at peace with them, because of the prosperity which was entailed upon him, and because he was to be a type of Christ, the prince of peace.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 12:25, 2 voices
2 Samuel 12:25
“Called - Jedidiah - ידידיה, literally, the beloved of the Lord. This is the first instance I remember of a minister of God being employed to give a name to the child of one of his servants. But it is strange that the name given by the father was that alone which prevailed.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:25
“Bath-sheba . . . bare a son, and he called his name Solomon--that is, "peaceable." But Nathan gave him the name of Jedediah, by command of God, or perhaps only as an expression of God's love. This love and the noble gifts with which he was endowed, considering the criminality of the marriage from which he sprang, is a remarkable instance of divine goodness and grace.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
D. Rabbah falls, and its crown is set on David's head
1. (vv. 26-28)
a.While the household drama of the chapter's first half plays out, the siege of Rabbah has been running in the background since chapter eleven opened with kings going out to battle and David staying home. Joab takes the city of waters, the lower town built on its stream, and sends word to David rather than finishing the conquest himself. John Wesley and Matthew Henry both read Joab's restraint as deference to his king's honour, calling David to the field so that the victory is counted to his name and not to his general's. The request also quietly restores David to the field he had avoided at the start of chapter eleven, the very absence that opened the door to Bathsheba.
2 Samuel 12:26, 2 voices
2 Samuel 12:26
“And took the royal city - How can this be, when Joab sent to David to come to take the city, in consequence of which David did come and take that city? The explanation seems to be this: Rabbah was composed of a city and citadel; the former, in which was the king’s residence, Joab had taken, and supposed he could soon render himself master of the latter, and therefore sends to David to come and take it, lest, he taking the whole, the city should be called after his name.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:26
“Joab fought against Rabbah--The time during which this siege lasted, since the intercourse with Bath-sheba, and the birth of at least one child, if not two, occurred during the progress of it, probably extended over two years.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Samuel 12:27, 1 voice
2 Samuel 12:27
“The city of waters - The lower town of Rabbah (the modern Ammam), so called from a stream which rises within it and flows through it. The upper town with the citadel lay on a hill to the north of the stream, and was probably not tenable for any length of time after the supply of water was cut off.”
2. (vv. 29-31)
a.David gathers the people, comes to Rabbah, and finishes what Joab began, taking the Ammonite king's crown, a talent of gold set with precious stones, onto his own head. Matthew Henry notes the irony of a man under such recent conviction reaching for a crown's glory rather than laying it at God's feet, a small echo of the same appetite chapter eleven exposed. The chapter's last verse records David putting the Ammonites to hard labour with saws and axes and the brickkiln, and John Wesley reads the harshness as the mark of a heart not yet fully returned to its former mercy. The chapter that opened with a shepherd's ewe lamb closes with a king's captured crown, the household sentence of verse ten still running its course through the chapters ahead.
2 Samuel 12:30, 3 voices
2 Samuel 12:30
“The weight whereof was a talent of gold - If this talent was only seven pounds, as Whiston says, David might have carried it on his head with little difficulty; but this weight, according to common computation, would amount to more than one hundred pounds! If, however, משקלה mishkalah be taken for the value, not the weight then all is plain as the worth of the crown will be about £5075 15s. 7d. sterling.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:30
“Its great weight makes it probable that it was like many ancient crowns, not worn, but suspended over the head, or fixed on a canopy on the top of the throne. the precious stones--Hebrew, "stone"; was a round ball composed of pearls and other jewels, which was in the crown, and probably taken out of it to be inserted in David's own crown.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Samuel 12:30
“The weight - Or rather, the price whereof, &c. For the same words both in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, are used, to signify either weight, or price. And the addition of precious stones, which are never valued by the weight of gold, makes this signification most probable.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 12:31, 2 voices
2 Samuel 12:31
“For the saw as an implement of torture compare Heb 11:37. Harrows of iron - Or rather thrashing-machines (Isa 28:27; Isa 41:15, etc.). Axes - The word so rendered occurs only here and in 1Ch 20:3. It evidently means some cutting instrument.”
2 Samuel 12:31
“And therefore it is probable, David exercised this cruelty whilst his heart was hardened, and impenitent; and when he was bereaved of that good spirit of God, which would have taught him more mercy.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 2 Samuel 12. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 10 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Ambrose of Milan; Gregory the Dialogist, The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 2; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill; John Wesley; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel and Matthew Henry.
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