(10) This verse, again, nearly coincides with the parallel in Samuel. The variations look like corrections and explanatory or paraphrastic substitutions. Thus the word "go is here imperative, instead of the less usual infinitive; "saving" is added by way of clearness; the easier phrase, "I offer thee" (
spread or
lay before thee)
, is given in place of the curious "I lift up" (
i.e., impose) "on thee" (
noteh for not?l: a change such as is common in the Targum); and, lastly, the pronoun
of them, which is masculine in Samuel, is more correctly feminine here.
21:1-30 David's numbering the people. - No mention is made in this book of David's sin in the matter of Uriah, neither of the troubles that followed it: they had no needful connexion with the subjects here noted. But David's sin, in numbering the people, is related: in the atonement made for that sin, there was notice of the place on which the temple should be built. The command to David to build an altar, was a blessed token of reconciliation. God testified his acceptance of David's offerings on this altar. Thus Christ was made sin, and a curse for us; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him, God might be to us, not a consuming Fire, but a reconciled God. It is good to continue attendance on those ordinances in which we have experienced the tokens of God's presence, and have found that he is with us of a truth. Here God graciously met me, therefore I will still expect to meet him.
See Chapter Introduction