18:1-17 David's victories. - This chapter is the same as 2Sa 8. Our good fight of faith, under the Captain of our salvation, will end in everlasting triumph and peace. The happiness of Israel, through David's victories, and just government, faintly shadowed forth the happiness of the redeemed in the realms above.

Verse 16. - Abimelech the son of Abiathar. The reading in the parallel place is, "Abimelech the son of Abiathar," as also in 1 Chronicles 24:6; but comparison of 1 Samuel 22:20; 2 Samuel 20:25; 1 Kings 1:7, 8, suggests that the right reading would be "Abiathar the son of Ahimelech." With this Mark 2:26 agrees, and tells of a correct manuscript, from which, indirectly, the quotation came. Shavsha. The parallel place reads Seraiaha; 2 Samuel 20:25 reads Sheva; and 1 Kings 4:3 reads Shisha. The differences are probably due simply to errors of transcription. Scribe. The historical development of this title is obscure, and not easy to trace. The use of some form or other of the root is abundantly frequent from the times of the earliest parts of Scripture, in the sense of "numbering," or "declaring," or "recording." Perhaps our title of "secretary" would answer sufficiently to it, and all the better, because the Old Testament scribes were also of different leading kinds, like in some degree to our various secretaries of state. There was the kind of scribe of Judges 5:14 - where our Authorized Version is far from the mark, and should rather read "the staff of the scribe," in place of "the pen of the writer" - a military officer, whose duty it was to keep the muster-roll. There was the scribe of 2 Kings 25:19 - a passage which throws light on the former (see also Isaiah 33:18; Jeremiah 52:25). There were the scribes of a more literary, lawyer-like, or clerk-like kind, as here, and in the parallel place, and in 2 Samuel 20:25; 1 Kings 4:3; 1 Chronicles 2:55. In the time of Hezekiah, if not before, the scribes became distinctly a class of men (Proverbs 25:1; Jeremiah 8:8); and the times of the Captivity greatly enlarged their importance. Their exact duties in the best times of the monarchy are not laid down, but the dignified place the king's scribe held is evident from the company in which he is placed here and in the parallel passage.

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