2 Samuel 24:7

And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites.—The remnants of the original inhabitants appear still to have occupied distinct towns by themselves. The “Hivites” were chiefly in the northern part of the land, though Gibeon and its towns had belonged to them. “The Canaanites” is a general name for the remnants of all the other races.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:1-9 For the people's sin David was left to act wrong, and in his chastisement they received punishment. This example throws light upon God's government of the world, and furnishes a useful lesson. The pride of David's heart, was his sin in numbering of the people. He thought thereby to appear the more formidable, trusting in an arm of flesh more than he should have done, and though he had written so much of trusting in God only. God judges not of sin as we do. What appears to us harmless, or, at least, but a small offence, may be a great sin in the eye of God, who discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. Even ungodly men can discern evil tempers and wrong conduct in believers, of which they themselves often remain unconscious. But God seldom allows those whom he loves the pleasures they sinfully covet.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The strong hold of Tyre - "The fenced city," as it is generally rendered throughout the historical books.

The cities of the Hivites - Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim, and perhaps Shechem, besides those at the foot of Hermon and Lebanon, of which we do not know the names. This continuance of distinct communities of Hivites so late as the end of David's reign is remarkable.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. the land of Tahtim-hodshi—that is, the land lately acquired; namely, that of the Hagarites conquered by Saul (1Ch 5:10). The progress was northward. Thence they crossed the country, and, proceeding along the western coast to the southern extremities of the country, they at length arrived in Jerusalem, having completed the enumeration of the whole kingdom in the space of nine months and twenty days.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And came to the strong hold of Tyre,.... That is, old Tyre, which stood thirty furlongs from new Tyre, the island (y); of which See Gill on Isaiah 23:1; this must be understood of the parts near unto it; for that itself was not within the land of Israel, and so its inhabitants not to be numbered:

and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: which were possessed by them, and from whence they were not driven out by the Israelites; to all places contiguous to them, Joab and his captains came to take the number of them:

and they went out to the south of Judah: even to Beersheba; passing through the western part of the land, they came to the southern part of it, even as far as Beersheba, which was the extreme part of the land to the south.

(y) Strabo. Geograph. l. 16. p. 521.

Geneva Study Bible

And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. the strong hold of Tyre] The same term—generally rendered fenced city in the E. V.—is applied to Tyre in Joshua 19:29, where Tyre is named among the places on the border of Asher. Like Zidon it was never occupied by the Israelites, and we must suppose either that the region traversed by the enumerators is defined as reaching up to though not including Tyre and Zidon, or that these cities were actually visited in order to take a census of Israelites resident in them.

the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites] The old inhabitants were never exterminated from the northern part of Palestine, but made tributary, and apparently allowed to dwell in communities of their own. The district round Kedesh-Naphtali in particular was called the region of the nations or Galilee of the Gentiles (Joshua 20:7; 1 Kings 9:11; Isaiah 9:1). The Hivites dwelt principally in this northern region (Joshua 11:3; Jdg 3:3), and also round Gibeon (Joshua 11:19), and are probably specified as the tribe of which most survived: the Canaanites would include all the other native tribes in general.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Tyre (comp. Joshua 19:29). Tyre and the whole coast land between it and Sidon had been too strong for the tribe of Asher, and remained unsubdued. But, like the independent states in India, it acknowlodged the supremacy of the paramount power. The cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites. It is evident from this that even in David's time there were towns and districts were Hivites and Canaanites dwelt as distinct communities, governed probably by their own laws. But as they were bound to serve in the Israelite armies, they were included in the census, and possibly one of its rosin objects was to learn the number of fighting men of alien races dwelling in Israel. They seem to have been reckoned as belonging to the tribe in whose borders they dwelt. So Baanah and Rechab, the murderers of Ishbosheth, though Beerothites (and therefore Gibeonites, who again were Hivites), were counted to Benjamin (2 Samuel 4:2). These Gentile communities were chiefly to be found in the north, for which reason it was called "the circuit (Gelil) of the nations" (Isaiah 9:1), and in later times from Gelil came the name Galilee. The Syriac adds "Jebusites," and we find Jerusalem occupied by a community of Jebusites living in independence in the very neighbourhood of the warlike tribe of Benjamin (2 Samuel 5:6). This numbering of the aborigines by David is referred to in 2 Chronicles 2:17, where it is added that Solomon made a separate census of them, and found that there were in Israel no fewer than a hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred of these aliens. 2 Samuel 24:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Thence southwards to the fortress of Zor, i.e., Tyre (see at Joshua 19:29), and "into all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites," i.e., the towns in the tribes of Naphtali, Zebulun, and Issachar, or the (subsequent) province of Galilee, in which the Canaanites had not been exterminated by the Israelites, but had only been made tributary.