2 Samuel 20:24

And Adoram was over the tribute,.... Or over those that collected and brought it, as the Targum; this was a new office, and which respected both the revenue he received from his own people, and the tribute brought him from the nations conquered by him: and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; who was in this office before, and now continued and established in it, 2 Samuel 8:16.

(24) Adoram was over the tribute. —The same office was held by Adoniram in Solomon’s reign ( 1Kings 4:6 ; 1Kings 5:14 ), and by Adoram at the beginning of the reign of his successor ( 1Kings 12:18 ). Α ll those may have been the same person, or at least of the same family. “The tribute” should rather be the levy, the forced labour so largely employed by Solomon. It is remarkable that there is no trace of such an office in 2Samuel 8:16-18 , nor in the parallel ( 1Chronicles 18:14-17 ). It was a feature of Oriental despotism only introduced towards the close of David’s reign, and carried to much greater length under Solomon.

24 . Adoram ] Perhaps the same as Adoniram ( 1 Kings 4:6 ; 1 Kings 5:14 ), who held the office in Solomon’s reign, and Adoram , who held it at the beginning of Rehoboam’s reign ( 1 Kings 12:18 ), but possibly three persons of the same family, who succeeded one another in the office, are meant. The Sept. reads Adoniram here. over the tribute ] Better over the levy ( 1 Kings 4:6 marg. , 2 Samuel 5:14 ); superintendent of the forced levies employed in public works. Adoram was stoned to death by the people in the rebellion at the beginning of Rehoboam’s reign, as the representative of the hated system of forced labour which had oppressed the people beyond all endurance in Solomon’s reign ( 1 Kings 12:4 ). The appearance of this new officer in the closing years of David’s reign is most significant of the vast change which had taken place in the character of his rule.

Verse 24. - Adoram was over the tribute. This was a new officer, and a new thing. For the Hebrew word mas does not mean "tribute," but "forced labour." This was one of the most oppressive exactions of old time, and it continued to be practised in Europe throughout the Middle Ages until it was abolished at the end of the eighteenth century by the French Revolution, except in Russia, where the serfs were freed from it by the late emperor Alexander II. Nevertheless, it was probably made almost necessary at first by the absence of money. As there was no money for the payment of taxes, the dues of the king or lord could only be rendered by personal service. Yet even so it was exceedingly liable to be abused, and the people might be taken from their own homes and fields just when their presence there was most needed. One most painful result was that the women had to endure, upon the farm and among the cattle, a drudgery to which they were unsuited. We gather from this passage that it was David who began this practice in Israel, exacting probably only from the descendants of the Canaanites (who, nevertheless, formed a considerable portion of the inhabitants of Palestine) forced labour employed in preparing for the building of the temple, and in the fortifications of his fenced cities.

Under Solomon it seems to have been extended to other classes ( 1 Kings 5:13, 14 ; but see 1 Kings 9:20-22 ), and reduced to a system, which pressed so heavily upon the people that it was the principal cause of the revolt of the ten tribes from Rehoboam ( 1 Kings 12:4 ). Unless the Israelites had themselves suffered severely from this exaction, they would not have been driven into rebellion by sympathy with the remains of the native races. Subsequently we find Jeremiah accusing Jehoiakim of employing forced labour ( Jeremiah 22:13 ), but the severity with which he condemned it suggests that it had then ceased to be customary. Adoram. His appointment to this office was probably at a late period in David's reign, as he continued to hold the office under Solomon ( 1 Kings 4:6 ; 1 Kings 5:14 , where he is called Adoniram ), and even down to the beginning of Rehoboam's reign ( 1 Kings 12:18 ). We there read that he paid the penalty of his hateful office with his life. In 2 Chronicles 10:18 he is called Hadoram. 2 Samuel 20:24

Adoram - Not mentioned before by name or office. Apparently, therefore, the office was not instituted until the latter part of David's reign, and its duties probably were the collection of the tribute imposed upon vanquished nations, or the command of the forced levies employed in public works. Adoram was stoned to death in the beginning of the reign of Rehoboam 1 Kings 12:18 .

2Sa 20:23-26. David's Great Officers. 23. Now Joab was over all the host of Israel—David, whatever his private wishes, found that he possessed not the power of removing Joab; so winking at the murder of Amasa, he re-established that officer in his former post of commander-in-chief. The enumeration of David's cabinet is here given to show that the government was re-established in its wonted course.

David's Ministers of State. - The second section of the history of David's reign closes, like the first ( 2 Samuel 8:16 .), with a list of the leading ministers of state. The author evidently found the two lists in his sources, and included them both in his work, for the simple reason that they belonged to different periods, as the difference in the names of some of the officers clearly shows, and that they supplemented on another. The list before us belongs to a later period of David's reign than the one in 2 Samuel 8:16-18 . In addition to the office-bearers mentioned in 2 Samuel 8 , we find here Adoram over the tribute, and Ira the Kairite a confidential counsellor (cohen: see at 2 Samuel 8:18 ), in the place of the sons of David noticed in 2 Samuel 8:18 . The others are the same in both lists. The Chethib הכרי is to be read הכּרי (cf. 2 Kings 11:4 , 2 Kings 11:19 ), from כוּר, perfodit, and is synonymous with הכּרתי (see at 2 Samuel 8:18 ). Adoram is the same person as Adoniram, who is mentioned in 1 Kings 4:6 and 1 Kings 5:14 as overseer over the tributary service in the time of Solomon; as we may see from the fact, that the latter is also called Adoram in 1 Kings 12:18 , and Hadoram in 2 Chronicles 10:18 . Hadoram is apparently only a contracted form of the name, and not merely a copyist's mistake for Adoniram.

But when we find that, according to the passage cited, the same man filled this office under three kings, we must bear in mind that he did not enter upon it till the close of David's reign, as he is not mentioned in 2 Samuel 8:16 ., and that his name only occurs in connection with Rehoboam's ascent of the throne; so that there is no ground for assuming that he filled the office for any length of time under that monarch. המּס does not mean vectigal, i.e., tribute or tributary service, but tributary labourers. The derivation of the word is uncertain, and has been disputed. The appointment of a special prefect over the tributary labourers can hardly have taken place before the closing years of David's reign, when the king organized the internal administration of the kingdom more firmly than before. On the tributary labourers, see at 1 Kings 5:13 . Ira the Jairite is never mentioned again. There is no ground for altering Jairi (the Jairite) into Jithri (the Jithrite), as Thenius proposes, since the rendering given in the Syriac ("from Jathir") is merely an inference from 2 Samuel 23:38 ; and the assumption upon which this conclusion is founded, viz., that Ira, the hero mentioned in 2 Samuel 23:38 , is the same person as Ira the royal cohen, is altogether unfounded.