2 Samuel 24:6

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.

Then they came to Gilead,.... The land of Gilead, half of which was given to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the other half to the half tribe of Manasseh, Deuteronomy 3:12 ; which tribes were numbered, and the first of all: and to the land of Tahtimhodshi; or the low lands of a new place; it seems to be a country newly possessed and inhabited; the Targum calls it the southern land of Hodshi; Bunting (w) calls it the lower country of Hodshi, near to the city Corazin, in the half tribe of Manasseh, fifty two miles from Jerusalem, and towards the northeast, and signifies a new land: and they came to Danjaan; the same that is simply called Dan, and formerly Leshem, Joshua 19:47; why Juan is added to it is not easy to say; it lay at the northern border of the land of Israel, and was four miles from Paneas as you go to Tyre (x): and about to Zidon; from Dan they went round about to Zidon, to the parts adjacent to it; for with Zidon itself they had nothing to do, of which See Gill on Joshua 11:8. (w) Travels, &c. p. 147. (x) Hieron. de loc. Heb. fol. 90. H.

(6) Land of Tahtim-hodshi.— This unknown and strange name, of which the ancient versions make nothing, is generally considered as a corruption. The most probable conjecture is that for “Tahtim” we should read “Hittites” (a change of only a single letter), and that “Hodshi” is the remnant of an expression designating the month of their arrival there. Dan-jaan.—This is the only place in which the name “Dan” occurs with this addition. It seems certain that the same Dan must be meant as in 2Samuel 24:2; 2Samuel 24:15; and so the reading of the LXX. (Alex.) and Vulg. may be correct: “Dan-jaar=Dan in the forest.” Zidon.—This mother city of the Phœnicians was in the tribe of Asher nominally, but was never actually possessed by the Israelites. The same also is true of Tyre. Either the census-takers merely came to the confines of these cities, or, being on friendly terms, actually entered them to enumerate the Israelites living in them.

6 . Gilead ] The mountainous district partly to the north and partly to the south of the River Jabbok. the land of Tahtim-hodshi ] No such district is known, and the form of the words also makes it probable that the text is corrupt. Some conjecture that we should read (with some MSS. of the Sept.) to the land of the Hittites to Kedesh , the famous Hittite capital on the Orontes, but this seems too far north; others conjecture the regions below mount Hermon ; and so forth. All that can be said is that some district, apparently east of the Jordan and north of Gilead, is meant. Dan-jaan ] Perhaps the well known Dan, but if so, it is strange that it should here and nowhere else be distinguished as Dan-jaan . The meaning of jaan is uncertain, and perhaps we should follow the Sept. (A) and Vulg. in reading Dan-jaar , i.e. Dan in the forest. and about to Zidon ] Shaping their course westward to the famous city of Zidon, the extreme north-western limit of the kingdom, on the border of Asher ( Joshua 19:28 ), but never occupied by that tribe ( Jdg 1:31 ). Zidon was anciently the most important city of Phoenicia, and hence the Phoenicians are generally called Zidonians in the O. T. ( Joshua 13:6 ; Jdg 18:7 ; 1 Kings 5:6 ); but at this time it was inferior and probably subject to Tyre.

Verse 6. - Then they came to Gilead. When the enumerators had finished their labours in Reuben and the region south of Aroer, Joab moved his camp northwards, and pitched in Gilead, on the river Jabbek; and, having completed the counting in this part of the tribe of Gad, would next enter the wild regions of Manasseh. It is probable that the tribal princes and local officers actually numbered the people, and that Joab, with a powerful force, constrained them to obedience often against their will. It was possibly this danger of resistance which made David entrust the business to Joab, instead of employing the Levites. The land of Tahtim-hodshi . Gesenius dismisses this name with the remark that it can scarcely be regarded as genuine. The versions give little help; but Thenius cleverly extracts from the LXX., "unto Bashan, which is Edrei." Others, by a slight change in the Hebrew, read, "the land of the Hittites," and suppose that Hodshi is a corruption of the Hebrew word for "month," so that the whole might have been, "They came to the land of the Hittites in the (third) month." Others, again, suppose that Hodshi is a corruption of the name of the town Kadesh. But the versions would certainly have preserved anything so commonplace as this. When they make mistakes, it is almost invariably in proper names or unusual phrases.

The emendation of Thenius is too ingenious to be accepted, but it gives the right sense, namely, that from Gilead and the tribe of Gad the numerators went northward through Bashan and the rest of the half tribe of Manasseh till they came to Dan, the town on the extreme northeast border, and the limit in that direction of the Israelite realm, as Beersheba was its limit on the south. Dan-jaan. Nowhere else is Dan found with this addition, and the Syriac omits it even here. The Vulgate, and Septuagint (Codex Alex.) read Dan-jaar the woodland Dan. Possibly the names of two towns have been run into one, and the original reading was "unto Dan and Ijon" (see 1 Kings 15:20 ). Ijon was on the direct road from Dan to Sidon. Zidon . This was on the extreme northwestern boundary. It did not actually belong to David, but both it and Tyro had apparently placed themselves under his protection, and were bound to render some kind of military service. 2 Samuel 24:6

To Gilead - Jazer was in the plain. They passed from there to the mountain district of Gilead. The land of Tahtim-hodshi - The text here is corrupt, as no such land is known. Possibly the right reading is "the land of the Hittites" Judges 1:26; "hodshi" may be a fragment of a sentence which mentioned in what month חדשׁ chôdesh they arrived there, just as 2 Samuel 24:8 relates that they returned to Jerusalem at the end of nine "months." Dan-jaan - The versions read "Dan-jaar," i. e., Dan in the wood. Whatever is the meaning of "Jaan," there can be little doubt that Dan (the ancient Laish) is meant (marginal references), both from its position and importance as the northern boundary of Israel, and from its connection with Zidon.

To Gilead; to Mount Gilead, which lay northward from Arnon. Tahtim-hodshi; a place so called. Or, the lowland lately gained , i. e. not given by Joshua, but taken lately from the Hagarites by Saul; which was near Gilead, 1 Chronicles 5:10 . Dan-jaan, i.e. probably the famous city of Dan, as it is called, Joshua 19:47 Judges 18:7 ; for this was in the northern border of the land, and in the way from Gilead to Zidon. About to Zidon, i.e. to the city and territory of Zidon; but not into it, because it was not in the power and possession of the Israelites: and the like is to be thought concerning Tyre, and the cities which the Hivites and Canaanites yet possessed in the neighbourhood of Tyre and Sidon.

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.

"And they came to Gilead," i.e., the mountainous district on the two sides of the Jabbok (see at Deuteronomy 3:10 ). The words which follow, viz., "into the land חדשׁי תּחתּים" are quite obscure, and were unintelligible even to the earlier translators. The Septuagint has γῆν Ἐθαὼν Ἀδασαί, or γῆν Θαβασών (also γῆν χεττιείμ) ἥ ἐστιν Ἀδασαί. Symmachus has τὴν κατωτέραν ὁδόν; Jonathan לחדשׁי דרומא לארעא ("into the southland Chodshi"); and the Vulgate in terram inferiorem. The singular form תּחתּים, and the fact that we never read of a land called Chodshi, render the conjecture a very probable one that the text is corrupt. But it is no longer possible to discover the correct reading. Ewald imagines that we should read Hermon instead of the unintelligible Chodshi; but this is not very probable. Bttcher supposes תחתים to be a mistake in writing for ים תּחת, "below the lake," namely the lake of Gennesareth, which might have been called Chodshi (the new-moon-like), since it had very much the appearance of a crescent when seen from the northern heights. This is ingenious, but incredible.

The order of the places named points to the eastern side of the sea of Galilee; for they went thence to Dan-jaan, i.e., the Dan in northern Peraea, mentioned in Genesis 14:14 , to the south-west of Damascus, at that time probably the extreme north-eastern boundary of the kingdom of David, in the direction towards Syria (see at Genesis 14:14 ): "and round to Sidon," the extreme north-western boundary of the kingdom.