2 Samuel 5:8

(8) Getteth up to the gutter. —The sense of this passage is obscure, partly from the difficulty of the Hebrew construction, partly from the uncertainty of the meaning of the word translated gutter. This word occurs elsewhere only in Psalm 42:7 , where it is translated waterspouts. The ancient versions differ in their interpretations, but the most probable sense is watercourses, such as were connected with the precipices around Mount Zion. The two clauses also are unnecessarily transposed in our version, and the word getteth, by a very slight change in the Masoretic vowels, becomes cast or hurl. The whole clause will then read, “Whosoever smites the Jebusites, let him hurl into the watercourses ( i.e., down the precipice) the lame and the blind.” David thus applies to all the Jebusites the expression they had just used of those who would suffice to resist his attack. The clause “that are hated of David’s soul,” shows that in this siege no quarter was to be given; the Jebusites were under the old ban resting upon all the Canaanites, and were to be destroyed. The English version inserts the clause, “he shall be chief and captain,” which is not in the original, and is here obscure. In 1Chronicles 11:6 , however, the same statement is made more fully and is important: “David said, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain.

So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up and was chief.” It thus appears that David promised the command of his army to the man who should successfully lead the forlorn hope; Joab did this, and won the place in the armies of all Israel which he had hitherto filled in that of Judah. This fact helps to explain the sense of obligation and restraint which David afterwards felt towards Joab. Wherefore they said.—Rather, they say. This became a proverbial expression: no intercourse is to be had with such people as the Jebusites, here again called “the blind and the lame.”

2 Samuel 5:8 . David said on that day — When the assault was made; Whosoever getteth up into the gutter — That is, whosoever scaleth the fort, or getteth up to the top of it, where the gutter was. Or, as some understand it, cuts off their pipes of water, or their cisterns into which the water fell. Dr. Kennicott observes that “the Hebrew, צנור , zenur, gutter, occurs but once more in the Bible, and does not seem commonly understood in this place. The English version calls it, the gutter; the Vulgate, fistulas, pipes; Vatablus, canales; Junius and Tremellius, emissarium, a common sewer; Poole, tubus aquæ, a pipe for water; and Bochart, alveus, a bed or channel of a river. Most interpreters agree in making the word signify something hollow, and in applying it to water.” It may mean, he thinks, “a subterraneous passage, or great hollow, through which men could pass and repass for water. That this zenur, in the text, was such an under-ground passage, might be strongly presumed from the text itself; but it is proved to have been so by Josephus. For, speaking of this very transaction, he says, ‘The citadel being as yet in the possession of the enemy, the king promised that he would make any one general of all his forces who should ascend into the citadel, δια υποκειμενων φαραγγων , through the subterraneous cavities.’ Here then we have subterraneous cavities most remarkably answering to zenur, and putting this interpretation upon a very solid footing.” Kenn. Dissert., vol. 1. p. 42

. And the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul — This, some think, plainly shows, that by the lame and the blind must be meant the idols of the Jebusites; because David certainly abhorred idolatry, but could never detest men for mere unblameable infirmities. But two things may be said in answer to this: 1st, That the lame and the blind Jebusites had probably themselves insulted David, and blasphemed God, and David might hate them in the same sense in which he often speaks of hating the wicked in his Psalms; that is, he might hate their ways, their dispositions, and actions. But, 2d, The original words may, and certainly should be rendered, as they are by the Seventy, who hate David’s soul. He shall be chief and captain — These words are not in the Hebrew here, but are fifty supplied from 1 Chronicles 11:6 , where they are expressed. Wherefore they said — That is, it became a proverb, or common saying, used by David and others: The blind and the lame shall not come into the house — Or, into this house; that is, into the fort of Zion. The blind and lame Jebusites were set to keep that fort, and to keep others from coming into it; but now they themselves are shut out of it, and none of them was to be admitted to come into it again; which David might resolve to ordain, to keep up the memory of this great exploit, and of the insolent carriage of the Jebusites, and their unhappy success.

8 . Whosoever , &c.] An obscure and probably corrupt passage. The E. V., which transposes the first two clauses and introduces an apodosis from Chronicles, cannot be defended. The most probable explanations, neither of them however free from serious objections, are: (1) Whosoever smiteth the Jebusite, let him hurl down the precipice both the lame and the blind, hated of David’s soul. David bids his men give no quarter, taking up the words of the Jebusites, and in derision calling their garrison “blind and lame.” (2) Whosoever smiteth the Jebusite, let him reach the watercourse, [and smite] both the lame and the blind, hated of David’s soul. According to this rendering there is a reference to the way in which the citadel, supposed by its defenders to be inaccessible, was to be scaled, either by some waterworn gully in the rock, or through a subterranean channel which had been constructed to supply the fortress with water. The author of the book of Chronicles either had a different text in his original authority, or, more probably, omitted an expression which was already obscure. He gives the passage thus: “Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain.

So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief.” The Sept. reads; “Whosoever smiteth the Jebusite, let him slay with the sword both the lame and the blind who hate David’s soul.” The Vulg. gives a mere paraphrase: “For David had offered a reward on that day to the man who should smite the Jebusite, and reach the water-pipes of the houses, and remove the blind and lame who hated David’s soul.” Wherefore they said ] Wherefore they are wont to say : the regular phrase for introducing a proverb. Cp. 1 Samuel 19:24 . The blind , &c.] This is understood by the Sept., which reads “into the house of the Lord,” and by the Vulgate, which renders “into the Temple,” to mean that the blind and lame were excluded from the Temple. But this does not seem to have been the case, although they were forbidden to minister ( Leviticus 21:18 ). The explanation that it was a proverb applied to obnoxious persons, meaning “We will not have disagreeable persons in the house,” does not take account of the origin of the saying. Probably it should be rendered as a kind of exclamation: “Blind and lame! he cannot come into the house!” i.e. the blind and the lame are sufficient to defend the fortress: he (the assailant) cannot enter into it.

Verse 8. - Whosoever getteth up to the gutter. The word rendered "gutter" occurs elsewhere only in Psalm 42:7 , where it is translated "waterspout." Josephus thinks that it was an underground passage or drain. Ewald argues that it was a precipice, and others that it was a dent or hollow in the rocky face of the ravine, which David had noticed and thought practicable. The view of Josephus, suggested to him probably by his knowledge of the way in which the site of Jerusalem is honeycombed by tunnels, has been wonderfully confirmed by the discoveries made by Sir C. Warren ('Recovery of Jerusalem,' pp. 240, sqq. ). At the northern end of the Pool of Siloam he found an arched passage gradually narrowing down from a considerable height, till finally there was a passage of only fourteen inches, and as there was a depth of ten inches of water, there were left but four inches of space for breathing. But through this his men struggled, and, at the end of four hours' labour, they reached the light of day at the spring called the Virgin's Fount. Beginning here on a subsequent day, they went along a passage sixty-seven feet in length, and came to a perpendicular shaft leading up through the solid stone of the hill; and, having scaled this, they next came upon a sloping passage, which finally conducted them to a spot on the hill of Ophel within the fortifications.

Now, there are reasons for believing that this passage is older than the wall built by Solomon, and through it, or some such tunnel, Joab and a few men may have worked their way, and so have effected an entrance into the city, which otherwise was impregnable. It was probably the entrance near the Virgin's Fountain which they had observed, and David's words mean, "Whoever will undertake this dangerous enterprise, let him try this underground passage, and when he has entered the fortifications by its means, let him smite the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul," because of the boast of the Jebusites, that their cripples were a match for his heroes. It must be noticed, however, that the K'tib, or written text, has "who hate David's soul;" and as this is what the Jewish Massorites found in the manuscripts, it has more authority than their correction. These Jebusites had probably, in their boastful insult, spoken of David with contempt, and even said, like Goliath, that they would give his flesh to the vultures ( 1 Samuel 17:44 ). We learn from 1 Chronicles 11:6 that David promised the office of commander of the host to the man who undertook this exploit; and when Joab had volunteered and succeeded, he regained thereby the post which he had forfeited by the murder of Abner. The blind and the lame shall not some into the house. The proverb is one of contempt for these poor cripples, and forbids the exercise of hospitality to them.

i. e. "Whosoever will smite the Jebusites, let him reach both the lame and the blind, who are the hated of David's soul, by the gutter or water-course, and he shall be chief." The only access to the citadel was where the water had worn a channel (some understand a subterranean channel), and where there was, in consequence, some vegetation in the rock. Joab (see the marginal reference) took the hint, and with all the activity that had distinguished his brother Anabel 2 Samuel 2:18 , climbed up first. The blind and the lame are either literally such, placed there in derision by the Jebusites who thought the stronghold impregnable, or they are the Jebusite garrison, so called in derision by David. Wherefore they said ... - i. e. it became a proverb (as in 1 Samuel 19:24). The proverb seems merely to have arisen from the blind and the lame being the hated of David's soul, and hence, to have been used proverbially of any that were hated, or unwelcome, or disagreeable.

And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not {d} come into the house. (d) The idols should no longer enter into that place.