Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
24. SO DAVID BOUGHT THE FLOOR AND THE OXEN FOR FIFTY SICLES OF SILVER.—But 1 Paralipomenon 21:25 it is said: “So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred sicles of gold of most just weight.” The common answer is easy and plain: David gave for the threshing-floor of the altar and the oxen 50 silver sicles, as is said here: but afterwards for the whole floor of Areuna, that in it the temple, the wonder of the world, might be built by Solomon, he gave six hundred gold sicles. So St. Jerome, the Gloss, Lyranus, Hugh, Dionysius, Cajetan, Salianus, Serarius and others.
Otherwise answer Andreas Masius on Josue 7:24; Alciat, On Weights and Measures: namely that these 50 sicles are called “of silver,” that is, of money (for the Hebrews, like the French, call money silver), but in fact were of gold. Now 50 gold sicles are worth 600 silver sicles; for one pound, drachm or ounce of gold is worth twelve of silver, as Plato witnesses in the Hipparchus. Wherefore the six hundred sicles, of which mention is made in Paralipomenon, were silver, yet are called gold, because they were paid in gold; for, as I said, the 50 gold sicles given by David are worth six hundred silver sicles. This sense is subtle and profound, and the Hebrews, Septuagint and Chaldees favour it, which in this place have, he bought the oxen, etc., in silver (that is, money) for fifty sicles, namely of gold, which are worth 600 of silver, as I have said more fully at the end of the Pentateuch, in the treatise On Weights. But this sense is applied hardly and with difficulty to the Vulgate version, which has in this place: He bought, etc., for fifty sicles of silver. Wherefore the former sense, as it is more common, so is simpler and clearer.
25. AND THE LORD BECAME MERCIFUL TO THE LAND.—A sign of this propitiation was fire sent by God from heaven, which consumed David’s victims and as it were took them up to God, to whom they were offered. This is plain from 1 Paralipomenon 21:26, where it is said: “And he heard him by fire from heaven upon the altar of holocaust.” So God showed that the sacrifices of Abel, not Cain; of Aaron, not Nadab; of Elias, not of the priests of Baal, pleased him, by fire sent from heaven upon their victims, Genesis 4:4; Leviticus 9:24; 3 Kings chapter 18. At the same time by this sign of fire God showed that he willed the temple to be erected by Solomon in the same place, in which victims should be offered to him, and burnt with heavenly fire, and David announced this to the people, when, as is said in 1 Paralipomenon 22:1, he said: “This is the house of God, and this is the altar for the holocaust of Israel.” Whence he soon prepared stone-cutters, iron, timber and the rest of the material necessary for the building of the temple, as is added there. Hear Josephus, book 7, chapter 10: “But David, when he perceived that his sacrifice was heard and acceptable, decreed to call that whole place the altar of the whole people, and that a temple to God should be built there. Which saying God willed to be ratified for the future. For soon a Prophet being sent to him foretold that the temple should be built there by the son whom he should leave as successor of his kingdom.” Now God had revealed this same thing to David wishing to build the temple, as was said in chapter 7, namely that he willed the temple to be built on mount Moria and Sion, but this very thing David here announced to the people, and bought the place from Areuna for 600 sicles, as is plain from the place of Paralipomenon already cited. So Pineda, book On Solomon, chapter 5, number 31, and from him Salianus.
Here end the political acts of David, which concern the wars and government of the people. For the ecclesiastical and spiritual acts are omitted here, such as the composition of the Psalms; the distribution of the Levites and priests for sacrificing and psalmody; the preparation of gold, silver, brass, iron, and the works for the building of the temple, which are therefore supplied and narrated at length in 1 Paralipomenon 21 to the end of the book. Moreover in the same book, chapter 27, are recounted the names of the prefects both of the army and of the tribes, and of David’s other officials.
Here, then, ends the second book of Kings, which wholly contains the political acts and deeds of David, from the beginning of his reign to the end of his life. These, year by year, our Salianus, Tornielli, Gordon and the other chronologers distribute aptly and probably (for nothing certain can here be determined), from whom take these few but chief points.
In the eleventh year of Samuel the Judge Saul tills fields and pastures asses.
In the 13th year of his age David feeds sheep, which was the twenty-third year—in which the Hebrews ask a king. Saul In the 20th year he is privately anointed king by Samuel.
In the 22nd year he fights a duel with Goliath and cuts off his head.
In the 23rd year he is tribune and son-in-law of Saul.
In the 25th year he flees to Ceila: lies hid in the desert of Engaddi. In the 28th year he spares Nabal, and takes In the 30th year he avenges the slaughter of Siceleg: hears of the death of Saul.
In the 34th year David is made and anointed king of Juda in Hebron.
In the 38th year he is made king by all the tribes.
In the 39th year he storms the citadel of Sion, and places the seat of the kingdom in it. In the 42nd year he transfers the Ark to Sion, dances before it, receives the oracle concerning Solomon to be born.
is made king, and happily accomplishes various wars.
Samuel deprives Saul of the kingdom. Saul is vexed by a demon.
Saul kills the priests in Nobe.
Saul kills himself in Gelboe.
Abner appoints Isboseth, Saul’s son, king of the ten tribes.
Isboseth is treacherously killed.
In the 43rd year and following he overcomes in war the Philistines, Ammonites, Syrians, Idumeans. In the 48th year he chastises and subjugates Hanon king of Ammon for the violated ambassadors.
In the 50th year he violates Bethsabee, and kills Urias. In the 51st year, rebuked by Nathan, he repents.
In the 52nd year Solomon is born. Amnon violates his sister Thamar.
In the 54th year Absalom kills Amnon, and flees to Gessur. In the 59th year Absalom, after four years of exile from the kingdom, and two from his father’s court, is plainly and fully reconciled to David.
In the 61st year of his age, which was the 31st of his reign, Absalom invades the kingdom, David flees, prepares battle, joins battle with Absalom and conquers; Absalom, fleeing, is entangled by his hair in a tree, and pierced by Joab with three lances.
In the 63rd year of his age, which was the 33rd of his reign, on account of the famine sent by God David hands over seven sons of Saul to the Gabaonites to be crucified.
In the 64th year of his age, which was the 34th of his reign, he happily accomplishes four wars with the Philistines, as many of their giants being slain. They are narrated in chapter 21, verse 15 and following.
In the 67th year of his age, which was the 37th of his reign, he makes a census of the whole people: wherefore God, sending a plague, kills 70 thousand; but David, supplicating and sacrificing in the threshing-floor of Areuna, quells God’s wrath and the plague.
In the 69th year of his age, which was the 39th of his reign, David gives to Solomon, in the 19th year of his age, as wife Naama the Ammonitess, by whom in the same year he begets Roboam, who succeeded him in the kingdom after 40 years.
In the 70th year of his age, which was the 40th of his reign, David appointed Solomon king, and soon after died, which was the year 2999 from the creation of the world, 270 before the founding of Rome, 1094 before the birth of Christ, according to the Chronological table which I prefixed to the Pentateuch. This series of David’s years we have arranged from the Annals of Salianus, Gordon and Tornielli, who all teach that he died in the 70th year of his age. His contemporary kings were: a certain Codrus among the Athenians for some years, then Medon for 20 years, and after him Acastus; among the Assyrians, Dercilus, and after him Eupales; among the Latins Sylvius; Ixion among the Corinthians, as may be gathered from Eusebius; and with these the second book ends.