1 Samuel 17:12

10 And the Philistine said, ^a“I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.”

11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

12 Now David was ^athe son of that ^bEphrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had ^ceight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years, in the days of Saul.

13 The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The ^anames of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

14 David was the youngest. And the three oldest followed Saul.

15 But David occasionally went and returned from Saul ^ato feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.

16 And the Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening.

17 Then Jesse said to his son David, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves, and run to your brothers at the camp.

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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1 Samuel 17:13 >>

1 Samuel 17:12

The 12th verse, to the 31st inclusive, are wanting in the Septuagint; as also the 41st verse; and from the 54th to the end; with the first five verses of I Samuel 18, and the 9th, 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th, and 19th of the same.

All these parts are found in the Codex Alexandrinus; but it appears that the MS. from which the Codex Alexandrinus was copied, had them not. See observations at the end of this chapter, I Samuel 17:58 (note). Dr. Kennicott has rendered it very probable that these portions are not a genuine part of the text.

Notwithstanding what Bishop Warburton and others have done to clear the chronology of the present printed Hebrew, it is impossible to make a clear consistent sense of the history, unless these verses are omitted. Let any one read the eleventh verse in connection with the thirty-second, leave out the forty-first, and connect the fifty-fourth with the sixth of I Samuel 18, and he will be perfectly convinced that there is nothing wanting to make the sense complete; to say nothing of the other omissions noted above. If the above be taken in as genuine, the ingenuity of man has hitherto failed to free the whole from apparent contradiction and absurdity. I must confess that where every one else has failed, I have no hope of succeeding: I must, therefore, leave all farther attempts to justify the chronology; and refer to those who have written for and against the genuineness of this part of the common Hebrew text. At the end of the chapter I shall introduce some extracts from Kennicott and Pilkington: and leave the whole with the unprejudiced and discerning reader.

Other Adam Clarke entries containing 1 Samuel 17:12:

1 Samuel 17:58
Matthew 2:1

<< 1 Samuel 17:11

1 Samuel 17:13 >>

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