Jonathan Edwards · 336 of 409

Judges to 2 Chronicles · Part 2

II. The nature of the case will not allow us to suppose that that was done that was so horrid and so contrary to the mind and will of God, as putting of her to death, and offering her as a burnt-sacrifice. God took great care that never any human sacrifice should be offered to him; though he commanded Abraham to offer up his son, yet he would by no means suffer it to be actually done, but appointed something else with which he should be redeemed; and though God challenged the first-born of all living things to be his, yet he appointed that the first-born of men should be redeemed, and so in all cases wherein persons were holy to the Lord, the law makes provision that they should not be slain, but redeemed. It is particularly forbidden in the law of Moses in the strictest manner, that the children of Israel should not worship God by offering up their children in sacrifice to him. Deut. xii. 30, 31. There God charges them not to worship him in the manner that the inhabitants of Canaan had worshipped their gods; and then mentions, as the most abominable thing in their worship, that they had offered up their children for burnt-offerings. And God, by the prophet Isaiah, declares such sacrifices to be abominable to him in the forementioned, Isa. lxvi. 3. See also Jer. vii. 31. with my note on that text. It would have been symbolizing with the abominable customs of the heathen nations around, especially that of offering human sacrifices to the idol Moloch, which God ever manifested a peculiar detestation of. Here particularly observe, Deut. xii. 29, to the end;. and the nature of the case will not allow us to think that Jephthah in this instance committed such abomination. It is not likely but that he, being a pious person, as he is spoken of by the apostle, would have been restrained from it by God, and then what was done was doubtless agreeable to the mind and will of God, for God otherwise would not in so extraordinary a manner have assisted her so quickly and readily to resign herself to it; there seems most evidently an extraordinary divine influence on her mind in the affair, for her resignation did not arise from insensibility or indifference of spirit, as is evident, because she desired time so to bewail what was to be done to her; and upon the supposition that she was to be slain, it would be impossible, without an extraordinary influence on her mind, for her to be so resigned. Her resignation was from pious considerations, and holy and excellent principles; as is evident from what she says to her father, when she sees him passionately lamenting the issue of his vow, of which we have an account in the 36th verse. “And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth, forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.”

If what he had vowed to do was so abominable a thing as to kill her in sacrifice, it would not have been her duty to say as she does, Do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; but she seemed to be influenced to express herself as she did, by the Spirit of God, and her resignation is recorded of her, as a very excellent thing in her.

III. Her being to be slain in sacrifice seems inconsistent with her request; to go up and down the mountains to bewail her virginity: it would have been rather to bewail her untimely end.

IV. It seems evident that she was not slain, by the 39th verse, where it is said that it came to pass, that at the end of two months she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow, which he had vowed, and the consequence of it is immediately added, and she knew no man. This clause seems evidently to be exegetical of the foregoing, viz. that he did to her according to his vow, or to explain what that was that he did, viz. devote her to God in a perpetual virginity.

If she had been slain it is not at all likely that it would have been mentioned that she knew no man, for that she had known no man before this, had been already expressed in her going up and down the mountains to bewail her virginity; and nobody would suppose that she would marry and have children after she was devoted to death, and it had been determined both by herself and her father that it should be put in execution; and besides, there would have been no occasion to mention her not knowing man as soon as the two months were out wherein she bewailed her virginity, and she had returned from going up and down the mountains; the vow was immediately executed.

V. It is no argument that Jephthah thought himself obliged to put her to death, that he so lamented when his daughter met him, as in verse 35. “And it came to pass when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas! my daughter, thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back;” for she being his only child, by her being devoted to be a Nazarite, his family was entirely extinct, he had no issue to inherit his estate or keep his name in remembrance, which in those days was looked upon as an exceedingly great calamity. Thou hast brought me very low, i. e. thou hast quenched my coal, and brought perpetual barrenness on thyself. (See Pool’s Synopsis, at the end of Judg. chap. xi.)

[139] Judg. xiii. 20. “For it came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. Christ, by thus going into the flame in which the kid was sacrificed, and ascending in it, signified that he was the great sacrifice that was to be offered up to God, and was to ascend as a sweet savour to God from off the altar in the flame of his holy wrath. That was the substance represented by these shadows, the sacrifices of kids and lambs, &c.

[377] Judg. xiii. xiv. xv. The History of Samson. Samson was charmed with the daughters of the uncircumcised Philistines, and, as it were, bewitched with them. These daughters represent those lusts, or objects of their lusts, with which men are charmed and infatuated. Samson’s uniting himself with these daughters of the Philistines, proved his ruin. He had warning enough to beware of them before he was utterly destroyed by them. First, he was deceived by one of them, and suffered great damage by her falseness, by the woman of Timnath; though he loved her, she proved an enemy to him, and treacherously deprived him of thirty sheets, and thirty changes of garments, and then she was taken from him; she proved false to him, and left him. So she served him as the objects of men’s lusts often serve them; they promise them a great deal, but never afford them any thins; they are like a pleasing shadow at a distance, that does us a great deal of damage in the pursuit, and when we come nigh them and hope to embrace them, and to be paid for our damages, they afford us nothing but disappointment. Samson’s being thus served by a daughter of the Philistines, might be a warning to him not to be concerned with them any more. But after this Samson was insnared again, and went in to a harlot at Gaza, which suddenly brought him into imminent danger of his life, so that he very narrowly escaped, as in the beginning of chap. xvi. But yet after this he unites himself with Delilah, and had sufficient from her to make him sensible that, she was his enemy time after time, had he not been utterly infatuated and bewitched; but vet he would not take warning, and at last she deprived him of the seven locks of his head, in which signified the consideration and sense of the mind; and bringing a person to a stupid and senseless state. (See Notes on Numb. vi. 5. concerning the Nazarite’s not shaving his head.) When persons’ sense, consideration, and watchfulness is gone, their strength will soon be gone. And then God departed from Samson, and he became the miserable condemned captive and slave of the Philistines, who tormented him, and insulted over him, and made themselves sport in his misery, and at last it proved his death.

[80] Judge. xvi. 25. When the Philistines had prevailed over Samson, and were making sport with him, he overthrew them. The devils thought to have had fine sport with God’s people when they had got him their captive, but this captivity to him was the occasion of one of them who represented the rest of his brethren, even Christ, giving of them a most dreadful overthrow; and when they had Christ their captive, and thought to have triumphed and made themselves merry over him, for he was for a time in a sort their captive, being the captive of his ministers, and being more especially delivered to his power to tempt and afflict, as the Philistines did Samson: Luke xxii. 53. “This is your time, and the power of darkness:” I say, while they thought to have had sport with him, yea, when they had actually brought him forth, and were making themselves sport with him as his instruments did, and doubtless the devil joined with them; he gave them a most dreadful overthrow at his death, as Samson did; he destroyed Satan’s kingdom, and overthrew Dagon’s temple.

[125] Ruth. The story of Ruth’s forsaking her own people for the land and people of Israel, typifies the calling of the Gentile church. Naomi is a type of the Jewish church, that is the mother of the Gentile church; not the Jewish nation that was rejected, but the true church of God in Israel, to whom Ruth says, in the 16th verse,. “Whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” Naomi sets before her daughter the case of going with her, and the advantages of staying in her own land. So did Christ set before men the case of being his disciples, and so do his ministers in the church.

It typifies the universal church, and the conversion of every believer. We are all born in sin, as Ruth was born in Moab, and was born a Moabitess; a state of sin is, as it were, our father’s house, and sinners are our own people; when we are converted we forsake our own people and father’s house, as the church in the 45th Psalm.

[92] 1 Sam. i. and ii. chapters. By Hannah’s song after the birth of Samuel, I am ready to think that Peninnah and Hannah were designed for types of the church of the Jews, and the church of the Gentiles. The expressions are much like those that are used in the prophets, when speaking of the calling of the Gentiles. The whole song, and especially the verse, seems evidently to refer to gospel times, particularly these expressions, “The Lord shall judge the ends of.the earth, and shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.” By God’s king and anointed, she did not mean any king that then ruled over Israel, for there was none, nor was it known that there ever could be one, there was no such design then on foot.

[64] 1 Sam. vi. 14. “And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and set it on the great stone.” The cart seems purposely to be stopped in this field, because of the name of the owner being the same with Christ’s, who was signified by the ark, and because of the great stone, which also represented Christ.

[93] 1 Sam. xvii. 25. David won the king’s daughter by victory over Goliath; so Christ wins the church by victory over Satan.

[94] 1 Sam. xxii. 2. “And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was bitter of soul, gathered themselves to him, and he became captain over them.” Herein he was a type of Christ.

[72] 1 Sam. xxv. 41. “And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” She was a type of the church, and herein speaks that which represents the disposition of a true Christian, according to Christ’s command and example. John xiii.

[198] 2 Sam. xii. It may be worth the while to observe the analogy there was between David’s sin in the matter of Uriah, and the judgments after. He was guilty of shedding of blood, and he was punished with this in his own family, one of his own children shedding the blood of another. Absalom’s shedding Amnon’s blood, and afterwards he, though his own son, seeking to shed his blood, and with Absalom the greatest part of his subjects that used to be loyal and have a good affection for him, had their hearts turned against him, and became his enemies, and sought to shed his blood, and afterwards Absalom’s blood was shed, greatly to the grief of David his father.

He was guilty of most aggravated uncleanness in his adultery with Bathsheba, and he was punished with uncleanness in his own family in a most aggravated manner, by the horrid incest and rape of his own son upon his own daughter, and afterwards Absalom his son, that was very dear to him, going in to his own concubines many of them, and that on the top of the house in the sight of the sun, and in the sight of all Israel, on purpose to render his father as odious and contemptible as possibly could be.

[216] 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. These last words of David seem to be wholly a prophecy of the Messiah; he begins as the prophets were wont to begin their mystical speeches about things to come. “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue; the God of Israel, the Rock of Israel spake to me.” He begins much after the manner that Balaam began his two last prophecies, Numb. xxiv. wherein he prophesied of Israel’s future happiness, and spake particularly of Christ. What is here rendered, ”he that ruleth over men must be just,“ might better be translated, ”he that shall rule over men shall be just.“ The words in the original are p’l* onus. The two first words are literally translated, the ruler over men, or the person ruling over men, reserved to time present, past, or to come, indifferently; must be, is supplied in our translation, the word just only is expressed in the original, and we may as well and better supply shall be just, than must be, for the verb is, or be, is more frequently understood in either of the tenses than must be, or ought to be. That he should rule in the fear of the Lord, is agreeable to the character of the Messiah given in Isa. xi. 1, 2. where he is prophesied of, as he is here, as the branch of the stock or house of David, and that prophecy is very parallel to this, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.” He is called He that is to rule over men, rather than He that is to rule over Israel, because when he comes, his kingdom should not be confined to that one people, but he should reign over all nations, and to the utmost ends of the earth; to him the gathering of the people should be, and men should be blessed in him; all nations should call him blessed.

It is the Messiah that is intended that shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds, and as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Christ is both as the rain and the sun that causeth the grass to grow, and also as the grass itself that flourishes under the benign influence of those. The person of Christ as head of the church, is as the morning sun arising after a night of darkness, or as the clear sun breaking out of a thick cloud, showing in the tender grass Christ mystical; or Christ in his members is as the tender grass itself springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. This signifies both the glory and blessedness of his reign.

1. It signifies his prosperity and glory as a king; the springing and flourishing of grass is a simile elsewhere used to express glory and prosperity. Psal. xlii. 7. “Though the wicked do grow as the grass, and all the workers of iniquity do flourish,” &c. So Job v. 15. “Thou shalt know that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.” So here the same is promised of the seed or offspring of David. Christ in his state of humiliation was a tender plant, and a root out of a dry ground, having no form nor comeliness; but when he rose from the earth God made him to spring as the grass out of the earth, and after his resurrection he was a glorious, and flourishing, and most fruitful branch, as is prophesied of the branch of the stock of David. Isa. iv. 2. “In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely.” Jer. xxiii. 5. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper.” And so in many other places wherein Christ is prophesied of, under the appellation of the branch, he seems to be spoken of as a flourishing Branch. David here in his last words comforts himself in the respect of the glorious prosperity of his offspring.

2. Hereby is signified the happiness of his kingdom, not only the glory of the King, but the happiness of those that enjoy the blessings of his reign, which is still the prosperity of Christ’s mystical body. Psal. lxxii. 6, 7. “He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish.”

Verse 5. “Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure; for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.” My house, that is, my offspring, my posterity, those of my family that are to succeed me in the throne. We often find the posterity of David called the house of David. Though my successors and offspring be not just, and do not rule in the fear of God, (as David by the Spirit foresaw that they would not,) though they are not as the light of the morning, and as the tender grass springing out of the earth, though he make it not to grow, i. e. my house, for that he was speaking of. It is the same in other words that was expressed in the first clause of the verse, though my house be not so with God; and there is special reference had to the last clause of the preceding verse, where it was foretold that the Messiah should be as the tender grass springing out of the earth. Though my house or offspring be not so, be not made to grow as the grass: the house or lineage of David seems to have been spoken of under the figure of the root or shoot of a plant, as a family or race is often so called in Scripture. Judge v. 14. “Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek.” Isa. xiv. 29. “Out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice,” i. e. the serpent’s race or offspring; and so verse 30. “I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay the remnant.” Dan. xi. 7. “Out of a branch of her root shall one stand up,” i. e. out of her posterity; and so Hosea ix. 16. “Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of the womb.” The family or lineage of Jesse, or David, is particularly in the prophecies of the Messiah compared to the root or stem of a plant, as in the forementioned, Isa. xi. 1, 2. “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”

And to these last words of David all the prophets seem to refer when they prophesy of Christ under the name of the Branch, for he is here prophesied of, not as the tender grass springing out of the earth: and the lineage of David seems to be spoken of under the figure of a root or stock; and when it is said, Though he make it not to grow, the word signifies to grow as a branch, it might have been translated, Though he make it not to branch forth: the word here used is of the same radix as the word used when Christ is prophesied of as the Branch; the word that is translated branch is noi, and the word that signifies to grow, is nox, which is the verb here used. David here foresaw that God would not make his root or stock to grow in his successors that should reign in the kingdom of Judah, and therefore, with reference to this, the prophet Jeremiah foretelling of Christ, says, chap. xxxiii. 15. “In those days and at that time I will cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.” His being called a righteous Branch, and his executing judgment and justice in the land, seems to be with reference to David’s last words, where it is said, He shall be just, ruling in the fear of the Lord. So chap xxiii. 5. “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice on the earth.”

[191] 2 Sam. xxiii. 4, 5. “As the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain although he make it not to grow.” It is probable from this that David speaks of the Messiah, that Christ is called the branch or the sprout; he is compared in Isaiah to a tender plant.

[44] 2 Sam. xxiii. 16. “And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gates, and took it and brought it to David; nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out before the Lord.” No doubt but this was ordered for a type of something evangelical; otherwise it is wonderful how and why it should happen that he should long for the water of that particular well, and for what reason he should esteem it unlawful for him to drink it. Bethlehem being the place of Christ’s birth, the waters of it may signify the same as the water of the sanctuary, the water of the New Jerusalem, or the water of life. This was the price of the blood of those three mighty men; so is the water of life of the blood of the mighty Son of God. They obtained it by conquering Israel’s enemies; so doth Christ by the conquest of the enemies of his spiritual Israel. David would not drink it, but poured it out before the Lord; so we ought to give all the glory of our salvation unto God; as God gives it unto us by the blood of Christ, we ought to give it all back again unto God in praise.

[215] 2 Sam. xxiv. 9. Concerning the seeming difference in the account of the number of Israel when David numbered them in Samuel, and in Chronicles. See Bedford, p. 559. Scripture Chronology.

The number of all Israel in the book of Chronicles, were eleven hundred thousand men. 1 Chron. xxi. 5. And the book of Samuel saith that they were only eight hundred thousand. 2 Sam. xxiv. 9. So that here are three hundred thousand difference. On the other hand the book of Samuel saith that the men of Judah were five hundred thousand. 2 Sam. xxiv. 9. And the book of Chronicles saith that they were only four hundred and seventy thousand. So that here also is thirty thousand difference. For the reconciling this great and double diversity, it is to be observed that there were four and twenty thousand soldiers and officers that attended David monthly, so many every month. 1 Chron. xxvii. 1-16. And these make in all, two hundred and eighty-eight thousand. These were like a standing guard about the king every month, and ready for any sudden expedition. There were besides these, the rulers of the tribes and the officers under them, and therefore allowing a thousand officers to every twenty-four thousand, (as we cannot well allow less,) there will be the twelve thousand wanting, which added to the two hundred and eighty-eight thousand, make just three hundred thousand, and these were not put into the account in Samuel. Thus in the tribe of Judah, if twenty-four thousand legionary soldiers, and a thousand officers over them, be added to the four hundred and seventy thousand, there will be but five thousand wanting in the number; and as this was David’s own tribe, which was faithful to him in all difficulties and troubles, it is no wonder if so many of them were employed in some other extraordinary offices. These Joab put into the account, because their number and list had been long known, and because the king would not put a tax upon his own servants.

[217]2 Sam. xxiv. 18, to the end,. and 1 Chron. xxi. 18, to the end,. and xxii. 1. The temple and altar where those sacrifices were to be offered that were typical of the sacrifice of Christ, were by God’s orders erected on a threshing-floor, a place where wheat was wont to be threshed, that it might become bread to support men’s lives. The wheat that was here threshed, or the bread that was made of it, seems to be typical of Christ, that bread which came down from heaven, who is often typically represented by bread, by flour, and wheat. Vide Note on 2 Kings iv. 45. And the threshing of this wheat to prepare it for our food, seems to represent the sufferings of Christ, by which he was prepared to be our spiritual food, and therefore this very wheat that was threshed on this floor was the first meat-offering that was offered to God on the altar that was built in this place. And the threshing instruments, that were typical of the instruments of Christ’s sufferings, in being the instruments wherewith the corn was threshed, are made use of as the fuel for the fire, in which David offers sacrifice in this place, and the fire in which that very wheat that they had threshed was burnt; and the same oxen that in that place were used to labour in treading out the corn, were the first sacrifice that was there offered; so that before they were sacrificed on the altar, they in their labours in that place were typical of Christ, who underwent such great labours to procure bread for our souls; and they were sacrificed for men, there, in that very place, where they were used to labour for the good of men; as Christ was crucified in that very land where he had laboriously spent his life for the good of men, and where his goodness had been so distinguishingly manifested for so many ages, and in that very city, Jerusalem, where he had especially laboured, and which city had been for many ages distinguished by his goodness above all others in the world. Those oxen were sacrificed on a fire that was made of their own instruments, their own yokes and other instruments that they had borne; 2 Sam. xxiv. 22. as Christ carried his own cross.

[281] 1 Kings iii. 1. Solomon’s marrying Pharaoh’s daughter seems to be a type of two things,