Medium, Jebus, Nathan, and what God allows
…to suffer, if he belongs to Nabal. The medium did not bring Samuel up—that is impossible—nor did the apparition speak truth once "up." Who this was, and by what power he rose, inquire.
David was besieging Jebus—Jerusalem's name when it lay under foreigners. The Jebusites, knowing David loved the poor, set blind and lame on the wall to insult him. Having taken Jerusalem he so refused to mistreat the maimed that he even set a death penalty on any soldier who tried to kill a blind or lame person: "everyone who strikes a Jebusite lame or blind, let him be touched with the dagger"—that is, let him be killed. Even those who hated David's soul obtained sparing. So he is honored when people say the lame and blind shall not enter the Lord's house—those who insulted David, whom he spared.
Note that Nathan son of David is born after David takes and inhabits Jerusalem. This is the Nathan Luke genealogizes, while Matthew genealogizes Solomon his brother. From David's named sons, then, one line runs through one genealogy and one through another.
From this it is also shown that what God does not do, yet allows to happen, he is said to have done. Absalom's rising, Shimei's insult, and the stones cast at David were not God's work. David makes this clearer: "Let him curse, for the Lord has told him to; perhaps the Lord will look on my humiliation and repay me good for his curse today." What happened did not please God; what does not please him he would not command.
If in zeal for Israel and Judah Saul tried to wipe out the Gibeonites—with whom Joshua son of Nun and all the people had made covenants—and seven born from Saul's daughters were killed for it, why are the tribes not blamed while those who did no wrong pay the penalty? That would be unjust—unless one says a king Saul could not resist Israel and Judah or break the fathers' covenants with the Gibeonites. I would add: it was God's economy that Saul's whole line be consumed, as many as were ever suspected of claiming royal dignity and thus of rising against David and his children.
"The Gibeonites exposed them before the Lord on the mountain" means they did not bury the killed but left them under the sun. "They were exhausted, and Dan son of Joa of the giants' descendants took them" means the giant took those laid in the sun and killed them already spent by the heat. The Gibeonite word is obscure unless we say that when Saul sat at Gibeah for war he routed the foreigners and destroyed the Gibeonites with them. The narrative is in the thirty-…
Greek
παθεῖν, ἐὰν ᾖ τοῦ Νάβαλ . 14 Ἡ ἐγγαστρίμυθος τὸν Σαμουὴλ οὐκ ἀνήγαγεν, ἀμήχανον γάρ, οὐδὲ ἀναβὰς ἀλήθειαν εἴρηκεν. τίς δὲ οὗτος καὶ διὰ ποίας δυνάμεως ἀνέβη, ζήτει. 15 Ἐπολιόρκει τὴν Ἰεβοὺς ὁ ∆αβίδ. Ἰεβοὺς δὲ ἡ νῦν Ἱερουσαλὴἐλέγετο, ὅτε ὑπὸ ἀλλοφύλους ἦν. οἱ τοίνυν Ἰεβουσαῖοι, εἰδότες ὅτι φιλόπτωχος ἦν ὁ ∆αβίδ, ὑπεβάλοντο ἄνωθεν ἀπὸ τοῦ τείχους τυφλοὺς καὶ χωλοὺς αὐτὸν ὑβρίζειν. ὁ δὲ κρατήσας τῆς Ἱερου σαλὴμ τοσοῦτον ἀπέσχε τοῦ διαθεῖναι κακῶς τοὺς λελωβημένους τὸ σῶμα, ὡς καὶ νόμον θέσθαι τοῖς αὐτοῦ στρατιώταις θανάτου, εἴ τις ἐπιχειρήσειεν ἀνελεῖν τυφλὸν ἢ χωλόν. πᾶς γὰρ ὁ τύπτων φησὶν Ἰεβουσαῖον χωλὸν ἢ τυφλὸν ἁπτέσθω ἐν παραξιφίδι , τουτ έστιν ἀναιρείσθω· εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἐμίσουν τὴν ψυχὴν ∆αβίδ, ἀλλὰ φει δοῦς τυγχάνουσι. διὸ ἀξιοῦται τῆς παρὰ πάντων τιμῆς λεγόντων· χωλὸς καὶ τυφλὸς οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται εἰς οἶκον κυρίου , οἱ τὸν ∆αβὶδ ὑβρίσαντες, ὧν ἐφείδετο. 16 Σημειωτέον ὅτι Νάθαν ὁ υἱὸς ∆αβὶδ τίκτεται αὐτῷ 2 ἑλόντι καὶ οἰκήσαντι τὴν Ἱερουσαλήμ . οὗτος δέ ἐστι Νάθαν ὃν γενεαλογεῖ ὁ μακάριος Λουκᾶς, ὁ δὲ μακάριος Ματθαῖος Σολομῶνα τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ γενεαλογεῖ. καὶ ἐντεῦθεν, λέγω δὴ ἀπὸ τῶν μνημονευθέντων υἱῶν τοῦ ∆αβίδ, ὁ μὲν δι' ἑτέρας λέγεται γενεαλογίας, ὁ δὲ δι' ἄλλης. 17 Ὥστε καὶ ἐντεῦθεν δείκνυται ὅτι, ὅπερ ὁ θεὸς οὐ ποιεῖ μὲν συγχωρεῖ δὲ γενέσθαι, πεποιηκέναι λέγεται. ὡμολόγηται τοίνυν ὅτι οὐκ ἦν ἔργον τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ ἐπανάστασις τοῦ Ἀβεσσαλὼμ καὶ ἡ τοῦ Σεμεῒ λοιδορία καὶ τὸ βαλεῖν αὐτὸν λίθοις τὸν ∆αβίδ. τρανότερον δὲ δείκνυσιν ὅ φημι τὸ λέγειν τὸν ∆αβίδ· ἄφες αὐτὸν ἀρᾶσθαι, ὅτι κύριος εἴρηκεν αὐτῷ, ὅπως ἴδοι τὴν ταπείνωσίν μου, καὶ ἀνταποδώσει μοι κύριος ἀγαθὰ ἀντὶ τῆς κατάρας αὐ τοῦ τῆς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ταύτῃ . φανερὸν γὰρ ὅτι οὐκ ἤρεσκε τῷ θεῷ τὸ γινόμενον· ὃ δὲ οὐκ ἤρεσκεν, οὐκ ἂν ἐνετείλατο ποιεῖν. 18 Εἰ ἐν τῷ ζήλῳ τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ τοῦ Ἰούδα ὁ Σαοὺλ τοὺς Γαβαωνίτας ἀνελεῖν ἐπεχείρησεν, μεθ' ὧν συνθήκας ἐποιήσατο Ἰησοῦς ὁ τοῦ Ναυὴ καὶ πᾶς ὁ λαός, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἑπτὰ τοῦ Σαοὺλ ἀνῃρέθησαν οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν θυγατέρων αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένοι, τίνος ἕνεκεν οὐχ αἱ φυλαὶ ἐν αἰτίαις, ἀλλ' οἱ μηδὲν ἠδικηκότες δίκην δεδώκασι; τοῦτο γὰρ ἄδικον. πλὴν εἰ μή τις εἴποι Σαοὺλ βασιλέα ὄντα ἀδυνάτως ἔχειν ἀντιστῆναι τοῖς Ἰσραηλίταις καὶ τῇ φυλῇ Ἰούδα, καὶ μὴ λῦσαι τὰς συνθήκας τῶν πατέρων τὰς πρὸς τοὺς Γαβαωνίτας. ἐγὼ δὲ προσθοίμην ἂν τούτοις τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ οἰκονομίαν εἶναι τὸ γένος τοῦ Σαοὺλ ἀναλωθῆναι πᾶν, ὅσον ὑπωπτεύετό ποτε ἀντι ποιεῖσθαι τοῦ βασιλικοῦ ἀξιώματος διά τε τοῦτο ἐπαναστήσεσθαι τῷ ∆αβὶδ καὶ τοῖς τούτου παισίν. τὸ δὲ ἐξηλίασαν αὐτοὺς οἱ Γαβαωνῖται ἐναντίον κυρίου ἐν τῷ ὄρει ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀναιρεθέν τας οὐκ ἔθαψαν, ἀλλ' εἴασαν ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον κεῖσθαι. καὶ ἐξελύ θησάν φησιν καὶ ἔλαβεν αὐτοὺς ∆ὰν υἱὸς Ἰωὰ τῶν ἀπογό νων τῶν γιγάντων . πάντως που βούλεται λέγειν ὅτι τοὺς ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον τεθέντας λαβὼν ὁ γίγας ἀνείλετο ἐκλελυμένους ἤδη ὑπὸ τῆς ἡλιακῆς φλογός. {Ὁ λόγος ὁ κατὰ τοὺς Γαβαωνίτας ἄγνωστος καθέστηκεν, εἰ μή πού γε εἴπωμεν ὅτι, ἡνίκα ἐκάθητο ἐν Γαβεὲ τοῦ πολεμεῖν, καὶ ἐτρο πώσατο τοὺς ἀλλοφύλους ὁ Σαοὺλ καὶ ἀπώλεσεν μετ' αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς Γαβαωνίτας. καὶ ἔστι τὸ διήγημα ἐν τριακοστῷ
About this text
Origen of Alexandria, Fragmenta in librum primum Regnorum (Greek).
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG 12 (Khazarzar) (Greek)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.