2 Samuel 5:8

Contextual Overview

⁶The king and his men marched to Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the land. The Jebusites had said to David: “You will never get in here. Even the blind and lame can repel you” thinking, “David can’t get in here.” ⁶ The king and his men went to Yerushalayim against the Yevusi, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, Except you take away the blind and the lame, you shall not come in here; thinking, David can't come in here. ⁶ And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. ⁶ The king and his men went to Jerusalem, to the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land. They said to David, "You will not come here, for even the blind and the lame can turn you back, saying, ‘David cannot come here.'" ⁶ And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, "You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off"—thinking, "David cannot come in here." ⁶ When the king and his men went to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites who lived there, the Jebusites said to David, "You can't get inside our city. Even the blind and the crippled can stop you." They thought David could not enter their city. ⁶ Then the king and his men advanced to Jerusalem against the Jebusites who lived in the land. The Jebusites said to David, "You cannot invade this place! Even the blind and the lame will turn you back, saying, ‘David cannot invade this place!'" ⁶Now the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, "You shall not enter here, for the blind and the lame [even the weakest among us] will turn you away"; they thought, "David cannot come in here [because the walls are impenetrable]." ⁶ Now the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land; and they said to David, "You shall not come in here, but even those who are blind and those who limp will turn you away," thinking, "David cannot enter here." ⁶ The King also and his men went to Ierusalem vnto the Iebusites, the inhabitants of the land: who spake vnto Dauid, saying, Except thou take away the blinde and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking that Dauid coulde not come thither.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Whosoever: Joshua 15:16, Joshua 15:17, 1 Samuel 17:25

he shall be: 1 Chronicles 11:6-9

Wherefore: etc. or, Because they had said, even the blind and the lame, he shall not come into the house

Reciprocal: Joshua 18:28 - Jebusi 2 Samuel 5:6 - which spake 2 Samuel 24:16 - the Jebusite Joel 2:7 - climb

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And David said on that day,.... On which he took the strong hold of Zion:

whosoever getteth up to the gutter; where it is generally supposed the blind and lame were, whether images or real men: but what is meant by "Tzinnur", we render "gutter", is not easy to say; we follow some of the Jewish writers, who take it to be a canal, or water spout, used to carry off the water from roofs of houses into cisterns, as the word is rendered in Psalms 42:7; which is the only place besides this in which it is used in Scripture; but R. Isaiah takes it to be the bar or bolt of the gate, and the sense to be, whoever got up to the gate, and got in at that, unbolting it, or breaking through it; the Targum interprets it of the tower of the city, or strong fortress, and so Abarbinel; but Jarchi says it was a ditch, agreeably to which Bochart h translates the words, and indeed more agreeably to the order of them;

"whosoever smites the Jebusites, let him cast into the ditch (next the wall) both the blind and the lame, extremely hated by David.''

But a learned modern writer i gives a more ingenious and probable interpretation of these words thus;

"whosoever (first) smiteth the Jebusites, and through the subterraneous passages reaches the lame and the blind, c.''

and which seems to be favoured by Josephus, as he observes who says k, the king promised the command of the whole army to him who should

δια των υποκειμενων φαραγγων, "through the subterraneous cavities", go up to the citadel, and take it: to which I would add that the word is used in the Chaldee paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 1:7, of the several subterraneous passages, through which the rivers flow out of and reflow into the ocean: remarkable is the note of Theodoret,

"a certain Hebrew says, Aquila renders it "through a pipe"; on which, he observes, David being willing to spare the walls of the city, ordered the citizens should enter into the city by an aqueduct;''

according to the Jews, there, was a cave underground, which reached from the king's house in Jerusalem to Jericho, when it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar; Ecclesiastes 1:7- :; in which story there may be a mixture of fable; yet it is not improbable that there was such a subterraneous passage; since Dio Cassius l speaks of several such, through which the Jews made their escape in the last siege of the city:

and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind; or even the lame and the blind men the Jebusites had placed to mock David; and therefore it follows,

[that are] hated of David's soul: because he was despised and jeered at by them, and through them: if these could be understood of their idols and images, the phrase would be easily accounted for, nothing being more abominable to David than idolatry:

[he shall be chief and captain]; these words are not in the original text here, but are supplied from 1 Chronicles 11:6; that is, he shall be chief commander of the army, as Joab became, who was the first that went up and smote them:

wherefore they said, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house; that is, either the Jebusites said this, that their images, called in derision by David the blind and the lame, if these did not keep David out, they should never be intrusted with the safety of their fort any more m; or rather because the blind and the lame men said this of David, he shall not come into the house, the fort, or citadel, therefore David hated them; which is the sense of the above learned writer n.

h Phaleg. l. 4. c. 36. col. 304. i Dr. Kennicott's Dissert. 1. p. 35. k Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 7. c. 3. sect. 1.) l Hist. l. 66. m Gregory, ut supra. (Notes and Observations, &c. ch. 7.) n Dr. Kennicott, ut supra. (Dissert. 1. p. 35.)

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.