SECT.

HI.

house. And when thy days be fulfilled, "and thou fhalt fleep with thy fathers, "I will fet up thy feed after thee, which "hall proceed out of thy bowels, and "I will eftablifh his kingdom. He fhall "build an houfe for my name, and I “will establish the throne of his kingdom "for ever. I will be his father, and he "shall be my fon. If he commit iniquity, "I will chaften him with the rod of men, "and with the ftripes of the children of "men: but my mercy fhall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, "whom I put away before thee. And "thine house and thy kingdom fhall be "eftablished for ever before thee: thy "throne fhall be eftablifhed for ever."

To explain this difficult prophecy, I fhall avail myself of the obfervations of a late eminent Biblical Critics.

"The New Teftament begins with afferting, that Jefus Chrift was the son of "David, the fon of Abraham. Every one "knows, that Chrift was born a Jew, and confequently defcended from Jacob, the grandfon of Abraham; and we all know,

Dr. Kennicott.

I.

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that the promise given to Abraham, con- CHAP. "cerning the Meffiah, is recorded in Gen. "xxii. 18. But it is remarkable, that no "fuch promife is recorded to have been "made to David, at least in our tranfla❝tion. The record of this promife, if "written at all, must have been written "in this chapter, (2 Sam. vii.) in the mesfage from God by Nathan to David. "The wrong tranflation of the tenth and "fourteenth verfes, in a part of Scripture ❝ so very interesting, has been artfully laid "hold of by the deistical Author of The "Grounds and Reafons of the Chriftian Re"ligion, who pretends to demonstrate, that "the promise of a Meffiah could not be "here recorded. His reafons are three; "first, because, in verse the tenth, the Prophet speaks of the future profperity of "the Jews, as to be afterwards fixed, and 66 no more afflicted; which circumstances "are totally repugnant to the fate of the Jews, as connected with the birth and "death of Chrift. Secondly, Because the "fon here promised was (ver. 13.) to "build an house, which house, it is pre

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tended, muft mean the Temple of Solore mon, and, of courfe, Solomon must be "the fon here promised. And thirdly,

"Be

VOL. II.

P

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SECT. "Because verse the fourteenth supposes, III. "that this fon might commit iniquity, "which could not be fuppofed of the "Meffiah..

"The firft of thefe objections is founded · "on our wrong tranflation of verfe the "tenth, where the words fhould be expreffed, as relating to the time past, or "prefent. For the Prophet is there de"claring, what great things God had already done for David, and his people"that he had raised David from the sheep"fold to the throne, and that he had planted the Ifraelites in a place of safety, "at reft from all those enemies, who had "fo often before afflicted them. That the "words ', and 'nyo, may be ren"dered in the time past or present, is both "clear from its being the most natural "conftruction of the Hebrew, the words "in question being in the preterite tense; " and it likewife is allowed by our tranf

re

lators, who here (ver. 11.) render '7'71, "and have caufed thee to reft, and alfo ", and telleth. The tranflation there"fore fhould run thus; I took thee from "the fheep-cote, and have made thee a great name-and I have appointed a place for

<< my

"C

my people Ifrael; and have planted them, CHAP.

I.

"that they dwell in a place of their own, 66 and mové no more. Neither do the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as before, and as fince the time that I commanded judges to be over Ifrael; and I have caused thee to rest from all thine ene"" mies.

Objection the fecond is founded on a "mistake in the fenfe. David indeed had propofed to build a houfe to God, which God did not admit. Yet, approving the piety of David's intention, "God was pleased to reward it, by pro"mifing-that he would make an house "for David; which houfe to be thus " erected by God was certainly not mate"rial, or made of ftones, but a fpiritual "houfe or family, to be raised up for the "honour of God, and the falvation of "mankind. And this houfe, which God"would make, was to be built by David's "feed; and this feed was to be raised up

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after David flept with his fathers; which "words clearly exclude Solomon, who was "fet up, and placed upon the throne before David was dead. This building alfo "was to be erected by an everlasting king,

"f

"whofe

P 2

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ever.

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"whose kingdom was to be established for
Now, that this houfe was to be
"set up, together with a kingdom, by the
Meffiah, is clear from Zech. vi. 12, 13.
Behold the man, whofe name is the BRANCH;
"be shall build the temple of the Lord. Even
" he shall build the temple of the Lord; and
"he fhall bear the glory, and shall fit, and
"rule upon his throne. Obferve also the
language of the New Teftament; re
"are God's building-Know
ye not, that ye
"are the temple of God? The temple of God
" is holy, which temple ye are. And St.
"Paul feems to have had his eye upon

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this very promife in Samuel, concerning "a fon to David, and of the house which " he should build, when he says, (Heb.

iii. 6.) Chrift as a fon over his own boufe, "whofe house are we.

"The third objection alfo may be re"moved, by a more juft tranflation of "verfe the fourteenth: for the Hebrew "words do not properly fignify what they

are now made to fpeak. 'Tis certain, "that the principal word ny is not "the infinitive active of Kal, which would

-is in Ni עוה from העות but ;בעותו be *

"phal, as man from

2.

'Tis also cer

❝tain,