2 Samuel 21:17

Det Norsk Bibelselskap

Men Abisai, Serujas sønn, kom ham til hjelp og slo filisteren og drepte ham. Da svor Davids menn og sa til ham: Du skal ikke mere dra ut med oss i striden, forat du ikke skal utslukke Israels lys.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Abishai: 2 Samuel 20:6-10

succoured: 2 Samuel 22:19, Psalms 46:1, Psalms 144:10

Thou shalt: 2 Samuel 18:3

quench: 2 Samuel 14:7, 1 Kings 11:36, 1 Kings 15:4, Psalms 132:17, John 1:8, John 1:9, John 5:35

light: Heb. candle, or lamp

Reciprocal: Exodus 18:23 - and all this Deuteronomy 31:2 - I can no more 1 Chronicles 11:20 - Abishai 1 Chronicles 18:12 - Moreover Jeremiah 40:15 - wherefore Acts 19:30 - the disciples Hebrews 11:34 - escaped

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him,.... Observing him in danger, made haste to his relief:

and smote the Philistine, and killed him; it seems as if Abishai engaged with the Philistine, and killed him; but inasmuch as it will bear to be interpreted of David, and since the four giants here and hereafter mentioned are said to fall by the hand of David and his servants, 2 Samuel 21:22, it may be thought that this man fell by his hand; seeing it is clear that all the rest fell by the hands of his servants:

then the men of David sware unto him; after they had observed the danger he was exposed unto, and how narrowly he escaped with his life:

saying, thou shalt go no more with us to battle; they had persuaded him not to go to the battle with Absalom; they had suffered him to go with them now, he being, no doubt, forward and pressing to it; but now they were resolute, and determined he should never go more:

that thou quench not the light of Israel; signifying that their glory and prosperity depended on his life, and that, should he be taken away, they should be in affliction and adversity, their honour and their happiness would be at an end; the Targum is,

"thou mayest not extinguish the kingdom of Israel,''

the light and glory of it.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Samuel 21:17. That thou quench not the light of Israel. — David is here considered as the lamp by which all Israel was guided, and without whom all the nation must be involved in darkness. The lamp is the emblem of direction and support. Light is used in this sense by Homer: -

Ουδε τι Πατροκλῳ γενομην φαος, αυδ ' ἑταροισιπ

Τοις αλλοις, οἱ δη πολεες δαμεν Ἑκτορι διῳ.

Iliad, lib. xviii. ver. 102.

"I have neither been a LIGHT to Patroclus nor to his

companions, who have been slain by the noble Hector."