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ויהי1961 מקץ7093 ארבעים705 שׁנה8141 ויאמר559 אבשׁלום53  אל413  המלך4428  אלכה1980  נא4994  ואשׁלם7999 את853 נדרי5088 אשׁר834 נדרתי5087 ליהוה3068 בחברון׃2275

2Sa 13:24-27

Verse 7. After forty years] There is no doubt that this reading is corrupt, though supported by the commonly printed Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee. But the Syriac has (Syriac) arba shanin, FOUR years; the Arabic the same (Arabic) arba shinin, FOUR years; and Josephus has the same; so also the Sixtine edition of the Vulgate, and several MSS. of the same version. Theodouret also reads four, not forty; and most learned men are of opinion that µy[bra arbaim, FORTY, is an error for [rba arba, FOUR; yet this reading is not supported by any Hebrew MS. yet discovered. But two of those collated by Dr. Kennicott have µwy yom instead of hnŤ shanah, i.e., forty DAYS, instead of forty YEARS; and this is a reading more likely to be true than that in the commonly received text.

We know that Absalom did stay THREE years with his grandfather at Geshur, chap. xiii. 38; and this probably was a year after his return: the era, therefore, may be the time of his slaying his brother Amnon; and the four years include the time from his flight till the conspiracy mentioned here.

Ver. 7. And it came to pass after forty years , etc.] Or four years; so long it was from the reconciliation of Absalom to David, as Josephus says; and so read Theodoret on the place, the Syriac and Arabic versions: but some say it was either forty years from the time Israel first had a king; and which might be an era of reckoning with the Jews, as the era of Seleucidae was with the Greeks, on the like account; or from the time Saul slew the priests at Nob, as Jerom f257 ; or from the time of David’s being anointed by Samuel; or this was the year of Absalom’s age, or of David’s reign: but these, and other attempts made to account for this passage, are not entirely satisfactory; and therefore one may be tempted to conclude there must be a mistake in the copy, of “arbaim” for “arba”, forty for four; which makes it quite easy, and confirms the first sense: that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow , which I have vowed unto the Lord, in Hebron ; not what he vowed in Hebron; for according to his own account he had vowed it in Geshur, as in ( 2 Samuel 15:8); but his request is, that he might pay it in Hebron; which place he fixed upon, being his native place, and where David was anointed king; and which, being about twenty miles from Jerusalem, was at a proper distance to lay the scene of his conspiracy in, and bring it to perfection.

ויהי1961 מקץ7093 ארבעים705 שׁנה8141 ויאמר559 אבשׁלום53  אל413  המלך4428  אלכה1980  נא4994  ואשׁלם7999 את853 נדרי5088 אשׁר834 נדרתי5087 ליהוה3068 בחברון׃2275