Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 17/05/2005 15:57, Karl Randolph wrote:

> To make it even more interesting, in 2 Samuel 6, whose house was the ark in 
> when David decided to bring it to Jerusalem?
>
> Further, how old was Samuel when he started judging Israel? How long did he 
> judge Israel? In other words, does the verse refer not to the time that the 
> Ark of the Covenant was in Gibeah, but the time that Samuel was judge over 
> Israel?
>
> My reading is that the verse refers to Samuel’s judgeship over Israel, and 
> the events listed subsequently were events that occured during that 20 years. 
> Of course, I may have overlooked something, so what do others on this list 
> say?
>  

Karl, you have spotted the chronological issues behind my question. It 
seems to me that the 20 years are the period from when the ark arrived 
at Kiriath-Jearim (= Baalah) until when David took it (via Obed-Edom's 
house) to Jerusalem, which was more than seven years after the death of 
Saul. But that has certain consequences e.g. that the judgeship of 
Samuel and the reign of Saul must be squeezed into 13 years. And 
Samuel's defeat of the Philistines at Mizpah would be at the beginning 
of this period. I note that the Hebrew text of 1 Samuel 13:1 states that 
Saul reigned only two years, although there is certainly some textual 
corruption in this verse. And there is no reason to assume that Samuel's 
judgeship was actually longer than 10 years.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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