1 Chronicles 14:11

So they came up to Baalperazim; and David smote them there. Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters: therefore they called the name of that place Baalperazim.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) So they came up to Baal-perazım.—And they: that is, David and his troops. Samuel, “And David came into Baal-perazim.” The locality is unknown. The prophet Isaiah (1Chronicles 28:21) refers to these two victories of David: “For Jehovah shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.” Such a reference proves the great moment of the events so briefly chronicled here.

God hath broken in upon mine enemies.—Samuel has “Jehovah” here and in 1Chronicles 14:10 a, and again in 1Chronicles 14:14-15. (See Note, 1Chronicles 13:12.) True to his character, David owns the mighty hand of God in the results of his own valour. (Comp. 1Chronicles 17:16, sqq.) He is conscious of being God’s instrument. Contrast the haughty self-confidence of the Assyrian conqueror (Isaiah 10:5-15).

By mine hand.—Samuel, “before me;” and so the Syriac and Arabic here. The Hebrew phrases are probably synonymous. (Comp. 1Samuel 21:14, “in their hand,” i.e., before them.) In Arabic, “between the hands” means before. Our text seems the more original here.

Like the breaking forth of waters.—David’s forces probably charged down the slopes of Mount Perazim (Isaiah 28:21), like a mountain torrent, sweeping all before it.

They called.—An explanation of Samuel, which has “he [i.e., one] called.” The remark indicates the antiquity of the narrative. (Comp. the frequent verbal plays of this kind in the stories of the Book of Genesis.)

Baal-perazim.—Lord, or owner, of breaches, or breakings forth. “Baal” may refer to Jehovah ( comp. 1Chronicles 9:33, Note); and perāzîm may have also meant the fissures or gullies on the mountain-side. It is the plural of the word perez (1Chronicles 13:11).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:1-17 David's victories. - In this chapter we have an account of, 1. David's kingdom established. 2. His family built up. 3. His enemies defeated. This is repeated from 2Sa 5. Let the fame of David be looked upon as a type and figure of the exalted honour of the Son of David.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare 2 Samuel 5:11-25, the only important variations from which are in 1 Chronicles 14:4-7, the list of the sons of David (see 1 Chronicles 3:1 note), and in 1 Chronicles 14:12, where the fact is added that the idols taken from the Philistines were burned.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. they came up to Baal-perazim; and David smote them there—In an engagement fought at Mount Perazim (Isa 28:21), in the valley of Rephaim, a few miles west of Jerusalem, the Philistines were defeated and put to flight.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

See Chapter Introduction

Geneva Study Bible

So they came up to Baalperazim; and David smote them there. Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters: therefore they called the name of that place {c} Baalperazim.

(c) That is, the valley of divisions, because the enemies were dispersed there like waters.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. Baal-perazim] probably to be identified with the Mount Perazim of Isaiah 28:21, but the situation is unknown.

like the breaking forth of waters] R.V. like the breach of waters, i.e. like the breach made by waters. Probably the scene of the victory was a hill deeply scarred with water-courses. The force with which God broke through the army of the Philistines is compared with that of a torrent breaking its way through all obstacles. Baal-perazim = the place of breakings forth (R.V. mg.).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Baal-perazim; literally, master of breaches. Gesenius traces this meaning, through the intermediate idea of "possessor," to that (in this case, that place), which "possesses," i.e. is the subject of such a signal overwhelming as is here described, the scene of overwhelming defeats, like the irresistible rush of waters (Isaiah 28:21). 1 Chronicles 14:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Instead of נשּׂא כּי, that He (Jahve) had lifted up (נשּׂא, perf. Pi.), as in 2 Samuel 5:12, in the Chronicle we read למעלה נשּׂאת כּי, that his kingdom had been lifted up on high. The unusual form נשּׂאת may be, according to the context, the third pers. fem. perf. Niph., nisaa't having first been changed into נשּׂאת, and thus contracted into נשּׂאת; cf. Ew. 194, b. In 2 Samuel 19:43 the same form is the infin. abs. Niph. למעלה is here, as frequently in the Chronicles, used to intensify the expression: cf. 1 Chronicles 22:5; 1 Chronicles 23:17; 1 Chronicles 29:3, 1 Chronicles 29:25; 2 Chronicles 1:1; 2 Chronicles 17:12. With regard to the sons of David, see on 1 Chronicles 3:5-8.

In the account of the victories over the Philistines, the statement (2 Samuel 5:17) that David went down to the mountain-hold, which has no important connection with the main fact, and would have been for the readers of the Chronicle somewhat obscure, is exchanged in 1 Chronicles 14:8 for the more general expression לפניהם ויּצא, "he went forth against them." In 1 Chronicles 14:14, the divine answer to David's question, whether he should march against the Philistines, runs thus: מעליהם הסב אחריהם תּעלה לא, Thou shalt not go up after them; turn away from them, and come upon them over against the baca-bushes; - while in 2 Samuel 5:23, on the contrary, we read: אל־אחריהם הסב תעלה הסב אל־א לע, Thou shalt not go up (i.e., advance against the enemy to attack them in front); turn thee behind them (i.e., to their rear), and come upon them over against the baca-bushes. Bertheau endeavours to get rid of the discrepancy, by supposing that into both texts corruptions have crept through transcribers' errors. He conjectures that the text of Samuel was originally אחריהם תּעלה לא, while in the Chronicle a transposition of the words עליהם and אחריהם was occasioned by a copyist's error, which in turn resulted in the alteration of עליהם into מעליהם. This supposition, however, stands or falls with the presumption that by תּעלה לא (Sam.) an attack is forbidden; but for that presumption no tenable grounds exist: it would rather involve a contradiction between the first part of the divine answer and the second. The last clause, "Come upon them from over against the baca-bushes," shows that the attack was not forbidden; all that was forbidden was the making of the attack by advancing straight forward: instead of that, they were to try to fall upon them in the rear, by making a circuit. The chronicler consequently gives us an explanation of the ambiguous words of 2 Samuel, which might easily be misunderstood. As David's question was doubtless expressed as it is in 1 Chronicles 14:10, הפל על האעלה, the answer תּעלה לא might be understood to mean, "Go not up against them, attack them not, but go away behind them;" but with that the following וגו להם וּבאת, "Come upon them from the baca-bushes," did not seem to harmonize. The chronicler consequently explains the first clauses of the answer thus: "Go not up straight behind them," i.e., advance not against them so as to attack them openly, "but turn thyself away from them," i.e., strike off in such a direction as to turn their flank, and come upon them from the front of the baca-bushes. In this way the apparently contradictory texts are reconciled without the alteration of a word. In 1 Chronicles 14:17, which is wanting in Samuel, the author concludes the account of these victories by the remark that they tended greatly to exalt the name of David among the nations. For similar reflections, cf. 2 Chronicles 17:10; 2 Chronicles 20:29; 2 Chronicles 14:13; and for שׁם ויּצא, 2 Chronicles 26:15.