Except  thou  take  away.—A  better  translation
is,  Thou  shalt  not  come  hither y  but  the  blind  and  the
lame  shaU  Iceep  thee  off.  The  Jebusites,  confident  in
the  natural  stronKth  of  their  fortress,  boast  that  even
the  lame  and  the  blind  could  defend  it.  Their  citadel
was  upon  Mount  Zion,  the  highest  of  the  hills  of
Jerusalem,  south-west  of  the  temple  hill  of  Moriah,  and
surrounded  on  three  sides  by  deep  valleys.
(8)  Gtotteth  up  to  the  gutter.— llie  sense  of  this
passage  is  obscure,  partlv  from  the  difficulty  of  the
Hebrew  construction,  paruy  from  the  uncertainty  of  the
meaning  of  the  word  tnuislated  gutter,  Tlus  word
occurs  elsewhere  only  in  Fs.  xHi.  7,  where  it  is  trans-
lated waterspouts.  The  ancient  versions  differ  in  their
interpretations,  but  the  most  probable  sense  is  water-
courses,  such  as  were  connected  with  the  predpices
around  Mount  Zion.  The  two  clauses  also  are  un-
necessarily transposed  in  our  version,  and  the  word
fetteth,  by  a  veiy  slight  change  in  the  Masoretic  vowels,
«comes  cast  or  hurl.  The  whole  clause  will  then
read,  "  Whosoever  smites  the  Jebusites,  let  him  hurl
into  the  watercourses  (i.0.,  down  the  precipice)  the
lame  and  the  blind."  David  thus  applies  to  all  the
Jebusites  the  expression  they  had  just  used  of  those
who  would  suffice  to  resist  his  attack.  The  clause
**  that  are  hated  of  David's  soul,"  shows  that  in  this


sieffe  no  quarter  was  to  be  given ;  the  Jebusites  were
under  the  old  ban  resting  upon  all  the  Ganaanites,
and  were  to  be  destroyed.  The  English  version  inserts
the  danse,  "  he  shall  be  chief  and  captain,"  which  is
not  in  the  original,  and  is  here  obscure.  In  1  Ghron.
