2 Kings 11:10

And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give King David's spears and shields, that were in the temple of the Lord.

And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king's house; No JFB commentary on these verses.

Spears and shields; offensive and defensive weapons, which he gave to the captains, both for themselves, and for all their soldiers; for they all came into the temple unarmed, to prevent suspicion. These are called David’ s, either because they were such as he had taken from his enemies which he had dedicated to God, and laid up in the temple as monuments of God’ s goodness to him; see ,11 ; or because David had made a sacred armory in the temple, whence arms might be taken upon extraordinary occasions, for the defence of the temple or city of God.

2 Kings 11:10 And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king David’ s spears and shields, that [were] in the temple of the LORD. Ver. 10. King David’ s spears and shields.] Kept in the temple for trophies and tokens of thanksgiving: such as were Goliath’ s sword, and the Syrians’ shields.

(10) King David’s spears and shields.—The Hebrew has spear, but Chronicles has the plural, which appears correct. “Shields” should perhaps be arms. (Comp. 2 Samuel 8:7; 2 Chronicles 23:9.) The arms which David had laid up in the Temple as spoils of war were now to be used, appropriately enough, for the restoration of David’s heir to the throne. Possibly, as Bähr suggests, the guards who came off duty at the palace had left their weapons there.

Verse 10. King David's spears and shields] Josephus expressly says that David had provided an arsenal for the temple, out of which Jehoiada took those arms. His words are; ΑνοιξαςδεΙωαδοςτηνεντῳἱερῳὁπλοθηκην, ἡνΔαβιδηςκατεσκευασε, διεμερισετοιςἑκατονταρχαιςἁμακαιἱεροισικαιΛευιταιςἁπανθ' ὁσαεὑρενεναυτῃδορατατεκαιφαρετρας, καιειτιἑτερονειδοςὁπλουκατελαβε. "And Jehoiada having opened the arsenal in the temple, which David had prepared, he divided among the centurions, priests, and Levites, the spears, (arrows,) and quivers, and all other kinds of weapons which he found there." - Ant. lib. ix., c. 7, s. 8.

10. And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give] R.V. And the priest delivered to the captains over hundreds. Thus the English is made to correspond to the Hebrew order more closely, and to the translation in 2 Chron. It is to be observed that both accounts agree about the weapons being delivered to the soldiery by Jehoiada, thus making clear that to both compilers it was known that the whole undertaking was controlled by the guard and not by the priests and Levites, though, as his manner is, the writer of Chronicles puts them in the forefront as much as he can. king David’s stears and shields] R.V. the spears and shields that had been king David’s. This is the form in 2 Chronicles, except that there ‘bucklers’ are mentioned between ‘spears’ and ‘shields’. These weapons were those which David in his wars had taken from his enemies, and stored probably in the chambers round the temple. For the practice of so devoting the weapons of the conquered cf. the sword of Goliath laid up in store with Ahimelech at Nob (1 Samuel 21:9), and the shields which David took from the servants of Hadadezer (2 Samuel 13:7) and carried to Jerusalem. that were in the temple [R.V. house] of the Lord] It is the same word which is rendered ‘house’ frequently in this chapter. Of course it means ‘temple’, but the English reader might suppose that the original had here a different word. The same change has to be made in the next verse, three times over; and in the parallel verse in 2 Chron.

10. King David’s spears and shields — The trophies and relics of David’s many wars. These had been preserved as treasures in the temple.