A third part you shall burn in the fire in the middle of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled. You shall take a third part, and strike with the sword around it. A third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 2. Third. Septuagint and Theod. read “a fourth,” as also verse 12. ( Calmet.) thus assigning half to be burnt by death (pestilence) and famine. The other half of the people falls a prey to the sword and to captivity. The pestilence, famine, and the sword, were the three usual scourges left to David’s choice, (2 Kennicott. 24) which here destroy each a fourth part, while the rest become captives. Yet even of this third or fourth part, many engage in civil broils, and perish. S. Jerom hints that the Septuagint is interpolated from Theodotion, verse 12, and that their version only comprised the pentateuch. But the other books went at least under the same title; and there must be some mistake in the words asterisked, since they occur in the Hebrew Vulg. and so forth third being only substituted for fourth: “And a fourth part of thee shall fall by the sword.” The Hebrew is rather less degrading to the Jews, as there would be thus at most one-third preserved, instead of a part only of one-fourth. See Deuteronomy 27:4. Jeremiah 52:28.—Take. Septuagint add here, “a fourth part; and shalt burn it in the midst of it; and a fourth thou shalt cut,” and so forth Bible.—He was thus to deal with a part of the hair during 390 days, ( Menochius.) or at the end of them. R. Salom.—Round, in the cities near Jerusalem, ( Worthington.) or round the picture of it. Calmet. 4:1.