οὐκ ἠδυνήθησαν πολιορκῆσαι] Could not make their siege effective. Cf. 2 Kings xvi. 5. Heb. has ‘went up to war against it, but succeeded not in warring against ’: which Lxx. may have deliberately paraphrased with πολιορκῆσαι to avoid a seeming contradiction.

2. ἀνηγγέλη. . .λέγοντες] λέγων ℵΒ, λεγόντων 14 cursives, including all the Lucianic but 144 233. The participle is intended to represent the Heb. infinitive ‘construct’ with 5, used explanatorily. Aquila in such cases uses τῷ λέγειν, in his literal fashion: see lvi. 6 (B) and 2 Kings xix. 10 (A). The nominative participle produces anacoluthon in Greek, but is not uncommon in phrases like the present: λεγόντων may be viewed as an attempt to save the grammar.

τὸν οἶκον Δαυεἰδ] Either the court circle, or the royal family. The latter, multiplied by polygamy and early marriages, seem at certain periods to have formed “a numerous and influential upper caste’ (Cheyne): probably most powerful when the king was weak. See 2 Kings x. 13, 14: Jerem. xxxvi. (xliii.) 12, xxxviii. (xlv.) 4, 5. Athaliah cut down the ‘seed royal,’ at any rate those nearly related to the king, till only the infant Joash remained, 2 Kings xi. I, 2: but the old causes would soon multiply them again.

Cheyne thinks that strictly the ‘house of David’ ought to include the ‘house of Nathan’ (Zech. xii. 12); but they had become very distant cousins of the king, and probably had ceased to be counted of the ‘seed royal’ in ’s time; being only brought back into the succession by later vicissitudes, cf. I Chr. iii. 17 with Luke iii. 2731 See below on ver. 14.

Συνεφώνησεν] Heb. ‘hath rested upon,’ same verb as in ver. 19. xi. 2: here, apparently, of making close alliance, in which case LXX gives a fair rendering: or else, literally, of encamping on the country of Israel. For the Greek verb see Gen. xiv. 3: Matt. xx. 13 Acts v. 9