(21) And what one nation in the earth.--Rather, And who is like Thy people Israel, a single (isolated) race on the earth? (Comp. Numbers 23:9.)

Nation (goy)--i.e., race; a people considered as united by common blood, speech, country.

People ('?m)--i.e., a political community, social union, or state, owning one sovereign.

Whom God went . . .--Literally, which God went (marched) to redeem to Himself as a people. Samuel has "which gods went."

To make thee a name.--That is, for Thyself, God. Samuel has "for him," in the same sense.

A name of greatness and terribleness.--Both nouns are plural, and imply renown for great and terrible deeds.

By driving.--To drive; parallel with "to redeem "and "to make."

Nations.--Samuel adds, "and his gods." The text of this verse in Samuel is corrupt (comp. the LXX.), and perhaps the added phrase is spurious. But, on the other hand, the chronicler may have omitted it because, like Isaiah, he regarded the heathen deities as non-entities. In earlier times, foreign gods were spoken of as real beings, subordinate to Jehovah. (Comp. the LXX. rendering of Deuteronomy 32:8.)

Verse 21. - In the parallel verse (2 Samuel 7:23), our Authorized Version, following the Hebrew text (לְכֶם), reads, "To do for you great things and terrible." The transition is awkward, no way in harmony with the other short clauses of the passage, and it would be inexplicable except for the alternative open to us, of regarding it as a quotation from Deuteronomy 4:34, brought in regardless of the context into which it was introduced. The difficulty does not meet us in our present passage, being obviated by the other sentences of our compiler. Both places, however, manifestly quote from the Book of Deuteronomy, with the grand passages and grand verbiage of which we may well imagine David familiar. A similar familiarity is also betokened in the following verses, as regard other Pentateuchal passages.

17:1-27 David's purposes; God's gracious promises. - This chapter is the same as 2Sa 7. See what is there said upon it. It is very observable that what in Samuel is said to be, for thy word's sake, is here said to be, "for thy servant's sake," ver. 19. Jesus Christ is both the Word of God, Re 19:13, and the Servant of God, Isa 42:1; and it is for his sake, upon account of his mediation, that the promises are made good to all believers; it is in him, that they are yea and amen. For His sake it is done, for his sake it is made known; to him we owe all this greatness, from him we are to expect all these great things. They are the unsearchable riches of Christ, which, if by faith we see in themselves, and see in the Lord Jesus, we cannot but magnify as the only true greatness, and speak honourably of them. For this blessedness may we look amidst the trials of life, and when we feel the hand of death upon us; and seek it for our children after us.See Chapter Introduction