Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 16:1
And when David was a little past the top [of the hill], behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred [loaves] of bread, and a hundred bunches of raisins, and a hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
Ch. 2Sa 16:1-4. David met by Ziba with a present
1. the top of the hill ] See note on ch. 2Sa 15:32.
two hundred loaves of bread, &c.] Compare Abigail’s present (1Sa 25:18). Ziba was shrewd enough to foresee the result of the rebellion, and wished to secure the king’s favour.
an hundred of summer fruits ] Probably cakes of dried figs (so the Vulg.) or dates (so the Sept.). Cp. Amo 8:1.
a bottle of wine ] A skin, holding a considerable quantity.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A couple of donkeys saddled – Those that Mephibosheth and his servant should have ridden. See 2Sa 19:26 note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Sa 16:1-14
And when David was a little past the top of the hill.
Impatience and submission
Mephibosheth, it will be recollected, was the only son of Jonathan. Now, when David was a little past the top of the hill where he had worshipped God, he met Ziba coming towards him with two asses, laden with cakes of raisins and summer fruits, a skin-bottle of wine, and two hundred loaves of bread. Probably, when David first saw Ziba, he thought that Mephibosheth had sent this timely contribution, and the first thing that annoyed him was to find that this present did not come from him at all. No doubt there was a good deal more conversation between David and Ziba than is recorded; the crafty man made it very plain that it was he who had been so thoughtful for the kings wants; thus he led David on to suspect Mephibosheths loyalty; and when the king asked him plainly why his master was not with him, feigning probably great reluctance to speak against his employer, and pretending that only loyalty induced him to speak, he told the lie against Mephibosheth. David was very apt to judge hastily: he was a man of a very warm temperament, with strong affections, and passions that were easily excited. Here Ziba seemed faithful, and mindful of his sovereign, when Mephibosheth was said to be ungrateful; and thinking that he has found devotion where he expected nothing, and ingratitude where he looked for love, as it was in the case of Ittai and Ahithophel, and really forgetting in the moment of his flight, and when in danger of losing his own throne, that he has no power to enforce his sentence, he awards to the crafty Ziba all the lands of Mephibosheth. How many times we are warned in Scripture against pronouncing hasty judgments; and which of us has not had to confess more than once that the bad opinion we have formed of some person was altogether erroneous? Again and again we have listened to unjust calumnies; we have thought there must be some truth in the accusation, some foundation for the slander, and we have acted very much like David here. David had gone but a few steps further before he encountered Shimei, another of the tribe of Benjamin. Bahurim is but a little distance from Bethany, on the other side of the Mount of Olives; but tilt they reached that spot, faint and weary, Shimei followed them with bitter curses. Now David had recovered himself; probably his conscience blamed him for his hasty ebullition of temper against Mephibosheth: and he may have felt that he had believed Zibas story too easily. At least, when he spoke like that, he had forgotten his early friendship, and the beautiful and disinterested love of Jonathan. Now we are to see David in a better mood; grace has once more subdued nature. Now, Shimei was uttering unjust words: David of course knew that he did not deserve them for no one could have been more forbearing to the house of Saul: and perhaps Shimeis words reminded him, as well as Abishais impetuousness, of his own conduct to that family in times past; and hence his command of his temper at this moment. Perhaps, too, the unjust slanders of Shimei made him aware that Ziba might have been slandering his friend Mephibosheth and just because he felt he did not deserve it, and his conscience did not prick him in the matter, perhaps he was the more able to forgive the man. This man Shimei evidently had long hated David. He had been hoping there would be some reverse in his fortunes, and he rejoiced in his enemys downfall. But what does David do? He loses sight of Shimei altogether; he looks above the instrument to the Agent; he sees Gods hand in the matter, and to be angry, therefore, would be to be discontented with the providence of God. Oh that we could learn to follow David in this! There are numberless annoyances that happen to us all; and since we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God, we must be prepared for trials that will peculiarly test our faith and patience. If you forget that the Lord reigneth, if you do not connect the providence of God with all that happens, the very smallest daily trouble may completely upset you, and you will be continually losing your temper. And then there was another great advantage to David in this circumstance, and, indeed, in the whole rebellion: it just showed him the value of human affection, and made him feel how fickle the populace is. And the bitter words of Shimei, perhaps more than anything else, would humble his pride and self-conceit. We are all too apt to flatter each other. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but faithful friends are very few. Partly because we want to stand well with our friends, partly because we do not like to hurt their feelings, we never tell them of their faults. We repeat the good, but not the evil, that we hear about them; and as we do this to each other, and are naturally indulgent to our own failings, we are all too apt to have a good opinion of ourselves. The fact is that self-righteousness clings to us to the very last. We are apt to feel as if there was really something commendable in us. We use expressions about our sinfulness which too often have little meaning-in them; and strange as it may seem, we really forget our utter natural corruption. And lastly, observe that as, when David sent back the ark, he expressed a hope that God would bring him to see it again, so he is conscious of being in his Fathers hands; he believes that this chastening is sent for good; and he looks forward to a happy issue out of all his affliction. But let us never forget the end of it all: that if God begins, He will surely carry on the work of grace; that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And in the midst of all the trials that may come upon us, possibly even the desertion of friends–as David bore them meekly,. a type of Him who prayed for His enemies–so let us ever keep the bright certainty of eternal glory before us; and we shall be meek and patient, as David was; and we, like the Master, for the joy set before us, shall endure the cross, despising the shame; and as there will be heaven for us hereafter, so there will be peace even now. (C. Bosanquet, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XVI
Ziba, servant of Mephibosheth, meets David with provisions, and
by false insinuations obtains the grant of his masters
property, 1-4.
Shimei abuses and curses David, who restrains Abishai from
slaying him, 5-14.
Hushai makes a feigned tender of his services to Absalom, 15-19.
Absalom calls a council and Ahithophel advises him to go in to
his father’s concubines, 20-22.
Character of Ahithophel as a counselor, 23.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVI
Verse 1. Two hundred loaves of bread] The word loaf gives us a false idea of the ancient Jewish bread; it was thin cakes, not yeasted and raised like ours.
Bunches of raisins] See on 1Sa 25:18.
Summer fruits] These were probably pumpions, cucumbers, or watermelons. The two latter are extensively used in those countries to refresh travellers in the burning heat of the summer. Mr. Harmer supposes they are called summer fruits on this very account.
A bottle of wine.] A goat’s skin full of wine; this I have already shown was the general bottle in the Eastern countries; see on 1Sa 25:18.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Ziba; a crafty man, who, being persuaded that God would in due time appear for the righteous cause of so good a king, and scatter the cloud which was now upon him, takes this occasion to make way for his future advancement. A bottle; a large bottle or vessel proportionable to the other provisions.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Ziba the servant of Mephiboshethmet himThis crafty man, anticipating the certain failure ofAbsalom’s conspiracy, took steps to prepare for his futureadvancement on the restoration of the king.
a bottle of winealarge goatskin vessel. Its size made the supply of wine proportionedto the rest of his present.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when David was a little past the top [of the hill],…. Of the mount of Olives, the ascent of which he is said to go up by, and to come to the top of it, 2Sa 15:30;
behold, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him; of whom see 2Sa 9:2;
with a couple of asses saddled: and so fit to ride on, but for the present he used them to another purpose:
and upon them two hundred [loaves] of bread; an hundred on each ass very probably:
and an hundred bunches of raisins; or dried grapes, as the Targum:
and an hundred of summer fruits: not in number, but in weight, as apples, pears, plums, apricots, c. so the Targum, an hundred pounds of figs:
and a bottle of wine: a cask or flagon of wine for a bottle, such as is in use with us, would have signified nothing in such a company.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ziba’s faithless conduct towards Mephibosheth. – 2Sa 16:1. When David had gone a little over the height (of the Mount of Olives: points back to 2Sa 15:32), Mephibosheth’s servant Ziba came to meet him, with a couple of asses saddled, and laden with two hundred loaves, a hundred raisin-cakes, a hundred date or fig-cakes, and a skin of wine. The word corresponds to the Greek , as the lxx have rendered it in Jer 40:10, Jer 40:12, and is used to signify summer fruits, both here and in Amo 8:1 (Symm.). The early translators rendered it lumps of figs in the present passage ( ; cf. Ges . Thes. p. 1209). The Septuagint only has . The latter is certainly the more correct, as the dried lumps of figs or fig-cakes were called (1Sa 25:18); and even at the present day ripe dates, pressed together in lumps like cakes, are used in journeys through the desert, as a satisfying and refreshing food (vid., Winer, bibl. Realwrterbuch, i. 253).
2Sa 16:2 When the king asked him, “What are these for thee?” i.e., what art thou going to do with them? Ziba replied, “The asses are for the king’s family to ride upon (to ride upon in turn), the bread and summer fruits for the young men (the king’s servants) to eat, and the wine for those that are faint in the desert to drink” (see at 2Sa 15:23). The Chethib is evidently a copyist’s error for .
2Sa 16:3 To the further question put by the king, “Where is thy lord (Mephibosheth)? Ziba replied, “Behold, he sits (is staying) in Jerusalem; for he said, To-day will the house of Israel restore the kingship (government) of my father.” The “kingship of my father,” inasmuch as the throne would have passed to Jonathan if he had outlived Saul. It is obvious enough, apart altogether from 2Sa 19:25., the Ziba was calumniating his master Mephibosheth, in the hope of getting possession of the lands that he was farming for him. A cripple like Mephibosheth, lame in both feet, who had never put in any claim to the throne before, could not possibly have got the idea now that the people of Israel, who had just chosen Absalom as king, would give the throne of Saul to such a cripple as he was. It is true that Ziba’s calumny was very improbable; nevertheless, in the general confusion of affairs, it was not altogether an inconceivable thing that the oppressed party of Saul might avail themselves of this opportunity to make an attempt to restore the power of that house, which many greatly preferred to that of David, under the name of Mephibosheth.
2Sa 16:4 And in the excited state in which David then was, he was weak enough to give credence to Ziba’s words, and to commit the injustice of promising the calumniator all that belonged to Mephibosheth, – a promise for which he most politely thanked him. , “I bow myself,” equivalent to, I lay myself at thy feet. “May I find favour in the eyes of my lord the king!” i.e., may the king grant me his favour (vid., 1Sa 1:18).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Ziba’s Calumny. | B. C. 1023. |
1 And when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and a hundred bunches of raisins, and a hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine. 2 And the king said unto Ziba, What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, The asses be for the king’s household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that such as be faint in the wilderness may drink. 3 And the king said, And where is thy master’s son? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem: for he said, To day shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father. 4 Then said the king to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertained unto Mephibosheth. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king.
We read before how kind David was to Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, how he prudently entrusted his servant Ziba with the management of his estate, while he generously entertained him at his own table, ch. ix. 10. This matter was well settled; but, it seems, Ziba is not content to be manager, he longs to be master, of Mephibosheth’s estate. Now, he thinks, is his time to make himself so; if he can procure a grant of it from the crown, whether David or Absalom get the better it is all one to him, he hopes he shall secure his prey, which he promises himself by fishing in troubled waters. In order hereunto, 1. He made David a handsome present of provisions, which was the more welcome because it came seasonably (v. 1), and with this he designed to incline him to himself; for a man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men, Prov. xviii. 16. Nay, Whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth, Prov. xvii. 8. David inferred from this that Ziba was a very discreet and generous man, and well affected to him, when, in all, he designed nothing but to make his own market and to get Mephibosheth’s estate settled upon himself. Shall the prospect of advantage in this world make men generous to the rich? and shall not the belief of an abundant recompence in the resurrection of the just make us charitable to the poor? Luke xiv. 14. Ziba was very considerate in the present he brought to David; it was what would do him some good in his present distress, v. 2. Observe, The wine was intended for those that were faint, not for the king’s own drinking, or the courtiers; it seems, they did not commonly use it, but it was for cordials for those that were ready to perish, Prov. xxxi. 6. Blessed art thou, O land! when thy princes use wine for strength, as David did, and not for drunkenness, as Absalom did, ch. xiii. 28. See Eccl. x. 17. Whatever Ziba intended in this present, God’s providence sent it to David for his support very graciously. God makes use of bad men for good purposes to his people, and sends them meat by ravens. Having by his present insinuated himself into David’s affection, and gained credit with him, the next thing he has to do for the compassing of his end is to incense him against Mephibosheth, which he does by a false accusation, representing him as ungratefully designing to raise himself by the present broils, and to recover the crown to his own head, now that David and his son were contending for it. David enquires for him as one of his family, which gives Ziba occasion to tell this false story of him, v. 3. What immense damages do masters often sustain by the lying tongues of their servants! David knew Mephibosheth not to be an ambitious man, but easy in his place, and well-affected to him and his government; nor could he be so weak as to expect with his lame legs to climb the ladder of preferment; yet David gives credit to the calumny, and, without further enquiry or consideration, convicts Mephibosheth of treason, seizes his lands as forfeited, and grants them to Ziba: Behold, thine are all that pertained to Mephibosheth (v. 4), a rash judgment, and which afterwards he was ashamed of, when the truth came to light, ch. xix. 29. Princes cannot help it, but they will be sometimes (as our law speaks) deceived in their grants; but they ought to use all means possible to discover the truth and to guard against malicious designing men, who would impose upon them, as Ziba did upon David. Having by his wiles gained his point, Ziba secretly laughed at the king’s credulity, congratulated himself on his success, and departed, with a great compliment upon the king, that he valued his favour more than Mephibosheth’s estate: “Let me find grace in thy sight, O king! and I have enough.” Great men ought always to be jealous of flatterers, and remember that nature has given them two ears, that they may hear both sides.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Second Samuel – Chapter 16
The Lying Ziba, vs. 1-4
Ziba had been appointed caretaker for Mephibosheth over the estate of Saul (2Sa 9:9-11). The context of this passage strongly indicates that Ziba had been previously reaping fine profits from his personal use of the land, while Mephibosheth was hiding in Lo-debar. Likely his income was greatly lessened by the return of the estate to Mephibosheth, and he had resented it, though he had acquiesced in the king’s appointment.
The tale with which Ziba now came to David seems to further indicate the true nature of his heart. As a front he pretended great concern for the welfare of the king and his entourage. He brought bread for the men, with raisins and fresh fruits, wine for the faint, and donkeys for the king’s household to ride upon. It appeared to be a very friendly gesture on the part of Ziba.
But it aroused the wonder of David as to the absence of Mephibosheth. When David inquired of Ziba concerning him he was told that Mephibosheth had deliberately remained in Jerusalem expecting that the people would return the throne to him as the heir of Saul. This is another instance of David’s seeming naivet. David’s believing such a lie as this is almost as incredible as it would have been for Mephibosheth to believe Absalom would raise a rebellion to put him on the throne. How could David believe Mephibosheth would be so foolish? He was very frustrated and shocked at all that was occurring, perhaps being unable to think clearly at the time.
Nevertheless David ceded the land of Saul, which had been Mephibosheth’s, to Ziba. Ziba had accomplished his purpose and bowed graciously before the king. No doubt he hurried back to the land to lay claim to what he had stolen.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES.
2Sa. 16:1. Met him. Ziba had therefore gone on in advance of the army (as Hushai did) in order more easily to secure Davids attention after the first disorder was over. (Erdmann.) Bunches of raisins, i.e., raisin cakes. Summer fruits, probably fig-cakes, as in 1Sa. 25:18. A bottle, a skin.
2Sa. 16:2. The asses, etc. The manner of Zibas trick was this (2Sa. 19:26). Mephibosheth, learning of Davids flight, had ordered asses saddled for himself and his servants, in order to repair to the king in token of his faithful attachment. Ziba had taken the asses together with the presents intended by Mephibosheth for the king, come to the latter, and left the helpless Mephibosheth in the lurch. (Erdmann.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.2Sa. 16:1-4
THE TREACHERY OF ZIBA
I. Benevolent acts are often performed from motives of policy and sometimes at another mans expense. Although it is not our business at all times to inquire minutely into the sources whence men obtain the means of doing deeds of charity and apparent kindness, or to be severe in passing judgment upon them, the interests of truth and justice sometimes demand such an investigation and sentence. For instance, in olden times, the smuggler and the highwayman were sometimes lavish in giving of the fruits of their dishonesty to the poor and needy, but in doing so they gave what did not belong to them and therefore deserved blame, and not praise. And men now-a-days often give away what they have gotten by means quite as unlawful, though more outwardly respectable. We can hardly suppose that in any such case what is given is given from a right motive. In the case of Ziba, the motive for his liberality was evidently as corrupt as its source. We cannot believe that he was prompted by the same feelings as were Davids other benefactors. The character of the man forbids such a supposition, and we must conclude that he was farsighted enough to see that David would be victorious, and credulous enough to think that he would not discover his falsehood. Like the unjust steward of our Lords parable, he could well afford to be generous at his masters expense, and although his selfishness might be less palpable, his dishonesty warrants us in concluding it was quite as real.
II. The best of men often err in their judgment of others. David here looks upon Ziba as his true friend, and upon Mephibosheth as a most ungrateful man. In this we know he was altogether mistaken, yet how entirely were appearances in favour of his opinion. In these days, in a civilized country, a man could not suffer such a wrong as Mephibosheth here suffered at the hand of David, for he would not be condemned without an opportunity of defending himself, but in other forms men often suffer much from the calumny and mistakes of others. A wicked and designing person, for his own selfish ends, falsely accuses a good man to his friend, the accused person is ignorant of the charge, circumstances seem against him, and the very esteem in which his friend has hitherto held him seems to increase his indignation at the supposed treachery. For, if David had not had so great a regard for Mephibosheth, he would not have been stung so keenly by his supposed desertion, and probably would not have so hastily passed so severe a sentence upon him. In view of his error let us learn to be slow in believing evil of any, especially of those whom we have hitherto had reason to regard as honest and true, and let us be thankful that above and over all human judges there is One who cannot err in His judgment, because He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, neither reprove (decide) after the hearing of His ears, but will judge with righteousness and reprove (decide) with equity. (Isa. 11:3-4).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
2Sa. 16:4. Flatterers are generally backbiters; for it is as easy to them to forge slanders of the absent as to pretend affection and respect for the present. When much treachery and ingratitude have been experienced, men are apt to become too suspicious, and to listen to every plausible tale of calumny. The mind being greatly agitated, views everything through a false medium, and we are naturally most precipitate when least capable of judging aright.Scott.
There is often more danger, and therefore more need of caution, with those who profess an especial regard for us, than with those who are avowed enemies. It is the remark of an old writer (Fuller), that Zibas gifts did David more harm than Shimeis curses, for those betrayed him into an act of injustice, whilst these reproved his patience.Lindsay.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
2. The Role of Absalom in Jerusalem, 2Sa. 16:1-23.
The People Divided. 2Sa. 16:1-14
And when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and a hundred bunches of raisins, and a hundred summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
2 And the king said unto Ziba, What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, The asses be for the kings household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that such as be faint in the wilderness may drink.
3 And the king said, And where is thy masters son? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem: for he said, Today shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father.
4 Then said the king to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertained unto Mephibosheth. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king.
5 And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera: he came forth, and cursed still as he came.
6 And he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David: and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.
7 And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial:
8 The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned; and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son: and, behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man.
9 Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head.
10 And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so?
11 And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more now may this Benjamite do it? let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him.
12 It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day.
13 And as David and his men went by the way, Shimei went along on the hills side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust.
14 And the king, and all the people, that were with him, came weary, and refreshed themselves there.
1.
Why did Ziba come to David? 2Sa. 16:1
Ziba came to bring provisions for David and his men. He also gave a report on Mephibosheth. Ziba may have misrepresented Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth later came before David in the same submissive manner he manifested when David first befriended him (2Sa. 19:24). On the other hand, Mephibosheth may have felt that he could step into the breach between David and Absalom and usurp the throne in the name of his father Saul, Israels first king. His tribe had been honored by having Israels first king selected from her ranks. Abner had championed their claim by putting Ishbosheth on the throne in Mahanain. Sheba led a revolt of Benjaminites against David later (2Sa. 20:1), indicating there was some opposition to David and Judah. If this feeling were strong enough, Mephibosheth may have had some hope of becoming a king.
2.
What reward did David give to Ziba? 2Sa. 16:4
Since David was convinced that Mephibosheth was turning against him, he gave everything that belonged to Mephibosheth to Ziba. Ziba was grateful for this, and asked that he might find favor in Davids sight. What Ziba brought was a substantial gift, inasmuch as there were 200 loaves of bread, 100 bunches of raisins, 100 bunches of summer fruits, and wine for such as might become faint in the wilderness. He also provided a couple of asses on which David might ride. David rewarded Ziba at this time, but later he was not sure that he had told him the truth. He divided Mephibosheths inheritance between him and Ziba at that time (2Sa. 19:29).
3.
Where was Bahurim? 2Sa. 16:5
Bahurim was a spot near the road which ran from Jerusalem to Jericho. Ruins in the Wady Ruwaby have been identified as this spot. The name signifies a young mans village. Shimei was a native of this town which indicated that it belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. His father was named Gera, a name that was quite common in Benjamin, and probably stemmed from the root ger which means, a sojourner. Being of this background Shimei was a champion of the house of Saul and happy to see any kind of misfortune come to David, since he viewed him as one who had usurped Sauls throne.
4.
What epithet did he hurl at David? 2Sa. 16:7
Shimei called David a bloody man and a man of Belial. The latter term was a common epithet used to describe a shameful and worthless fellow. It was the equivalent of calling him a son of Satan. His hatred for David was deep.
5.
What caused Shimeis hatred for David? 2Sa. 16:8
Shimei blamed David for the demise of the house of Saul. Such a misconstruing of the facts demonstrates why David was so careful to prevent his being linked directly in any way to the death of Saul. Even though David had slain the Amalekite who brought him word of Sauls death, and killed the two assassins of Ish-bosheth, some of the people still thought that David was responsible for the fall of the house of Saul. Shimei viewed David as reigning where a son of Saul ought to be reigning. Shimei believed that God had brought a just penalty on David, and delivered the kingdom into the hands of Absalom, his son, as a punishment for Davids having taken over the throne from Saul. In other words, Shimei was saying that it was good enough for David that he was driven out from Jerusalem.
6.
What was Abishais proposal? 2Sa. 16:9
Abishai called Shimei a dead dog. He thought it terrible that he was cursing his king. He proposed to go over and behead the man. Such a proposal was typical of Abishais spirit. It was Abishai who had suggested killing Saul as he lay sleeping as he and David slipped into his camp (1Sa. 26:8). Abishai had also been involved in killing Abner at Hebron (2Sa. 3:30).
7.
Why did David stop Abishai? 2Sa. 16:10
Once again, David said that the sons of Zeruiah were too hard for him. This is the same thing he had said when Joab and Abishai had killed Abner (2Sa. 3:39). David felt that Joab and Abishai, the sons of Zeruiah, Davids sister, were too anxious to put people to death. He stopped them from killing Shimei because he felt that God had a hand in the situation. David said that Absalom his own son, had turned against him, and he was not surprised that a man from the tribe of Benjamin would curse him. David believed that if injustices were being done to him in such matters as Shimeis cursing, then God would see that justice was done. He believed that God would repay him with good things for all the evil things which were befalling him.
8.
Why did Shimei throw dust on David? 2Sa. 16:13
Shimei was in a position above David, as the trail wound along the descent down into the Jordan valley. He threw stones at David with some expectation of injuring him, but the main emphasis of his actions was not to inflict bodily injury, as much as to heap imprecations and shame on David. His dusting him with dust could hardly injure him, but it would be a nuisance and a sign of contempt on the part of Shimei. No mention is made of the place where they stopped, but it is conjectured by many that they stopped in the edge of the Jordan valley. One of the Greek manuscripts has the phrase, along the Jordan.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XVI.
(1) Ziba . . . met him.It is evident from the sequel of the story (2Sa. 19:24-30) that Ziba grossly slandered his master, doubtless for the purpose (as appears from 2Sa. 16:4) of personal gain. This story was, indeed, almost too improbable to be believed; for, quite independently of his obligations to David, Mephibosheth, a helpless cripple of the house of Saul, could hardly have hoped that Absaloms rebellion would bring the throne to him; yet David, apt to be hasty in his judgments, was in a state to believe in any story of ingratitude, and to be deeply affected by Zibas large contribution to his necessities. Ziba shows entire want of principle, and could, therefore, have adhered to Davids cause only because he had the shrewdness to foresee its ultimate success.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
ZIBA’S HYPOCRISY AND SLANDER, 2Sa 16:1-4.
1. Two hundred loaves Ziba’s load very much resembled that of Abigail. Compare 1Sa 25:18.
Summer fruits Fruits which were adapted only to immediate consumption, and not easily preserved for winter use. Harmer supposes that cucumbers are intended, and are so called from their adaptation to allay the summer heats.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Arrival Of Ziba, Servant Of Mephibosheth ( 2Sa 16:1-4 ).
We must recognise that at the precise time when Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, arrived with his provisions, David was not thinking straightly. Had he been he would have realised that the likelihood that Mephibosheth really thought that Absalom would establish him on the throne was nil. All knew that Absalom would not have gone to all the trouble that he had gone to in order to see someone else put on the throne. Rather he was himself claiming the throne as a son of David. Nor would it have been likely that Mephibosheth would seriously have expected that Israel would agree to a total cripple like himself taking the throne. They had never considered it before, even immediately after Ishbosheth’s death, why should they then consider it now, especially when they had available Absalom the darling of the people? And this was especially so as all knew that any king at this time would need to be a capable warrior.
But it is being made clear to us by this that Absalom’s rebellion had shaken David’s confidence to such an extent that he just did not know what to believe. He was beginning to feel that he could believe anything about anyone. Thus when Ziba told him that that was what Mephibosheth had said he actually appears to have believed it, with the result that he assured Ziba that from now on all that pertained to the traitor Mephibosheth would be his. Ziba obsequiously expressed his gratitude, but he above all must have known that if Mephibosheth survived he would have an account to give. Possibly he hoped that Mephibosheth would be slaughtered during the civil war, or by Absalom because he saw him as a threat. Then he would be in the clear. But it was undoubtedly the most unlikely of arguments. It only succeeded because David’s mind was in a whirl, and also on other things. (He did have rather a lot to think about).
Analysis.
a
b And the king said to Ziba, “What is your intention concerning these?” And Ziba said, “The asses are for the king’s household to ride on, and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine is so that such as are faint in the wilderness may drink.” (2Sa 16:2).
c And the king said, “And where is your master’s son?” And Ziba said to the king, “See, he remains at Jerusalem; for he said, ‘Today will the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father.’ ” (2Sa 16:3).
b Then the king said to Ziba, “Look, all that pertains to Mephibosheth is yours” (2Sa 16:4 a).
a And Ziba said, “I do obeisance. Let me find favour in your sight, my lord, O king” (2Sa 16:4 b).
’
Note that in ‘a’ Ziba meets David with asses and provisions and in the parallel he makes obeisance to David. In ‘b’ David learns that the provisions are a gift for him and in the parallel he gives Ziba all that pertains to Mephibosheth. Central in ‘c’ is the charge that Mephibosheth has behaved treacherously.
2Sa 16:1
‘ And when David was a little past the top of the ascent, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a team of (or ‘a string of’) asses saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and a hundred of summer fruits, and a skin of wine.’
As David’s caravan including his household continued forward down the other side of the Mount of Olives, they were met by Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth who had brought a team of asses laden with provisions suitable for wilderness travelling. These included bread, raisins and figs together with some wine (compare 1Sa 30:11-12).
“A team of asses.” This would normally indicate two, but here, considering their purpose, possibly indicates a string of asses tied together. The verbal stem signifies ‘tied or yoked together’.
2Sa 16:2
‘ And the king said to Ziba, “What is your intention concerning these?” And Ziba said, “The asses are for the king’s household to ride on, and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine is so that such as are faint in the wilderness may drink.” ’
While David’s party would hardly have been suffering from a scarcity of food at this initial stage of the flight, (they had just left a well stocked palace), it would be the thought behind the gift that moved David’s heart most. It came at a time when he was glad to have friends. But what puzzled him was the absence of Mephibosheth.
2Sa 16:3
‘ And the king said, “And where is your master’s son?” And Ziba said to the king, “Look, he remains at Jerusalem; for he said, ‘Today will the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father.’ ” ’
So he asked Ziba where his master was. Ziba’s reply was that Mephibosheth had remained in Jerusalem on the grounds that he was expecting that Israel would now set him on the throne of his father. After all, as the son of Jonathan, Mephibosheth was theoretically the heir apparent to Saul.
At any other time David would undoubtedly have been deeply suspicious at such a claim, but at a time like this, when he was being betrayed by his own son, and his head was in a whirl with grief, nothing surprised him, and he appears to have taken Ziba’s words literally. He should in fact have realised that:
1). It was not really likely that Mephibosheth had any such expectation, both because Israel had never considered him before, even on the death of Ishbosheth, and because David should have known that Mephibosheth could hardly really have believed that Absalom intended to hand over the throne. He would in fact have known that Mephibosheth had no popular support, nor saw himself as having any.
2). If he had been rebelling Mephibosheth would hardly have allowed Ziba to come away and declare his intentions to David in this way, nor would Ziba, if he was leaving surreptitiously, have dared to leave his family behind at Mephibosheth’s mercy. The appearance of Ziba alone should have wreaked with suspicion. If what he said was true it would mean that he had deserted Mephibosheth leaving behind him all those whom he held dear to suffer under Mephibosheth’s wrath.
2Sa 16:4
‘ Then the king said to Ziba, “Look, all that pertains to Mephibosheth is yours.” And Ziba said, “I do obeisance. Let me find favour in your sight, my lord, O king.” ’
But the king was not at this time himself, for he already felt himself to be a man betrayed by his own flesh and blood, and a man in that state sees betrayers everywhere. That explains why he was seemingly able to believe anything, and was grateful for any proof of friendship shown by anyone. He therefore believed Ziba’s words and granted to him all that he had previously put at Mephibosheth’s disposal. Understandably Ziba then made obeisance to David and expressed gratitude for his favour.
Ziba coming in this way loaded with provisions was especially welcome because just as the presence of the Ark of God (suitably covered) had confirmed to him that he had YHWH with Him, and that YHWH knew all that was happening, so did the coming of Ziba with earthly sustenance confirm to him that YHWH would provide food for him and his men in the wilderness.
Ziba did not, however, himself go with David. He returned back to his sons and presumably to Mephibosheth, no doubt making some excuse to him for his absence (2Sa 19:17). He was playing both sides off against each other. By remaining with Mephibosheth he was ensuring that he was safe if Absalom succeeded, but meanwhile he had secured his future if David triumphed. When he knew, in fact, that David was returning in triumph he again forsook Mephibosheth and with his sons went, along with Shimei and a thousand Benjaminites, to welcome David back. He was so successful in this that it is clear that in the end David was not sure who was his friend, Ziba or Mephibosheth (he had after all just been betrayed by his own son. How could he be sure of Mephibosheth?), with the result that he shared their property between them.
There is an interesting irony in the fact that having just sent Hushai to deceive Absalom, David was now in his turn totally deceived by Ziba. Perhaps there is intended to be a warning here of the fact that what we do to others will be done to us. Furthermore by his deceit Ziba sought to turn David against Mephibosheth, a Saulide who was in fact loyal to him, while this will immediately be followed by the description of a further Saulide (Shimei) who was certainly not loyal to him. The whole affair was a hotch potch of deceit, betrayal and hatred typical of a civil war, a time when no one could be trusted as they all manoeuvred to ensure their own positions.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2Sa 16:21-22 Comments Absalom Goes in to David’s Concubines – The act of sleeping with the king’s concubines by Absalom was in fulfilment of Nathan’s prophecy given to King David earlier (2Sa 12:11-12). When a kingdom is handed over to a new king, his concubines are a part of the king’s possession that is handed over. Therefore, Absalom wanted all of Israel to see this act of possessing the kingdom.
2Sa 12:11-12, “Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”
In the same respect, it was common for a harem of wives and concubines to become the possession of a conquering king (2Ki 24:15).
2Ki 24:15, “And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives , and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
David’s Sin and Judgment – Beginning in 2 Samuel 13, we see the curse of Nathan, the prophet, taking effect in David’s family (2Sa 12:7-12). David’s children had seen their father commit adultery, lie and murder. Now, some of his own children will follow in their father’s actions.
2Sa 12:10-12, “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Absalom Attempts to Take the Kingdom from David – In 2Sa 15:1 to 2Sa 18:33 Absalom rises up to take the kingdom from his father David. Absalom was the third son of King David (2Sa 3:2-5, 1Ch 3:1-4). He is soon killed in battle in fulfilment of Nathan’s prophecy against David’s lineage.
2Sa 3:2-5, “And unto David were sons born in Hebron: and his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; And his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; And the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital; And the sixth, Ithream, by Eglah David’s wife. These were born to David in Hebron.”
See also 1Ch 3:1-4.
The first born son, Amnon, was dead. The second son, named Chileab, or Daniel, is mentioned nowhere else in the Scriptures. Therefore, it appears that Absalom believed that he had the right to the throne as one of the eldest living sons of King David.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Ziba and Shimei
v. 1. And when David was a little past the top of the hill, v. 2. And the king said unto Ziba, What meanest thou by these? v. 3. And the king said, And where is thy master’s son, v. 4. Then said the king to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertained unto Mephibosheth; v. 5. And when King David came to Bahurim, v. 6. And he cast stones at David and at all the servants of King David, v. 7. And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, v. 8. The Lord hath returned upon thee, v. 9. Then said Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, v. 10. And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? v. 11. And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, v. 12. It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, v. 13. And as David and his men went by the way, Shimei went along on the hill’s side over against him, v. 14. And the king and all the people that were with him came weary,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
2Sa 16:1
Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth. It is the misfortune of troubled times like those in which David found himself, that unscrupulous men use them for selfish purposes. For those in danger have no time for careful examination, nor are their minds sufficiently calm for impartial judgment, but they act on first impressions, and catch at every straw. Ziba’s present would naturally raise everybody’s spirits, and be taken as a good omen; for it showed that David had adherents in unlikely quarters, when thus a servant of the house of Saul of his own accord brought so timely an offering. The asses saddled for riding contradict the idea that Ziba met David by chance as he was bringing the produce of the farm for the use of Mephibosheth’s household. More probably the asses had been saddled for Mephibosheth’s own use, and the provisions had been prepared as a contribution to the king’s needs: but at the last moment the cunning Ziba managed to hurry away with his men, leaving his master in the lurch, and unable to get anything to ride upon in the short interval between David’s escape and Absalom’s entry. Moreover, possibly from being a cripple, and from the distressing circumStances of his early life, Mephibosheth always seems deficient in energy, and perhaps David’s conduct in mulcting him of half his property may not really have been so unjust as it looks, supposing that it was his dilatoriness which gave Ziba the chance of going away with the whole convoy while he was wasting time. It was this apparent desertion of him by one whom he had so befriended which may have made David say, “All men are liars” (Psa 116:11), though subsequently he learned that the lie was Ziba’s. The food consisted of two hundred leaves, or rather fiat cakes of bread, a hundred bunches of dried grapes, a hundred cakes of pressed dates, and a skin of wine. Instead of “date cakes,” some of the versions render “fig cakes;” but for this there is a special Hebrew word (see 1Sa 30:12).
2Sa 16:3
Thy master’s son; that is, the son of Jonathan, or even of Saul, as the word “son” is used very indefinitely in Hebrew. Mephibesheth held the property as their representative. Today shall the house, etc. Ziba’s slander was absurd. Mephibosheth was likely to meet with no kind treatment from Absalom; but perhaps he was a visionary, and David may have thought that he was holding back for any chance that might turn up. But upon this slander David acts with blamable impetuosity, and, indignant that the son of his old friend should so desert him, he gives Ziba all his lands. The grant would be valid only if David’s cause prevailed, and Ziba so far deserves credit in that he attached himself to a ruined man; but his motive was not love to David, but selfish calculation.
2Sa 16:4
I humbly beseech thee that, etc. The words are really a form of grateful acceptance. “I do obeisance”, that is, “I make my humble bow: may I find favour,” etc.; may the king continue to look favourably upon me.
2Sa 16:5
Bahurim. The exact site of this place is unknown (see note on 2Sa 3:16). Lieut. Conder, following a Jewish tradition, identifies it with Almit, a village about four miles northeast of Jerusalem. If so it lay, not on the direct road to the fords, but on a side route. A man of the family of the house of Saul. The words do not mean that he was a near relative of Saul, but that he was a member of the mishpachah, the larger division of the tribe of Benjamin, to which the house of Saul, a much smaller subdivision of the family, belonged (see note on 2Sa 14:7). But he was a strong partisan, and so fanatical as to care little for his life, if only he could annoy the usurper. For besides “all the people,” David had with him “the mighty men,” a few of whom could easily have punished him.
2Sa 16:7
Come out; rather, out, out; that is, “get out; begone, begone, thou murderer and worthless man.” Shimei could scarcely have referred to the murders of Ishbosheth and Abner, which were too remote to have so rankled in his memory; hut as 2Sa 21:1-22. is not in its chronological order, what probably called forth his anger was the surrender of Saul’s sons and grandsons into the hands of the Gibeonites. Shimei, probably, even resented David’s taking the side of the Gibeonites, and treating as a crime to be severely punished what he and all Saul’s partisans regarded as righteous zeal for Israel. The three years’ famine, followed by the execution of Saul’s sons, made more tragic by the noble conduct of Rizpah, contributed largely to the revolt of the nation from David, and helps to explain that abandonment of him by the people, which otherwise seems so hard to understand (on the date of the famine, see note on 2Sa 21:1-22.).
2Sa 16:9
Then said Abishai. Abishai’s indignation was natural, and it is evident, from 2Sa 16:10, that Joab shared it. Shimei’s conduct was abominable, and David finally condemned him to death for it (1Ki 2:8, 1Ki 2:9), having probably found that, even after his pardon, he was an implacable enemy. His revilings now must not only have been painful to David, but depressing to all the people that were with him, and there must have been many a murmur in the ranks at the king allowing such conduct to go unpunished. But he was in a state of great mental distress and self-condemnation. He had borne sorrow after sorrow since the day when, by his own great sin, he had opened the floodgates of wickedness; and now the son whom he dearly loved, and who had first been put wrong by a crime which might never have been committed but for his own example, was seeking both his crown and his life, and had made his cup of sorrow full to the brim and running over. At such a time of agony it was even a relief to have outward affliction to bear; for it brought the consoling thought that the Divine chastisement had its merciful limit. Jehovah had bidden Shimei revile him, and he would bear it because it was Jehovah’s doing. “It may be that Jehovah will look upon my wrong, and that he will requite me good for his cursing of me this day.” Go ever. Abishai’s word is explained by 2Sa 16:13. David’s route seems to have lain in a narrow valley, and Shimei, running along the ridge on one side, was near enough for his words to be heard, and for his stones to come near the king’s retinue. Abishai, therefore, asked permission to cross over to Shimei’s side of the steep ravine with a few men, who would seize him and put him to death.
2Sa 16:12
Mine affliction. This reading is supported by the Septuagint and Vulgate. The Syriac has “my subjection,” possibly a free translation of the same reading. But the written text (K’tib) has “my wrong,” either the wrong I have done, and of which I am bearing the punishment, or, as in the Revised Version, “the wrong done unto me.” The correction of the Massorites (K’ri), is literally “my eye,” that is, “my team.”
2Sa 16:14
Weary. Evidently the name of a place; for David “refreshed himself there.” It was probably a caravanserai, the full name of which was, “Rest for the weary,” but gradually the title was shortened down to the last word, “Weary,” Hebrew Ayephim, which the Revised Version puts as a proper name in the margin.
2Sa 16:17
Is this thy kindness to thy friend? After carrying the king to Ayephim, on the banks of the Jordan, the narrator now turns back to Absalom, because David was to wait at the caravanserai for news from Jerusalem. And immediately on his arrival, Hushai hastens into Absalom’s presence, loudly exclaiming, “Long live the king!” for such is the meaning of the Hebrew. The young man is surprised; for Hushai was David’s friend and trusted confidant. Yet he does not suspect this sudden breaking of old ties, but, looking at the bright side only, sees in it a proof that his party was looked upon as sure of success, and David’s cause as hopeless. He welcomes, therefore, so notable an adherent, and Hushai’s pretences confirm his self-deceit; for he professes to regard Absalom as king, not by fraud and violence, but by the formal choice of both Jehovah and the people. On this assumption, obedience to the nation’s choice became a religious duty, and Hushai’s love to the father was a pledge of love to the son. We must not, however, condemn Absalom for too easy credulity. The nation was in his favour, and, had he acted with promptitude, David’s cause would have been lost.
2Sa 16:18
The men of Israel. Here and in 2Sa 16:15 the men of Israel are not contrasted with the men of Judah, but include them (see 2Sa 15:10). Absalom’s rebellion began at Hebron, in Judaea, and the selection of Amasa, a first cousin both of David and Joab, as commander-in-chief, suggests the conclusion that Absalom’s chief strength lay in David’s own tribe, though men from all the tribes on the west of the Jordan had also flocked to his standard. Besides them, Hushai speaks of this people, that is, the citizens of Jerusalem. For, while there had been general lamentation at David’s departure (2Sa 15:23), yet the citizens had admitted Absalom without a struggle, and submitted to him. David’s adherents are also constantly called “the people,” because they did not belong to any special tribe, but were drawn indifferently from them all.
2Sa 16:20
Give counsel among you; Hebrew, for you; but we have no way in English of expressing the force of this phrase. In Greek it is called the ethic dative, and is supposed to give character to the address, and indicate that those to whom the words are spoken have also an interest in the matter.
2Sa 16:21
Ahithophel said. Ahithophel’s counsel was utterly abominable, even though the deed would not be regarded by any of the Israelites as incestuous. A king inherited his predecessor’s harem, and Absalom’s act was a coarse and rude assertion that David’s rights were at an end, and that crown and hinds and property, even to his wives, now all belonged to the usurper. But, while polygamy had thus degraded the wives and concubines into mere chattels, the harem was the property most jealously guarded by its owner (2Sa 3:7; 1Ki 2:22); and Absalom’s act was an outrage which David could never have pardoned. And this was what Ahithophel wanted. He was afraid that if Absalom’s cause began to decline, he might come to terms with his father, who would readily forgive a son if he submitted, but would certainly punish Ahithophel. For his own selfish purposes, therefore, he led Absalom on to a crime which rendered a reconciliation with David impossible, and pledged all the conspirators to carry out the matter to the bitter end; and that end could only be the death of David if the conspiracy succeeded. But this bitterness to David would vex all moderate men, and weaken Absalom’s cause. It was of advantage only to such as were deeply committed to the rebellion, and bent on killing David. To him it was terrible sorrow; for he knew that this open shame was the punishment of his own secret infamy (2Sa 12:11, 2Sa 12:12); and in it, again, he saw the meshes of the avenger’s net tightening around him.
2Sa 16:22
A tent; Hebrew, the tent; that constantly used by David and his family for the enjoyment of the cool evening breeze, and which the citizens of Jerusalem had frequently seen erected on the flat roof of David’s house. It was when walking on this roof that David had given way to guilty passion, and now it is the scene of his dishonour.
2Sa 16:23
The counsel of Ahithophel, etc. These words form a sort of apology for Absalom. He ought to have had more respect for his father than to offer him so grievous an insult, and aggravate by so terrible a deed the quarrel between them. But his conduct from first to last was utterly mean and selfish, and his only excuse here is that there was such a glamour round Ahithophel, that men yielded up their own judgment to him without an effort, and did what he advised as if it had a religious sanction. At the oracle of God; Hebrew, had asked the Word of God; that is, had consulted God by Urim and Thummim. When a man went to the priest to inquire in this way, he did whatever he was told; and the word of Ahithophel was accepted with equal deference.
HOMILETICS
2Sa 16:1-14
The facts are:
1. David, passing on his way, is met by Ziba with a present for the king and his servants.
2. On inquiring after Mephibosheth, David is told by Ziba that he was staying in Jerusalem in expectation that, as a result of the present revolt, the kingdom would be restored to him as representative of the house of Saul.
3. Accepting this statement as correct, David assigns Mephibosheth’s property (2Sa 9:9-12) to Ziba, who thereupon makes obeisance.
4. Proceeding to Bahurim, David is assailed by Shimei, who curses him, casts stones at him, reproaches him with deeds of evil, and avers that, as a punishment, God had taken the kingdom from him and given it to Absalom.
5. Astonished at the insolence, Abishai seeks permission to slay the man; but David, piously recognizing a providential chastisement in the event, will not have it so, and points out further to his people that this was but a small trouble in comparison with Absalom’s conduct, and that probably God would have compassion and vouchsafe a compensating blessing.
6. David and his company proceed on their way, still insulted by Shimei, till they come to a place where they can refresh themselves.
The cruelty of avarice.
In this chapter the historian elves us a foil to the loyalty and devotion of the men referred to hitherto. Ittai, Zadok, Abiathar, and Hushai have their opposites in Ziba and Shimei and Ahithophel. It is said that the beasts of prey and creeping things come forth in the night; and so in this dark and sad time for David, the foul creatures come forth and manifest their full strength. Good men are always encompassed by evils, but they are kept in cheek by the very force of the prosperity of the good. When once that begins to wane, they revive and put forth their destructive powers. The time had now come for their appearance. In the case of Ziba we see avarice in its most hideous form.
I. IT CAREFULLY FRAMES ITS SCHEMES. An avaricious man is usually endowed with a good measure of prevision, and his success lies very much in the wicked perversion of this gift. The elaborate present of Ziba to David (2Sa 16:1, 2Sa 16:2), and the meeting with him just when a token of kindness would be most acceptable, was the result of hours and days of scheming. The end in view is so precious to the greedy soul that trouble and toil to attain to it go for nothing. There is a spontaneous avarice, as when men suddenly seek to grasp what is apparently within their reach, for the evil principle, like a slumbering hungry dog, is ever quick to discern and to act; but the great achievements of avarice, by which men become rich or gain some swift advantage, are the result of the prostitution of the gifts of foresight and skill in arrangement to low cunning and selfishness. There is many a scheme being concocted at this hour, in commercial and political circles, for the circumvention of others to the enrichment of self..
II. IT CONFORMS ITS PLANS TO THE NATURE OF MEN AND CUSTOMS OF THE AGE. Ziba knew what David had done for Mephibosheth (2Sa 9:1-10), how generous was the king’s heart, how he would appreciate fidelity in the time of trouble and scorn ungrateful conduct, how his associates in trial would approve any favour conferred on the loyal at the cost of the disloyal, and how it was within the prerogative of a monarch to confiscate the property of a traitor. Avarice is a careful student of human nature and of the usages of the world. Its success often depends on quickness of discernment, and a practical application of the knowledge of men and things to the purposes of a base, greedy heart. A good and generous man may be as quick in discernment, and may in the intercourse of life gather as much knowledge of human nature, but he differs from the avaricious man in that he scorns to turn all this to the sole promotion of purely selfish interests.
III. IT TAKES SPECIAL ADVANTAGE OF THE TROUBLES AND WEAKNESS OF OTHERS. There is a fiendish sagacity in avarice. Ziba saw that the sorrows of David furnished a choice opportunity for making an impression on his generous sympathetic nature by a manifestation of loyal interest and kindly consideration for his comfort; and he saw also that the bodily infirmity of Mephibosheth (2Sa 9:13; 2Sa 19:25, 2Sa 19:26) would prevent his going out to David to express his own loyalty. How splendid the opportunity of so representing matters as to secure the confiscation of Mephibosheth’s inheritance to himself as a reward for his personal faithfulness! How this is too often illustrated, in the eager rush after wealth, in the conduct of certain nations towards others, is well known. There are hard-hearted men who rejoice in the commercial calamities of others, because they see their chance of turning them to their own advantage, and not a few are willing to profit by the incapacity, physical, social, and intellectual, of others, by not providing them with the means by which they can rise above it, and act their own part in the world’s affairs. The curse of God surely rests on such evil doers.
IV. IT IS HEEDLESS OF THE FAIN IT INFLICTS. David’s heart was sad enough. Trouble in most fearful form had come on him. His anguish is seen in the comfort he felt in the fidelity of the high priests and in the presence of the ark. But what though his heart was smitten! Avarice can rive it the more by concocting a lie most suited for such a purpose. Ziba knew that the story about Mephibosheth would rend further the sore wounds of the much-riven heart. What of that? Property would be acquired. What of blasting the reputation and scattering the fortunes of an innocent cripple? His property would become Ziba’s. Such things do occur still in the earth. There may be degrees in avarice, but in every case there is a heedless infliction of pain and a positive injury to the innocent. Is there a God to avenge wrong? Is there a future retribution? Seeing that many avaricious men escape positive punishment in this life (Psa 49:16-20; Psa 73:1-17), a righteous moral order must either be denied or we must look on to the day when God shall give to every man according to the deeds done in the body (2Co 5:10).
V. IT ASSUMES THE FORM OF NOBLEST VIRTUES. Ziba comes to David as a kindly, faithful, generous subject, sorrowful for his affliction, ready to minister to his comfort, and even prepared to break the ties which for years had held him to Mephibosheth. Loyalty and religion are publicly professed. The assembled friends of the king are witnesses to his noble conduct. Wolves may come in sheep’s clothing, Satan may assume the appearance of an angel of light, and, in the same way, avarice may, if occasion requires it, hide its hateful form under the guise of the two most reputable of all qualities loyalty and religion. This is done in varying degrees. There is a conformity to prevalent political opinion, to social customs, to decency of bearing, and to the observances of the sanctuary, not because of a thorough conviction of right founded on knowledge and principle, but because it will contribute to swell the amount of one’s gains and elevate one’s position in the world. God desireth truth in the inward parts (Psa 51:6). The whited sepulchre is no screen from his eye (Mat 22:27; cf. Psa 139:1-24.).
The reproaches of the wicked.
A more graphic account of insult and personal wrong than this is not found in the Bible. The language of the sixty-ninth psalm is fitly descriptive of the events of this sad day, as also of Psa 3:1-8. and 4. The harsh voice of Shimei, it is to be feared, was but the index of a feeling in many hearts towards the unfortunate man of God. The political element enters into the attack (Psa 3:8), but there was a deeper sentiment of hostility in which the ungodly of Jerusalem would be predisposed to share. Everything seems intense in David’s life, as a consequence of the natural force of his character, the depth of his feelings, and the corresponding strength of emotion, whether of love or hate, which his conduct aroused. Except in seasons of fierce persecution, and most of all in the instance of our Redeemer, the reproaches of the wicked do not assume the violent form here indicated, but in every instance of their occurrence we may trace features in common with this.
I. THEY PROCEED FROM RELIGIOUS AVERSION. David was a religious man. His kingly position was won by virtue of his being a man after God’s own heart (1Sa 15:28; 1Sa 16:7-13). In spite of his great fall, he was a lowly, devout servant of God, intent on the spiritual welfare of the people. When Shimei assailed David as a usurper (Psa 3:8), and so made a political allusion, he revealed his own intense aversion both to David’s piety and the religious reason for his elevation to the throne in the place of Saul. He evidently did not enter into the theocratic views of Samuel (1Sa 15:1-35; 1Sa 16:1-23.). He was a man who preferred the unspiritual order of Saul’s government to the Divine order of David’s. Here lay the real secret of the reproaches heaped upon the unfortunate king. No godly man, no man of elevated views or of spiritual sympathies, could originate such malicious words. This was the secret also of the reproaches heaped on Christ. He was better than his haters liked him to be. Intense aversion to his superior spirituality was the spring of their conduct. They hated him without a cause, i.e. a valid reason. In looking at the reproaches against the persecuted Christians, we find the same to be true. The evil words spoken nowadays against good men have their root in a dislike of the holy life which, by contrast, is a reminder of sin and guilt.
II. THEY ARE PROFESSEDLY BASED ON DEFECTS OF CHARACTER. It might be inferred from the words of Shimei (Psa 3:7) that he was a very righteous, peaceful, God-fearing man, for he comes forth as the accuser of the king, and pleader for what is just to man and God. But we know that this was only a cover for the real feeling. Those who are not holy are obliged, by compulsion of conscience, to find a plea for deeds of shame. The failure of David in one period of his life was most probably known to Shimei, and it is seized with eagerness and made the justification of a reproach bearing on his entire life, and imputing deeds of which David was innocent. Saving the case of Bathsheba and Uriah, David’s life was anything but one of blood and worthlessness (Belial). To Saul and his sons he had been unusually kind. The elevation of his character had given dignity and power to the kingdom. These tactics of wicked men are constant; the occasional weaknesses of life are laid hold of, and magnified so as to be representative of the entire life. The free and frank words of Christ, true as they were, not tong before his death, were laid hold of and used as though blasphemy and evil works were his general characteristics (Mat 12:24; Joh 10:32-36). Our failings in Christian life doubtless are a reproach to us, and give occasion to the enemy to blaspheme; but the malice of the wicked is seen in that they gladly lay hold of these as a plea for gratifying the feeling of aversion they cherish towards the religion we profess.
III. THEY ARE ESPECIALLY DEVELOPED IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY. The slumbering aversion of Shimei found expression in form of outrageous insult when David’s fortunes began to wane. Malice is associated with cowardice, and it is only when fear of punishment passes away that the malice puts forth its vigour. Malice is cruel, and therefore it adds wound to wound. The history of Christian persecution illustrates this. The very sorrows which ordinarily would draw forth sympathy only induce the feeling expressed in “There is no help for him in God.” The natural tendency of the multitude to adhere to the prosperous and stand aloof from the failing cause, becomes intensified into active opposition when a lurking aversion to the individual and his cause has been cherished (Psa 35:15; Psa 49:18). Even the patience and sorrow displayed in the season of providential trial are turned against the sufferer by the keenness of an evil ingenuity. So much freedom does the evil spirit find in the day of calamity that the whole life is charged with the faults that belong only to a portion of it. No consideration is given to repentance and amendment. To crush and ruin are the sole aim of the reproach.
IV. THEY ARE CHARACTERIZED BY THE DARING ENCOURAGED BY A SENSE OF SECURITY. Shimei knew his victim well enough to believe that he would not have the heart to allow the sword to smite him down; for all the antecedents of David’s life were in the direction of leniency and gentleness towards those who sought his hurt, though he spared not the man who sought or professed to take away the life of Saul. He was shrewd enough to notice that the grief of the king was so intense, as barefooted and in silence he passed out of the city, as not to allow of his finding room for thoughts of vengeance, and thus, being secure, the reproaches poured forth. The same conclusion was arrived at by the vindictive Pharisees, who loaded the Saviour with reproach. They knew, from all they had seen and heard, that he would not use force against them, and would not avail himself of the Roman authority in self-defence, and hence, secure in these directions, they were very daring, and spared not words and deeds to crush still further the spirit of the illustrious Man of sorrows. In daily life young Christians are often loaded with reproaches by wicked young men, with a boldness that gains strength from the fact that there is no one present to rebuke them, and that the assailed youth is prohibited by the principles he professes from using reproach and violence in return (Mat 5:39, Mat 5:43, Mat 5:44).
GENERAL LESSONS.
1. In the providential discipline of life, we may look for a combination of sorrows from independent sources, but yet all subservient to good for the children of God.
2. We should be so careful of our life every day that we give no apparent occasion for any one to bring charges against us when the failure of our earthly prosperity arouses attention.
3. The freedom exercised by wicked men in pouring forth their hatred against the good is of short duration, and cannot really hurt those who bear their reproaches in a right spirit.
4. We ought to discount largely the accusations brought against good men by those whose life and conduct reveal an absence of sympathy with the kingdom of God.
The waves and billows of God.
The events narrated in Psa 3:5 -13 have an aspect towards man and towards God. The scene of a rejected monarch leaving his seat of government, and, while so doing, assailed by an enemy, is a vicissitude in human affairs which, though special in its colouring, is frequent in the annals of the world. It is a case of human ingratitude and violence on the one side, and human suffering on the other. But to the mind of David the sufferer, and to the sacred historian, the vicissitude is seen to stand in direct relation to the government of God, and is invested with its deepest interest in that aspect. The expression of the psalmist here finds exemplification: “All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me” (Psa 42:7). The troubles are earthly; they roll on according to fixed laws, and are raised by agencies that seem to act by virtue of their own nature; and yet they are God’s. The Hebrew discernment of the Divine element in the bitterest trials is clear and sure. We learn here the following truths.
I. THERE ARE GRADATIONS OF TROUBLE IN THE EXPERIENCE OF THE GODLY. There are distinct troubles in David’s experience as here described, and they are graduated in weight. It was something to leave the city and worship he loved; it was more to break up a home; it was worse to lose regal authority; it was worse still to pass out in sight of the thousands of Israel, poor and powerless; it was a greater wave to have to listen to the reproaches and cursings of the wicked; but the greatest billow of all was the knowledge that his now eldest son, his former pride and delight, was in rebellion against him, and was seeking his life (verse 11). Fathers, kind and loving, only can estimate the greatness of this swelling billow. Compared with this, all else in form of loss of property and home and friends, must be expressed by the inferior term “waves.” And, as we shall see, the magnitude of this is the greater still, because perceived to be in some sort the consequent of the former errors of the sufferer. There are many tribulations for the righteous, in many instances arising out of their own conduct, and it may seem a truism to say that some are greater than others; but the fact deserves noting, inasmuch as material and social troubles, which to an observer seem to press most heavily, are often slight compared with others that enter more into the depths of the soul.
II. THE REAL GRADATION OF TROUBLE IS OFTEN NOT DISCERNIBLE BY ANY BUT THE SUFFERER. To Joab and men of his character it would seem to be the climax of all calamity that a “dead dog” should curse and throw stones at a king. It was a climax in the sense of coming upon other calamities, but only David could perceive its relative weight in the storm then passing over him. His fatherly heart alone could feel the full crushing force of the son’s ingratitude and cruelty. He alone could discern with agonizing feeling the relation between his own sin and this dire evil. He only knew the rebound in this dreadful form of the recent alienation of his own heart from purity and God. We often spend our pity on suffering men and women when visible disasters fall, and perhaps fix on some loss of property, or health, or children, or some terrible blasting of a life’s hopes, as the item most oppressive to the smitten one. Possibly, in the unrevealed record of their own personal experience in relation to God, there is a fact which does more to bow down the spirit than all else beside. The heart of each man knoweth its own bitterness. There are secrets never to be unravelled here below, or, if made known in words, fully realized in their sorrow causing power only by those whose past experience is bound up with their existence.
III. THEY ARE ASSOCIATED IN THE MIND OF THE SUFFERER WITH A SENSE OF PERSONAL DEMERIT. The connection of the events of this period of David’s life with his past life was not simply discerned to be organic, but in that discernment there was a distinct recognition of his own unworthiness in the sight of God, yea, of his richly deserving these troubles of varying gravity. Probably not one man in that strange procession, except Nathan, divined the real thoughts and feelings of David. The curses of Shimei were as the echo of his own conscience on that dark and dreadful day when love to God yielded to unchastity and design to slay. The horrible sin came forth, and, though truly forgiven, was now “ever before” him (Psa 51:3). No curses of the wicked were too bad for him! No rebellion of cherished son was too severe a chastisement for him! The “waves and billows” rolled on. Were they not fitly framed to swallow up one so self-condemned, so unworthy of pity? Yes; here lies the meaning of those bared feet, that bowed head, that silence under the curse, that moral inability to raise a finger to stay the swelling flood of troubles. Nor are we to wonder that this should be so in the case of a forgiven and restored soul (2Sa 12:13); for the more pure the heart of the restored one, the more blessed the sense of actual forgiveness, the keener will be the feeling of demerit when the old sin is brought to the memory by calamitous events which it set in train. It takes a very holy nature to appreciate properly what sin really is. In the instance of all who experience the “waves and billows” of God, there is, with a clearness more or less full, an association of the trouble with their own past demerit. Whether they can, as David did, actually trace the lines, they know that all trouble is in some way connected with the presence of sin in the world, and that their own past relation to God was at one time such that no earthly disaster could be too great as a chastisement. Irreligious men don’t know what this is; but it is a real fact in Christian life. “I am not worthy of the least of thy mercies;” “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed” (Gen 32:10; Lam 3:22).
IV. THERE IS A DISTINCT RECOGNITION OF THE WILL OF GOD IN THEM. There is an instructive difference in the conduct of Abishai and David. The man of the world saw the passion and heard the voice of Shimei, and his anger was roused accordingly; the sorrowing man of God saw only the will of God. He seemed deaf to the torrent of curses; with head bowed to the earth, he saw not the man, and the thud of the stones made no impression. “The Lord hath said unto him, Curse David.” Yes; it was the Lord. The words of the prophet were true (2Sa 12:10-14). Spiritual perception is spontaneous, and, to the godly man, infallible. It passes by the visible to the invisible. Second causes are lost in the efficient Cause. Speculative questions as to human freedom and consecution of events are left behind. The solution of the actual experience in the passing events is found. It is God. This is the significance of all to David. The “waves and billows” are his. They roll to do his will. The force of almightiness is in them. This spiritual discernment plays an important part in the lives of all true Christians. It is not ignorance, it is not a disregard of philosophy on their part, it is not a violation of the sequences of scientific law, when, with an intuition clear and irresistible, they see God in the troubles that fall upon themselves. For spiritual intuition is a higher faculty than logical judgment, and relates to a sphere above all physical sequences. There is no more possibility of men setting this aside by reasonings and discussions concerning physical laws, than the perception of an external world by vision can be set aside by the proof of the existence of a physiological structure of the eye. If commercial disaster falls, if health fails, if friends die, if children become rebellious, if the seeds of former sins bear their bitter fruit,in all God is seen. Nothing comes in form of trouble to his children but that he has a will in it. There may be a human, even physical side, but the child will discern the Father’s will (Heb 12:5-10).
V. THE SENSE OF PERSONAL DEMERIT AND DISCERNMENT OF THE WILL OF GOD TONE DOWN THE HARDER TENDENCIES OF HUMAN NATURE. Abishai was true to his nature in wishing to cut off the head of the “dead dog;” and David was true to the chastening effect on his nature of these terrible trials when he resisted the suggestion (verse 10). The heart becomes tender and gentle when under the chastening hand of God, provided, as in David’s case, there is a due discernment of personal unworthiness, and of the gracious though just purpose of God in the trouble. We are reminded of One who also endured the contradiction of sinners against himself; who when reviled, reviled not again, and even when bearing more than David could here was pitiful and kind to his foes (Heb 12:2, Heb 12:3; 1Pe 2:23; Luk 23:34). It is the mark of a true endurance of the righteous will of God, and conformity of self to the scope of the Divine purpose, that there is in time of trouble no fretting and chafing against the instruments which he may use, be they men or things. Who can curse when the holy will is doing its work? Who can be in wrath and find time for antagonisms when the soul is absorbed in contrite recognition of sin and humble prostration before a storm designed to purify the heart? What gratitude is due to God for the softening influences of calamity I How much richer in meekness and gentleness and the milder and more Christly virtues are many for the poverty and pain they have experienced! The sons of Zeruiah, still so strong and fierce in the world, little know the blessedness of being like unto him who was “meek and lowly in heart.”
VI. WITH SILENT HOMAGE TO THE MAJESTY OF GOD THERE IS BLENDED TRUST IN HIS MERCY. David was not playing a part before the eye of man. There was nothing histrionic in his conduct. The profound homage to the Holy One which underlay his confession before Nathan, “I have sinned” (2Sa 12:13), was now again rendered in the secrecy of his own soul. The head bowed in submission to the fierceness of the storm indicated an acknowledgment of the righteousness of God. Much rather would the humbled king have been free from the necessity of speaking with the “sons of Zeruiah,” and have borne the terrible storm without a thought of protest or feeling of complaint. It is in the most critical moments of life that the soul shrinks from the outward strife of tongues, and in the solemn silence of its own thoughts renders to God a sinful creature’s homage. But with this utter surrender to the rights and punitive appointments of the Eternal there is blended a quiet, modest trust in his great mercy. “It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction” (verse 12). “It may be.” Note the content of the words: “He is merciful and gracious. It is inherent in the nature of the Author of the covenant with Israel to be so. The words of the past are evidence of this. I am undone and have no claim; all that comes to crush me comes justly; what he does he does for his Name’s sake. Other poor sinners have waited not in vain; the hour may come when he will see his glory to be one with my deliverance, and then the storm will cease. ‘He will requite me.’ Mercy will find a way of enriching my poor troubled soul out of the very ills which so justly have come upon me.” The true heart in its deepest sorrows never loses faith in God’s goodness and care. It holds to the possibility of a turn in the tide. It rests not on its merits, not on speculations upon what is unknown, but upon the assured character of God as revealed in Christ. It assumes and presumes nothing, but leaves all with him, and so finds comfort in the hope that through his free unmerited grace all things shalt be found to work together for good (Rom 8:28).
GENERAL LESSONS.
1. It is an illustration of the dreadful nature of sin that it deposits seeds of trouble which may be inactive during a season of prosperity, but which put forth their strength when adversity falls upon us (Psa 3:5, Psa 3:6).
2. The children of God may do well to remember that there are watchful foes, human and Satanic, ready to take advantage of any circumstance that may bring reproach on them as servants of the living God (Psa 3:5, Psa 3:6).
3. Our faithful attachment to those bearing sorrow because of their shortcomings is a duty, when they bear it in a submissive spirit, even though it cause us to be sharers in their sufferings (Psa 3:6, 13, 14).
4. In seeking to alleviate the sufferings of the oppressed, we should abstain from vindictive passions (verse 10).
5. The most tender consideration and sympathy should be extended towards those whose hearts are crushed by the ingratitude and cruelty of their own children (verse 11).
6. The most effective way of ministering to those whose spirits are broken down by providential chastisements is to foster in their hearts simple trust in God’s great mercy (verse 12). We obtain evidence of our being true children of God when, in the time of our calamity and amidst persecutions, we are followers to those who, when “reviled, reviled not again” (verse 11; cf. 1Pe 2:23).
2Sa 16:15-23
Illustrations of facts and principles.
The facts are:
1. Absalom enters Jerusalem with his adherents and Ahithophel.
2. Hushai presents himself before Absalom, with a salutation in ambiguous language.
3. On Absalom expressing surprise that he had not gone with David, he, with studied caution, expresses his readiness to serve whom the Lord and all the men of Israel might choose, and further declares his intention to “serve” in the son’s presence as he had in the father’s.
4. Absalom, seeking counsel, is advised by Ahithophel to strengthen his position by taking possession of his father’s concubines.
5. Whereupon Absalom, in the view of the people, conforms to the advice.
6. Ahithophel is represented as a man whose reputation as a counsellor was of the highest character. The historian passes from the sorrows of David to the aspirations and first measures of Absalom, and reveals another line of providential events apparently working in another direction, and yet, in the light of Nathan’s words (2Sa 12:7-12), clearly tending to the realization of one purpose. It is only the religious man that can discern the mind of God in occurrences utterly dissimilar in their bearing. The good are crushed and the vile are exalted, but the crushing and the elevation are but products of free human instrumentality, taken hold of by an unseen Power, to bring about the ends of a righteous administration of justice. In the opening accounts of Absalom’s entrance on political power we have instructive illustrations of facts and principles.
I. DEFERENCE WON BY AGE AND CHARACTER. The rash and reckless Absalom treats the aged Hushai with unwonted respect, even while regarding him as a “friend” of David (2Sa 16:16, 2Sa 16:17). The violence usually accompanying a bold revolt was evidently restrained by the will of God acting through the natural influence of years combined with reputation for moral worth. Occasionally wicked men have been heedless of infancy and age, and the better the men associated with their opponents, the more readily have they cut them off. But as a rule it is not so. History records cases of the kind here narrated. The reason is plain: sin is ashamed in presence of goodness, and the sinner’s arm is weak to smite down what is its own condemnation. Conscience revives and restrains action in the presence of goodness; and the heart must be brutal beyond all relief if hoary hairs do not touch it. They speak of the coming grave, and the voice is not in vain. Integer vitae scelerisque purus, man wields a silent power, not only over the fabled wolf, but over wolf-like men (Horace, I. ode 22.).
II. THE PART OF SAGACIOUS MEN IN HUMAN AFFAIRS. Hushai and Ahithophel differed much in moral character, but they were similar in their position as advisers in the affairs of state. Their acts show them to have been men of sagacious mind, able to apply the results of extended observation and insight into character to the changing circumstances of the day. As a matter of fact, they played the most important part, by means of their sagacity, in the events of this part of David’s life; and their action suggests to us how much of human life in its social and political relations is connected with the thoughts and plans of men of this class. As in a ship a few really control the fate of the many, so in nations a few regulate affairs that involve the weal or woe of millions. No system of government can avoid this fact. Mental power is supreme in the state. Moral influences from the mass may set limits to its action, and open lines along which it must work, but its mighty force is manifest. It is a case of mind rising above mind. Hence the need of prayer that our mentally gifted men may be good men. Hence, also, their solemn responsibilities before God.
III. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF A POST OF EXTREME DELICACY AND DANGER. Hushai was just now entering on his perilous duties as friend of David in the court of Absalom, and the utmost care was requisite that he might both save his own head and serve his beloved king. Had he not been sustained by the confidence that God would bring to nought the devices of the wicked, he must have often been overwhelmed by the pressure of his responsibilities. There are analogous positions still in life. Diplomacy knows them; commerce is not a stranger to them; the Church furnishes them; benevolent men have often to work in secrecy, though not by deceit; peacemakers find that they may mar their work for lack of discretion, and run the risk of losing reputation with one or both parties. In all such instances the consciousness of being in the right, that wit and wisdom are devoted to unselfish ends, and that God may be asked to give his help, will sustain the heart, give penetration to moral perceptions, and ensure self-possession. All honour to the men who for a good cause assume such responsibilities!
IV. THE COEXISTENCE WITH EVIL OF NEUTRALIZING FORCES. Ahithophel had a great reputation, and devoted the force of his sagacity to the evil cause of a rebel. The forces of evil at work against David were strong, and, to ordinary men in Israel, invincible. Yet we who know more than Absalom and his friends then knew, can see that all this time there were, coexisting with and working secretly and silently against all the forces of evil, other forces which could not but tend to neutralize their action. In this we have on a small scale an illustration of the fact that, though there are in the world many pronounced forms of evil at work against the good of man and the rightful authority of Christ over mankind, there is also a silent, and in its operation a secret, force at work, through the agency of the faithful few, which all the time tends to check the evil, and must in the end overcome it. It has been so from the day when the Seed of the woman was promised to bruise the serpent’s head. This fact should inspire the hearts of the faithful in every land in spite of outward appearances.
V. THE CITY OF GOD IS SOMETIMES THE SCENE OF CONTENDING POWERS. The holy city, the joy of the whole earth, the chosen abode of the Eternal, and the natural abode of peace, was now the scene of a strife between adverse powers of good and evil. The happy days when the people sang for joy and felt secure in the presence of the symbol of the Divine favour (2Sa 6:12-19) were no more. As in some great historic wars the conflict becomes concentrated on the seat of government and influence, so now the great question which involved the welfare of Israel and the Gentiles was being fought out in Jerusalem. Here we certainly find an analogue to times of trouble when the city of Godthe Jerusalem of the Christian dispensationhas been the scene of conflict between the powers that would get rid of the Divine authority and set up an order of things not of God. Men have contended within the Church to rob Christ of his Divine rights, and the faithful few have striven to render service for him according to the measure of their wisdom and goodness. The apostles seem to have anticipated such seasons (2Pe 2:1, 2Pe 2:2). As this trouble in Jerusalem was connected with the failings of David as well as the vices of Absalom, so the contentions and sorrows that have been experienced in the Church have not been unconnected with the shortcomings of the elect of God.
VI. AMBIGUOUS FIDELITY IS A PURELY HUMAN EXPEDIENT. The words of Hushai to Absalom were understood by the latter to be the expression of his loyalty to himself; and, on the surface of them, the words doubtless had that meaning. But as a matter of fact, Hushai’s heart was with David, and his language was capable of being interpreted in accordance with his true feelings. It is a question of casuistry as to whether, under the circumstances, he was warranted in devising means for deluding Absalom. The Bible does not commit itself to all the acts of its characters; and in our judgment on men we ought to have some regard to the moral atmosphere of their daily lives. But in this ambiguous expression of fidelity we have an instance of what largely prevails in the world. Men still coin phrases to afford satisfaction to others while keeping peace with their own convictions. Forms are adopted which are unimpeachable; but the real feeling is kept secret. In some countries there are current forms for expressing loyalty to the “powers that be,” freely employed to the satisfaction of rulers and the safety of those who use them. Attachment to certain political principles is announced while the particular application of them is a matter of private reservation. In commercial houses a form of loyalty to employers’ interests often passes with a purpose to sacrifice them to a rival interest. In Church affairs it is possible to accept standards in form and empty them of essential content. The practice is to be condemned in every case. Strong faith in God can dispense with such expedients. He who was chastising David through Absalom knew how to restore the chastened one in due time, without the expedients of human duplicity. The example of Christ and his apostles is better than that of Abraham, Jacob, and Hushai (cf. Gen 12:13-20; Gen 27:20-27; Joh 18:33-37; Act 4:7-12).
VII. GREAT PRINCIPLES ARE LIABLE TO ABUSE. Hushai evidently laid down a great and sound principle as the rule of his conduct when he declared that, as for himself, he was prepared to serve him whom the “Lord, and this people, and all the men of Israel” might choose. Had Absalom been as keen as he was ambitions, he would have seen that this was a principle which so far could not ensure attachments to himself, because two of the conditions were not fulfilled at present. No doubt he hoped that, in some strange way, his choice by “this people” would be supplemented by the choice of God and all Israel. There was here an abuse of a principle, commonly recognized in those times, by both Hushai and Absalom. Hushai took it as a mere cover for saving his conscience, while getting Absalom to believe in his fidelity. The same twofold object was sought by the following question and the very safe assertion, “As when () I served in thy father’s presence, so will I be ( ) in thy presence.” He would be the same man while professing to serve Absalom. On the other hand, Absalom evidently thought the principle laid down very pious and patriotic, and to be respected because it was a principle, and in his superstitious and superficial deference to an orthodox utterance, he detected not the purpose for which it was stated. In the one case a principle was subordinated to cunning in a good cause; and in the other it was simply admired as a platitude by a bad man. The trade in important principles of action is very common. They are made to subserve ends by no means good. Advantage is taken of their natural influence over men, by reason of their clearness and moral force, to hoodwink them for carrying out special designs. Platform and press too frequently have dealt with great truths for no special love of the truths, but for party purposes, and to save credit for intelligence and good sense. Also there is a superstitious regard for a certain class of religious, moral, and political principles which causes many persons to think well of those who proclaim them, simply because of proclaiming them. This unreality in both public and private life should be discountenanced.
VIII. GREAT POWERS CONCENTRATE AGAINST THE LORD‘S ANOINTED. The followers of Absalom, under the guidance of Ahithophel, confer with him as to the best course to pursue in order to effectually establish the position of the usurper, and out off the fugitive king. In a measure, the second psalm is now fulfilled, substituting “counsellors” for “kings” (Psa 2:2). The fact that David had been anointed by God must have been familiar to them all. This evidence of his right to reign was clear enough, and no counter deposition had come from God; and yet such is the blindness and desperate nature of men when alienated from God, that they meditate the destruction of a rule guaranteed from on high. Sin is madness as well as vileness. Our Saviour reminds his disciples that the same combination will take place against his authority (Psa 2:1-12.; Mat 16:18). The conspiracy was formed when keen and crafty men sought his death (Mat 12:14; Mat 27:7; Joh 18:14); it was revived when they sought to crush his disciples (Act 5:33); and it is in force now when men presume to dispense with his teaching and saving power. It is the old antagonism of the serpent and the Seed. Let every Christian brace himself to the conflict.
IX. THERE IS AN UNCONSCIOUS FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. It is not likely that either Nathan or David proclaimed to the world the terrible prediction that was to be fulfilled within a few years (2Sa 12:7-12). Ahithophel was, therefore, an unconscious instrument in fulfilling the Word of God when he gave the desperate advice to Absalom (2Sa 16:21, 2Sa 16:22). It is thus that, in the perfectly free action of men, God’s purposes are realized. He chastises his children by using men who at the same time are unconscious of being so used. This wonderful foreknowledge of what free men will do, and the execution of moral ends by the action of responsible agents, is possible alone to the Infinite One. There is involved in it a mystery before which we do well to bow with all humility. Men little think how their very deeds of evil are being worked into the warp and woof of the world’s life, so as at last to bring out to view the wisdom and righteousness of God.
X. PUBLIC MEN HAVE IT IN THEIR POWER TO DEBASE PUBLIC MORALS. By the counsel given to Absalom, Ahithophel no doubt widened the breach between father and son beyond the point of reconciliation, and by a bold stroke inspired confidence in the minds of waverers; but he did it at the cost of public morality. The tone of public life was lowered. Vice became familiar. A blow was struck in an ostentatious way at purity of thought and feeling. A voluptuous throne meant a sensual people. There is always a temptation to public men to strike for power by deeds of doubtful and sometimes immoral character. Political ends may be secured at the cost of loss of moral tone to the community. Those who do this may be great and wise in the eye of the world, but they are the real enemies of the people, and deserve, as they will experience, the retribution of God.
XI. REPUTATIONS GREAT IN THE WORLD ARE NOT, THEREFORE, GREAT WITH GOD. Ahithophel was a man in great repute as a counsellor (2Sa 16:23), but he was not in honour with God. The clever head was associated with a base and treacherous heart. The standard of distinction on earth is not the same as that in heaven. Intellectual powers are often grand in their range, but the excellence of the man lies in the subordination of them to high and holy moral principles. The greater the abilities, the greater the sin of not using them for God and his kingdom. There are many “first” in this life who will some day be “last” (Mat 19:30). The worship of intellect is one of the banes of modern times. Conformity to the sermon on the mount is more honourable than cleverness in human affairs.
GENERAL LESSONS.
1. It is a safe rule of life to commit ourselves to an undertaking only on the condition that God approves as well as “all the men.”
2. It is of immense advantage in times of perplexity to have in the mind a few clear and well-defined principles of conduct to which we may refer for guidance.
3. It is legitimate to bring the force of first principles to bear on those who are bent on evil ways, though it is not right to use them as a cloak for double-facedness.
4. In the midst of contending claims on our allegiance, we should give due force to the inquiry as to whom we are under the most binding obligations to serve, and it will be seen that Christ has the prior claim.
HOMILIES BY B. DALE
2Sa 16:1-4
(OLIVET.)
The benefaction of Ziba.
(References: 2Sa 9:3, 2Sa 9:9-13; 2Sa 19:24-30.) David had taken his last look at Jerusalem, and was “a little past the top” of Mount Olivet in his descent on the other side, when he was met by Ziba, the servant of Mephibesheth, with an apparently thoughtful and generous present. This man was originally a slave of the house of Saul; became a freed man at its downfall; made his fortune out of its ruins; and had fifteen sons and twenty slaves. About seventeen years before, when inquiry was made for “any of the house of Saul,” he gave information concerning the son of Jonathan. By the restoration of Mephibosheth to his patrimony, Ziba was reduced to his former status, and thenceforward cultivated the land for his master. And now, foreseeing the issue of the conflict, he sought to ingratiate himself with the king, regain his position, and obtain his master’s estate. Such appears to be the key to his conduct. We have here an illustration of a benefaction:
1. Occurring at a seasonable moment; when most needed and least expected; valuable in itself, and still more for the faithfulness and kindness it seemed to manifest. A man of David’s generosity could not but be greatly affected by it. But an admirable gift does not always express a commendable purpose (Deu 16:19; Ecc 7:7). “Whatever Ziba intended in this present, God’s providence sent it to David for his support” (Matthew Henry).
2. Proceeding from unworthy motives: selfishness, covetousness, cunning craftiness (2Sa 1:2-10), hidden under an ostentatious display of loyalty, sympathy, and benevolence. Ziba was well acquainted with the character of David, and shrewdly calculated upon the means of improving his present necessities to secure his own advantage. Impure motives often lurk, sometimes unconsciously, beneath imposing benefactions.
3. Conferred at another’s expense; and by the employment of deceit, treachery, and robbery. “The whole, though offered as Ziba’s, is the property of Mephibosheth: the asses are his, one of them his own riding animal: the fruits are from his gardens and orchards” (Smith, ‘Dictionary’). Poor Mephibosheth! He was at this moment waiting for the return of his faithless and pitiless slave with the ass, to enable him to follow the king. His own account of his absence was consistent with his actions (2Sa 19:24); and the treachery of Ziba could not be denied. “Treacherous servants are a curse to their masters.” It is no uncommon thing for one man to seek the credit which is due to another, and obtain it by deceiving, disappointing, and injuring him.
4. Accompanied with a false accusation. “And Ziba said,” etc. (2Sa 16:3). It was not improbable that the adherents of the fallen dynasty might seize the opportunity to attempt its restoration (2Sa 16:5; 2Sa 20:1); and already, perhaps, David entertained some suspicion of the loyalty of Mephibosheth. Hence Ziba might calculate on finding a ready hearing for his calumny. But “every tie, both of interest and gratitude, combined to keep Mephibosheth faithful to David’s cause. Innocent men are often suspected and accused groundlessly. “When much treachery and ingratitude have been experienced, men are apt to become too suspicious, and to listen to every plausible tale of calumny” (Scott). “I cannot but pity the condition of this good son of Jonathan; into ill hands did honest Mephibosheth fall, first of a careless nurse, then of a treacherous servant; she maimed his body, he would have overthrown his estate” (Hall). “A false witness will utter lies” (Pro 14:5).
5. Receiving an undeserved recompense. “Behold, thine is all that belonged to Mephibosheth” (2Sa 16:4). “David, in the excitement of a momentary misfortune, is here guilty of a double wrongfirst in treating the faithful Mephibosheth as a traitor, and then in royally rewarding the false and slanderous Ziba” (Erdmann). “Hearsay is no safe ground of any judgment. Ziba slanders, David believes, and Mepbibosheth suffers” (Hall).
6. Followed by flattering servility. “I humbly beseech thee,” etc. “He pretends to value the king’s favour more than the gift he had bestowed” (Patrick).
7. Revealed at length in its true character (2Sa 19:27), as a selfish, deceitful, and base procedure; though even then the wrong done to the master is not fully repaired, nor the wickedness of the servant adequately punished.
APPLICATION.
1. Look beneath the outward appearance (Joh 7:24).
2. Guard against plausible detractors 3 Avoid hasty judgments (Psa 116:11. Pro 14:15); and hear the other side.
4. Wait for the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.D.
2Sa 16:5-13
(BAHURIM.)
The reviling of Shimei.
(References: 2Sa 19:16; 1Ki 2:8, 1Ki 2:9, 1Ki 2:36-46.) On pursuing his flight until he reached the Benjamite village of Bahurim (2Sa 3:6), David was encountered by another man connected with the house of Saul, who, instead of bringing flatteries and presents, flung “grievous curses” and stones; and (from a safe distance) gave vent to the long repressed rage which, in common with other partisans of the fallen dynasty, he felt on account of David’s exaltation (2Sa 16:8). “Along the ridge he ran, throwing stones, as if for the adulterer’s punishment, or when he came to a patch of dust on the dried hillside, taking up and scattering it over the royal party below, with the elaborate curses of which only Eastern partisans are fully masterscurses which David never forgot, and of which, according to Jewish tradition, every letter was significant” (Stanley). Abishai returned reviling for reviling, and wished to take instant vengeance. But David said, “Let him a one,” etc.; presenting an instructive contrast to both. “He strikes the same string of nobleness as before.” We have here
I. AN INSTANCE OF RAILING ACCUSATION. “Out, out [of the kingdom], thou man of blood,” etc.! The language and conduct of Shimei were:
1. Cruel. He rails against David in the day of his calamity, and has “no pity.”
2. Cowardly. Fear had kept him silent all these years; but “he that smiled on David on his throne curseth him in his flight” (Hall). Seeing that he is not pursued, he is encouraged to continue his imprecations, and becomes more furious (2Sa 16:13).
3. Malicious; imbued with personal hatred. “The ungodly are always selfish. They judge of others, not by the laws of impartial justice, but by the standard of self-interest. David was called a usurper, a man of Belial, a murderer; and why? Because he had made himself the slave of lust, and had cruelly slain the noble Uriah? No; because he had been elevated by God to the throne of Israel, and had thus marred the prospects of the ambitious Shimei” (C. Bradley).
4. Unfounded and unjust. “Every word of Shimei was a slander.” His accusations of wickedness in general, and of “the blood of the house of Saul” in particular (2Sa 4:11; 2Sa 21:6), are the offspring of a wicked heart. “Shimei curses and stones at David, and barks like a live dog, though Abishai calls him a dead one. The only unjust act that ever David had done against the house of Saul he had newly done; that was, giving Mephibosheth’s land; and here a man of the house of Saul is soon upon him” (Lightfoot).
5. Misinterpretive. (2Sa 16:8.) Whilst recognizing the judgment of God, he makes a wrong application of it. “We may here learn how falsely and wickedly men sometimes wrest the providence of God, to justify their unjust surmises and gratify their malignant passions” (Lindsay).
6. Criminal. He is guilty of high treason and blasphemy, and might justly suffer the penalty of the Law (Exo 22:28; 2Sa 19:21; 1Ki 21:13); and if David had put him to death at the time, he would not have been condemned for injustice.
7. Provocative of wrath. Surely no man might more reasonably feel resentment than David; no man was ever more strongly incited to inflict punishment; and nothing but “a spirit of meekness” could have restrained him. It is not improbable that Psa 109:1-31. records “the very words of Shimei, and the curses which he threw out against David, and which, as they could not but make a deep impression on his memory, he here repeats and then condemns. They are directly contrary to that temper and disposition shown by David in the other parts of the psalm; and they run all along in the singular number, whereas David speaks of his enemies in the plural”.
O God of my praise, be not silent!
For a wicked mouth and a deceitful mouth have they opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue,” etc.
(Psa 109:1-5.)
“And they have requited me with evil for good,
And with hatred for my love (saying):
Set thou a wicked man over him,
And let an adversary stand at his right hand;
When he is judged, let him go forth guilty,
And let his prayer become sin,” etc.
(Psa 109:6-19.)
“This will be the reward of mine adversaries from Jehovah,
And of those who speak evil against my soul.
But thou, O Jehovah Lord, deal with me for thy Name’s sake;
Because thy loving kindness is good, deliver thou me!
They curse, but thou blessest;
They arise and are ashamed, and thy servant is glad,” etc.
(Psa 109:20-31.)
II. AN EXAMPLE OF PATIENCE AND FORBEARANCE. “Let him curse,” etc. (Psa 109:10-12). The manner in which David endured it was:
1. Uncomplaining. He does not retaliate; does not even vindicate himself; but is silent (1Sa 10:26, 1Sa 10:27; Isa 53:5; Luk 23:9). “When Shimei railed on him, he held his peace, and, though he had many armed men about him, yet did he not retort aught savouring of revenge, yea, repelled with the high courage of a patient spirit the instigation of the son of Gera. He went, therefore, as one dumb and humbled to the dust; he went as one mute and not moved at all . Consider not what is rendered by others, keep thou thy place, preserve thou the simplicity and purity of thine own heart. Answer thou not the angry man according to his anger, nor the unwise man according to his indiscretion; one fault quickly provoketh another. If thou strikest two flints together, cloth not fire break forth?” (Ambrose, ‘De Officiis’).
2. Repressive of resentment, not only in himself, but also in others. “Answer him not” (Isa 36:21; Isa 37:3, Isa 37:4).
3. Self-accusing. Although guiltless of the crimes imputed to him, he feels himself guilty of others not less heinous. “Conscience in that hour had her own tale to tell, of the Almighty Disposer of events, who speaks to us by the reproaches of men as well as by his own blessings. Had he not merited from God, if not from men, whatever disaster could befall the murderer of Uriah? David feels within him that destitution of the Divine presence of which the absence of the ark is but an outward type” (R. Williams).
“Pure from the blood of Saul in vain,
He dares not to the charge reply;
Uriah’s doth the charge maintain,
Uriah’s cloth against him cry.
Let Shimei curse: the rod he bears
For sins which mercy had forgiven;
And in the wrongs of men reveres
The awful righteousness of Heaven.”
(C. Wesley.)
4. Reverential; looking devoutly (as others did not) beyond Shimei to the All-seeing, All-holy, and Almighty One, by whom he was permitted to be an instrument of retribution, and even employed as such, although not thereby exonerated from guilt (2Sa 19:18-20). “Abishai looked only to the stone (as it were), an instrument; but David looked higher, to the hand that was the supreme caster, and chastiser of him, as all the godly do (Gen 1:20; Job 1:21); which is the ground of their patience under sufferings (Guild). His vision of the supreme Judge fills him with holy awe and lowly penitence; his conscious offences against God make him reluctant to punish offences against himself; his dependence upon mercy disposes him to show mercy (Mat 5:44; Mat 6:14, Mat 6:15; Rom 12:19-21).
5. Submissive; humbly accepting the chastisement of God; and deeming this to be his proper business now, rather than seeking to execute justice on another (Mic 7:9). “Behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good to him” (2Sa 15:26). “The ways of Providence interlace, not only in capacity, but in retribution; one thing is set over against another. Yet the payment comes, not in the manner nor at the time we might expect, it seems not in the connection we think due; but it comes, like doom. Call Absalom thankless, Shimei brutal, etc. All these things read half a riddle, unless we own that God, in whose counsels these are all as instruments in the hand of a man of war, is just. He gave us wine, let us take also the gall from his hands. If it is not due to us now, nor for this, it was for something else at some other time.”
6. Palliative. “Behold, my son seeketh my life,” etc. (Psa 109:11). He makes light of present wrongs by comparing them with other and greater. “It is the advantage of great crosses that they swallow up the less.”
7. Hopeful. “It may be that Jehovah will look upon my guilt [tears],” etc. (Psa 109:12). “This consciousness of guilt also excited the assurance that the Lord would look upon his sin. When God looks upon the guilt of a humble sinner he will also, as a just and merciful God, avert the evil and change the suffering into a blessing. David founded upon this the hope that the Lord would repay him with good for the curses with which Shimei pursued him’ (Keil). “Ziba’s gifts did more harm than Shimei’s curses; for those betrayed him into an act of injustice, but these proved his patience” (T. Fuller). They also had the effect of making him more humble, pure, prayerful, and filling him with new confidence and joy in God (Psa 109:30, Psa 109:31). “A curse is like a cloud, it passes.” “All things work together for good,” etc.
“Lord, I adore thy righteous will;
Through every instrument of ill
My Father’s goodness see;
Accept the complicated wrong
Of Shimei’s hand and Shimei’s tongue
As kind rebukes from thee.”
(C. Wesley.)
REMARKS.
1. The best of men have been maligned; of the Son of God himself it was said, “He hath a devil.” Can we expect to escape insult and provocation?
2. The maledictions of the wicked can do us no harm unless we suffer ourselves to imbibe their spirit. “No man is ever really hurt by any one but himself” (Chrysostom).
3. When reviled of men, instead of considering how little we have deserved their displeasure, we should rather consider how much we have deserved the displeasure of God.
4. We should also consider how little, in comparison with God, do we endure at their hands!
5. “Bless, and curse not” (Pro 25:21, Pro 25:22; Pro 16:32).
6. Imitate “the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2Co 10:1).
7. So what is meant for evil will turn to good.D.
2Sa 16:9, 2Sa 16:10
(BAHURIM.)
The zeal of Abishai.
(References: 1Ch 2:6; 1Sa 16:6; 2Sa 2:18; 2Sa 10:14; 2Sa 21:17; 2Sa 23:18; 1Ch 18:12.) Of the three sons of Zeruiah (2Sa 5:1-25 :39), the youngest, Asahel, was slain in early life (2Sa 2:23); the oldest, Joab, was now present (2Sa 16:10), “little trusting the revolution which a capricious stripling (like the Stuart Monmouth) was to lead;” the second, Abishai, was one of the earliest, bravest, and most faithful of David’s supporters. As on a former occasion, when he sought to destroy Saul with a stroke, so now his thoughtless, headstrong, and undevout impulses needed to be checked. “The characteristic trait of his nature was a blunt, impetuous ferocity.” His passionate emotion was
I. NATURALLY EXCITED by the conduct of Shimei; and was, in some respects, commendable; inasmuch as it showed:
1. An ardent affection toward the king, his “lord;” like that of James and John toward Jesus (Luk 9:54), and of Peter and the other disciples (Luk 22:49; Mat 26:51). The zeal of the Lord’s enemies against him calls forth the zeal of his friends on his behalf.
2. A burning indignation against wrong doing. “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil.”
3. A vehement desire for the triumph of justice. He doubtless felt that the offender deserved to die; and was eager to “take off his head,” in order to the vindication of the royal honour, the maintenance of the Divine Law, and the promotion of the public good. He thus displayed something of the zeal of Phinehas (Num 25:13; Deu 33:9) and of Elijah (1Ki 18:40; 2Ki 1:10); without, however, being justified therein by the same necessity and authority, or imbued with the same simple, pure, and lofty spirit. It is difficult to indulge in resentment, even when proper to do so, without sin (Joh 2:17; Eph 4:26).
II. WRONGLY INDULGED. “Let me go over,” etc. This request was marked by:
1. Inconsideration and want of judgment. It is doubtful whether his attempt, if permitted, would have succeeded, for Shimei was hardly likely to be without defenders (2Sa 19:17); it could scarcely fail to hinder the king’s flight and imperil his safety; and its success would have effected no useful purpose at such a crisis. Zeal is often blind and misguided (Rom 10:2; Php 3:5; Act 17:5) as to the right end, the proper means, and the suitable time. “Zeal without knowledge is as wildfire in a fool’s hand.”
2. Vindictiveness; such as frequently mingles with deserved indignation toward evil doers; is bitter (Jas 3:14) and violent; and makes him who entertains it partaker of the evil which he condemns. “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”
3. Presumption and vain glory; not altogether unlike that of Saul (2Sa 21:2) and of Jehu (2Ki 10:16). How often do men feel confident of the rectitude of their course, although acting contrary to the will of God! and how often, whilst apparently full of zeal for public justice and “the glory of God,” are they really full of pride and self-will!
“True zeal is merciful and mild,
Can pity and forbear;
The false is headstrong, fierce, and wild,
And breathes revenge and war.”
III. RIGHTLY REPROVED. “What have I to do with you,” etc,? The spirit of Abishai and Joab (who, perhaps, joined in the request) was different from that of David; which, in its self-control, patience, and forbearance, displayed the highest heroism, and foreshadowed the meekness of Christ. “True Christian zeal is no other than the flame of love. This is the nature, the inmost essence of it” (Wesley). What is contrary to it should be rebuked by:
1. The indication of the will of God (verse 10).
2. The exemplification of a spirit of submission (Joh 18:11) and charity.
3. The assurance of the blessing with which it will be followed (verse 12). “So the travellers went on. The roads diverged. The curses died away. The stones fell short of their aim. The evening closed on that long day of weariness and sorrowthe dreariest day that David had ever known; and he and the partners of his exile rested for the night” (Plumptre).D.
2Sa 16:15-19
(JERUSALEM.)
An inconsistent friend.
“Is this thy kindness to thy friend?” (2Sa 16:17; 2Sa 15:37). On his unresisted and triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, Absalom was met by Hushai with the exclamation, “Long live the king!” (1Sa 10:24). Such a display of loyalty to himself on the part of “David’s friend” (companion, favourite) appeared to him so inconsistent that he asked, in ironical astonishment, “Is this,” etc.? “One might have said to him, ‘Is this thy duty to thy father?'” (Patrick). But Hushai’s answer was, in effect, that (being bound to prefer the public good before his own private obligations or affections) he could do no other than abide with him whom Jehovah and the people had chosen king, and would as gladly and faithfully serve the son as he had served the father. Although proceeding from a good motive and serving its special purpose, it was marked by flattery and dissimulation; and these, in common with other sins, are certainly inconsistent with the proper character of a “friend of God” and of Christ (1Sa 18:4). The question may be regarded (in the latter application) as expressive of
I. RECOGNIZED OBLIGATION. (Pro 18:24; Job 6:14.) “Absalom had not so little sense as not to consider that no man ought to forsake a friend in his distress.” If kindness (love, gratitude, faithfulness, useful service) be due to others, how much more to him who said, “I have called you friends” (Joh 15:15)! What does his friendship require? To be with him, to follow him, to share his sufferings; to “walk as he walked” (1Jn 2:6), without guile, in truth, purity, self-denial, etc.; to be separate from “the evil that is in the world,” to confess his Name before men, to seek his honour, to aid his friends, and to promote the accomplishment of his purposes.
II. SURPRISING INCONSISTENCY; too often observed (1Sa 29:1-11) in those who are his real or supposed friends:
1. When they exhibit indifference to his transcendent claims.
2. When they refuse to bear “the cross.”
3. When they love “the friendship of the world” (Jas 4:4).
4. When they solace themselves with his friendship in secret, but shrink from confessing him openly.
5. When they profess that they know him, but “in works deny him.”
6. When they employ deception and other “carnal weapons” (2Co 10:4) in his behalf.
7. When they honour success irrespective of the means by which it is attained.
8. When they neglect and despise those whom he loves.
9. When they are zealous for him in some things, but not in others of greater moment.
10. When they are much concerned for their own safety and advantage, and little concerned for his glory and the welfare of mankind. Alas! how often is he “wounded in the house of his friends”!
III. SEARCHING INQUIRY. Is there not ground for it in the conduct and speech of many? Is the answer which may be given to it satisfactory? Will good intentions and beneficent ends justify unrighteous means (Rom 3:8)? Should the answer satisfy others and even ourselves, will it satisfy him “who searcheth the heart”? “Search me, O God,” etc. (Psa 139:23).
IV. DESERVED REPROACH; which the enemies (and not merely the friends) of Christ are ready to utter, and an enlightened conscience confirms. “As many as I love I rebuke,” etc. (Rev 3:10). But he rebukes that he may restore. “When thou hast driven him away and lost him, to whom wilt thou then fly? and where wilt thou find a friend? Without a friend, life is unenjoyed; and unless Jesus be thy chosen Friend, infinitely loved and preferred above all others, life will be to thee a scene of desolation and distress. Of all that are dear to thee, then, let Jesus be the peculiar and supreme Object of thy love” (A Kempis, ‘Of the Friendship of Jesus’).D.
HOMILIES BY G. WOOD
2Sa 16:5-13
Shimei’s curses.
There are peculiar bitterness and moral peril in troubles which spring from, or are mingled with, human malevolence. Such was David’s affliction at this time. Absalom’s unnatural conduct, Ahitbophel’s faithlessness, and Shimei’s cursing rendered his misfortunes much harder to bear than similar misfortunes coming from the ordinary vicissitudes of human life.
I. SHIMEI‘S CURSING. A striking picture here: David, in the midst of his people and servants, including his famous “Ironsides,” marching along the ravine; and from a town on the heights, this fierce Benjamite rushing forth, cursing and throwing stones as he comes; and then moving along the ridge which overlooked the line of march, keeping pace with the king and his company, vomiting forth his rage in bitter taunts and reproaches, and casting down stones and dust; his fury increased by the calmness with which those below marched on, heedless of his impotent rage. It was an outburst of feelings long pent up which dared not express themselves until David seemed to have fallen from his throne beyond recovery. Shimei was a relative of Saul, and chose to regard David as the author of that king’s downfall, and of the humiliation of his house, and chargeable with all the bloodshed that had accompanied these changes. And now, in his view, the Divine retribution has at length visited David for his usurpation of the throne, and the “bloody” measures by which he had reached it; and he triumphs over the fallen monarch with bitter resentment and scorn, and unmeasured invective, unsoftened by the spectacle of humiliation and grief which presented itself to his view. In his passion, like most angry people, he is not scrupulous in adherence to the truth. David was not guilty of wantonly shedding blood to reach the throne; he had spared Saul again and again when he might have slain him; and he had punished with death one who professed to have killed him, and others who had treacherously murdered his son. Nor was it nearer the truth to call David a “man of Belial” (a worthless, wicked man). But Shimei cursed the more freely because that was the only way by which he could vent his malice: he was powerless to do anything else. Yet he showed some courage, or at least recklessness, in so freely reviling one who, though fallen, was surrounded by brave warriors, any one of whom could so easily have effectually silenced him (as Abishai desired to do), if permitted by their king. Violent anger is, however, often as regardless of prudence as of truth. Its courage is as that of a maniac.
II. DAVID‘S MEEK ENDURANCE OF IT. He doubtless felt it to be annoying and humiliating to be thus bespattered in the presence of his friends, and trampled on so savagely by so contemptible a foe. To be falsely charged with crimes he had carefully avoided was no small addition to his already too heavy affliction. A very natural and justifiable resentment would prompt him to permit the swift punishment that Abishai begged to be allowed to inflict. But he restrained such feelings, and meekly endured the insults heaped upon him. His words reveal the secret of his meekness
1. He recognized the infliction as from God. With the freedom which the sacred writers employ when speaking even of human wickedness as it fulfils Divine purposes, he declares that God had bidden Shimei to curse him (2Sa 16:10), and no one must forbid him. Besides his general faith in God as universal and rightful Ruler, just and good, the memory of his own ill desert doubtless aided him, and the conviction that God was chastising him for his sins. Contrition prompted and nourished submission. He no longer saw in Shimei the cruel and vindictive slanderer, but the rod in the hand of his righteous yet merciful God. To his tormentor he would not have submitted, but to his heavenly Guide and Friend he could and would. And evermore the best remedy for impatience and resentment under afflictions and provocations is the recognition of our Father in heaven as ordering and appointing all; and the exercise towards him of confidence and love, humility and self-surrender. Thus Job discerned, behind and above Sabeans and Chaldeans, lightnings and tempest; and would have discerned behind and above Satan, if he could have known him as his accuser and the prompter and mediate cause of his calamities,the Lord; and therefore could say, “The Lord gave,” etc. (Job 1:21). Thus also One who was greater than Job or David could say, “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (Joh 18:11).
2. The thought of the greater trouble of his son’s conduct helped to reconcile him to the lesser trouble of Shimei’s. (Verse 11.) What was chiefly burdening and paining his heart is shown in these words. The ravings of “this Benjamite” was a small matter in comparison.
3. The hope that God would regard him with pity soothed him. (Verse 12.) He felt that he was in a condition fitted to awaken the Divine compassion, and hoped it would be exercised towards him. In like manner, we may yet more confidently be assured that be who chastises pities us, as a father the children he is correcting (Psa 103:13).
4. He trusted that God would render him good in place of the evil he was suffering. (Verse 12.) Not that he thought he deserved it, or that his sufferings gave him a claim on God for it; but, confiding in the mercy which had pardoned him, he could hope for it. Shimei might curse, but if God would bless (Psa 109:28), all would be well. So may we be sure that all that God appoints us to endure from men or from circumstances and events, he will cause to issue in a thousandfold more of blessing, if we trust and serve him, and resign ourselves to his will (see further in homily on 2Sa 15:25, 2Sa 15:26).
In conclusion:
1. In Shimei we see an example to be carefully avoided. Let any who permit themselves outbursts of passionate anger and railing, see here what a repulsive spectacle they present to others, and how sad a spectacle to him whom they call their Master. Let all give heed to St. Paul’s injunctions in Eph 4:31, Eph 4:32
2. In David’s meek endurance we see an example to be closely imitated; yea, by Christians exceeded. For we have a still better Example, corresponding to a higher Law than David knew (see 1Pe 2:23; Mat 5:44, Mat 5:45; 1Pe 3:9).G.W.
2Sa 16:17
Unfaithful friends.
Bad men may and often do see and reprove in others the baseness they are themselves practising, and thus unconsciously condemn themselves. Absalom reproves his father’s friend Hushai for supposed unkindness and unfaithfulness to him, while he himself, not merely a friend, but a fondly loved son, was usurping his father’s throne, and ready to take away his life (see 2Sa 17:2, 2Sa 17:4). Nevertheless, the sentiment which underlies his remonstrance is just, and Hushai would have deserved severe rebuke if he had really been guilty of the conduct he was charged with. It was a time for David’s friends to prove themselves to be friends indeed; and to desert him at such a time (as Ahithophel did) would have been perfidious in the extreme. Hushai, however, was serving him by obeying his directions and promoting his interests. Whether the deception he practised on Absalom was justifiable is another, question, depending for its solution on the answer to be given to the larger question whether and how far belligerents are bound by the ordinary laws of truth and righteousness. The remonstrance of Absalom is suitable to be addressed to any who are acting in a manner contrary to the duties of friendship. As one and another instance of unfaithfulness or unkindness occurs, the question might well be put to those guilty of them, “Is this thy kindness to thy friend?” The force of the remonstrance would be proportionate to the degree of friendship which had existed, the benefits received, the professions made, etc.; and also the degree of flagrant violation of the laws of friendship which each act exhibited. And if to the obligations of friendship are to be added those of some other relationship, as here that of subject and servant of a sovereign, the guilt of unfaithfulness is increased, and remonstrance may well be more severe. The words are very suitable to be addressed to professed friends of our Lord Jesus Christ who act a faithless and disloyal part towards him.
I. CHRIST IS OUR ROYAL FRIEND. King, and yet Friend; Friend, and yet King. The claims of each relation to us strengthen those of the other. Although he is so glorious a King, he stoops to be and act the part of a Friend to the meanest and most sinful of his subjects.
1. He fills this position towards them:
(1) By his self-sacrificing services on their behalf (Joh 15:13).
(2) By admitting them to the closest and most confidential intimacy of which each is capable (Joh 15:15).
(3) By the greatness and abundance of the benefits he confers on them.
2. And they on their part take the position of friends to him:
(1) By their acceptance of his friendship.
(2) By their vows of eternal love, loyalty, and service to him. The relation of sovereign and subject is, in the best Christians, more and more lost in, though not destroyed by, that of friend and friend. A love boundless in its promptings and requirements overflows and obliterates the limits of mere law.
II. TO ACT AN UNFRIENDLY PART TOWARDS HIM IS DESERVING OF THE SEVEREST REBUKE, “Is this thy kindness to thy friend?”
1. Conduct to which the words are applicable.
(1) Desertion of Christ in times of difficulty. “Why wentest thou not with thy friend?” (comp. Heb 13:13); “Let us go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.”
(2) Moral cowardice in respect to him. The words might well have been addressed to Peter when denying his Lord and Friendwere virtually addressed to him when “the Lord turned and looked” upon him (Luk 22:61). It would be well if they could ever be heard by us whenever, from fear of man, we are silent when we ought to speak for Christ, inactive when we should act for him.
(3) Parsimony in gifts and services for the promotion of his cause.
(4) Failure in duties of love to his friends and representativesour fellow Christians, especially the poor and suffering. A timely reproach, reaching the heart, might prevent more terrible words at the day of judgment (Mat 25:41-45).
(5) Any act whatever of inconsistency with our position and professions as disciples of Christ.
2. Their peculiar force. Arising from the words, “thy Friend.”
(1) Who has proved himself a Friend indeed.
(2) Whom thou hast often addressed and rejoiced in as such.
(3) Whom thou hast often been glad to appeal to in that character for help and deliverance.
(4) To whom thou hast many times vowed eternal friendship, and fidelity unto death. The reproach, thus viewed, is adapted to break the offender’s heart, producing the deepest shame and self-humiliation, and leading to the most earnest penitence and prayers for forgiveness.
3. From what quarter the remonstrance might come.
(1) From a man’s own conscience and heart. It is well when these are sufficiently loyal to Christ to speedily address the offender after this manner.
(2) From other friends of Christ. Christians should be sufficiently faithful to their brethren and their Lord to lovingly reprove serious inconsistencies.
(3) From the enemies of Christ. As by David’s enemy the words were originally spoken. Those who are not themselves Christ’s disciples are often quick to detect the faults of those who are, and to taunt them with them. They sometimes thus render good service to Christians. Fas est et ab hoste doceri.G.W.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
2Sa 16:1. And an hundred of summer-fruits These summer-fruits the LXX suppose were dates; but the more common opinion is, that they were figs; which, it seems, was that also of the Chaldee paraphrast. Grotius, however, supposes, that the original word kaiits, signifies the fruit of trees in general. The author of the Observations seems to shew, that they could not have been any of these. “But when I find,” says he, “that water-melons grow spontaneously in these hot countries, are made use of by the Arabs of the Holy Land in summer, instead of water, to quench their thirst, and are purchased as of the greatest use to travellers in thirsty desarts; and that cucumbers are very much used still in that country, to mitigate the heat: I am strongly inclined to believe, that these summer-fruits were not the produce of trees, but of this class of herbs, which creep along the ground, and produce fruits of a cooling moisture, and very large in proportion to the size of the plant.” Cucumbers were eaten in Galilee the latter end of May by Dr. Pococke, he having stopped at an Arab tent, where, he tells us, they prepared him eggs and sour milk, cutting into it raw cucumbers, as a cooling diet in that season, which he found very hot. Cucumbers continue at Aleppo till the end of July, and are brought again to market in September and October, and are contemporaries with grapes and olives, as well as with beans and lentiles. See Jer 10:12. Dr. Russell also tells us, that the squash comes in towards the end of September, and continues all the year; but that the orange-shaped pumpion is more common in the summer months. Of one or other of these kinds of fruit, I should think the sacred writer designed to be here understood to speak: they are all, more or less, of considerable size, and fit for persons who have to travel through a dry wilderness in the latter part of the spring, when the weather grows hot, as Bishop Pococke found it. If this be allowed, it will appear that they were called summer-fruits from their being eaten to allay the summer-heats, and not from their being dried in the summer, as Vatablus imagines; see Observations, p. 205.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
II. External Shattering of the Royal Authority till its Loss
2 Samuel 15-18
1. Absaloms revolt and Davids flight. 2Sa 15:1 to 2Sa 16:14
1And it came to pass after this that Absalom prepared him chariots [a chariot] and horses, and fifty men to run before him. 2And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate; and it was so, that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment [and it came to pass that, every man that had a cause to come to the king for judgment], then [om. then] Absalom called unto him, and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel [or, of such and such a tribe of Israel]. 3And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right; but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. 4Absalom said moreover [And Absalom said], Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which [who] hath any suit or cause [cause or controversy] might come unto me, and I would do him justice! 5And it was so [And it came to pass] that when any man came nigh to him [om. to him] to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him,1 and kissed him. 6And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment; so [and] Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
7And it came to pass after forty [four2] years, that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord [Jehovah], in Hebron. 8For thy servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur in Syria, saying, If the Lord [Jehovah] shall bring me again indeed3 to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord [Jehovah]. 9And the king said unto him, Go in peace. So 10[And] he arose and went to Hebron. But [And] Absalom sent spies [or, emissaries] throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as ye hear4 the sound of the trumpet, then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron. 11And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called; and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not anything. 12And Absalom sent for5 Ahithophel the Gilonite, Davids counsellor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.
13And there came a messenger to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom. 14And David said unto all his servants that were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee; for we shall not else escape from Absalom; make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge6 of the sword. 15And the kings servants said unto the king. Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint 16[choose]. And the king went forth, and all his household after him. And the king left ten women which were [om. women which were] concubines to keep the 17house. And7 the king went forth, and all the people after him, and tarried [halted] in a place that was far off [in Beth-hammarhak, or, at the far house]. 18And all his servants passed on beside him, and all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men, which [who] came after him from Gath passed on before the king.
19Then said the king [And the king said] to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? Return to thy place,8 and abide with the king; for thou art a stranger, and also an exile. 20Whereas thou camest but yesterday [Yesterday thou camest], should I this day [and to-day shall I] make thee go up and down with us? [om.?], seeing I go whither I may [ins.?] Return thou, and take back thy brethren; mercy and truth be with thee. 21And Ittai answered the king and said, As the Lord [Jehovah] liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in [for] death or [ins. for] life, even there also will [there will] thy servant be. 22And David said to Ittai, Go, and pass over.9 And Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that were with him.
23And all the country [land] wept with a loud voice,10 and all the people passed over; the king also himself [and the king] passed over the brook Kedron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness. 24And lo Zadok also and all the Levites were [om. were] with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God;11 and they set down the ark of God; and Abiathar went up, until all the people had done passing out of the city. 25And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into [to] the city. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord [Jehovah], he will 26bring me again, and show me both it and his habitation. But [And] if he thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him. 27The king said also [And the king said] unto Zadok the priest, Art not [om. not] thou a seer?12 return into [to] the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz thy son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. 28See, I will tarry in the plain [by the fords13] of the wilderness, until there come word from you to certify 29me. Zadok therefore [And Zadok] and Abiathar carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem; and they tarried14 there.
30And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot; and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.
31And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord [om. O Lord], I pray thee, turn [Turn, I pray thee] the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness [ins. O Jehovah]. 32And it came to pass that, when David was come to the top of the mount, where he worshipped God [where God was worshipped15], behold Hushai the Archite [Arkite] came to meet him with his coat [garment] rent, and earth upon his head. 33Unto whom David said [And David said to him], If thou passest on with me, then shalt thou be a 34burden unto me; But16 if thou return to the city, and say unto Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king; as [om. as] I have been thy fathers servant hitherto, so will I now also [and now I will] be thy servant; then mayest thou for me defeat the 35counsel of Ahithophel. And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? therefore [and] it shall be that [om. it shall be that] what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the kings house, thou shalt tell it [om. it] to Zadok and 36Abiathar the priests. Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz Zadoks son, and Jonathan Abiathars son; and by them ye shall send unto me 37everything that ye can [om. can] hear. So [And] Hushai Davids friend came into [to] the city, and Absalom came17 into [to] Jerusalem.
2Sa 16:1 And when [om. when] David was a little past the top of the hill, [ins. and] behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches [cakes] of raisins, and an hundred of summer-fruits [cakes of figs], and a bottle 2[skin] of wine. And the king said unto Ziba, What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, The asses be [are] for the kings household to ride on, and the bread and summer-fruit [figs] for the young men to eat, and the wine that [for] such as be [are] faint in the wilderness may [to] drink. And the king said, And where Isaiah 3 thy masters son? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem; for he said, To-day shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father. 4Then said the king [And the king said] to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertained unto [is all that belonged to] Mephibosheth. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech thee [I bow down] that [om. that]; I may [may I] find grace in thy sight, my lord O king.
5And when [om. when] king David came to Bahurim, [ins. and] behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose [and his] name was Shimei, the son of Gera; he came forth, and cursed still as he came. 6And he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David; and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. 7And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial 8[wicked man]. The Lord [Jehovah] hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned, and the Lord [Jehovah] hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son; and behold, thou art taken in thy mischief [thou art in thy calamity18], because thou art a bloody man. 9Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah [And Abishai, etc., said] unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head. 10And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so19 let him curse, because [for] the Lord [Jehovah] hath said unto him, Curse David; [,] who shall then say [and who shall say], Wherefore hast thou done [doest thou] so? 11And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which [who] came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life, [ins. and] how much more now may this Benjamite do it [how much more now the Benjaminite]? let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord [Jehovah] hath bidden him. 12It may be that the Lord [Jehovah] will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord [Jehovah] will requite 13me good for his cursing this day. And as [om. as] David and his men went by [on] the way, [ins. and] Shimei went along on the hills side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust. 14And the king and all the people that were with him came weary [or, came to Ajephim] and refreshed themselves there.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
2Sa 15:1-12. Absaloms insurrection.
2Sa 15:1. After this. The word here used ( comp. 3:28) shows that what is here related follows immediately20 on the event narrated in 14:2833. Absalom provides himself a state-chariot with its appurtenances [fifty runners or footmen] in order thus to assume a royal appearance and to attract the wondering attention of the people to himself. Comp. the similar procedure of Adonijah, 1Ki 1:5.
2Sa 15:2 sq. Vivid description of his condescending behaviour (in contrast with his pompous appearance) to gain the favor of the people in connection with their law-matters. [He rose up early in order to show his zeal and get opportunities; and such legal business is usually attended to very early in the East; Malcolm (quoted by Philippson) says that Oriental ministers hold their levees at an hour when Western people of quality are not yet up.Tr.]. The gate here referred to is the gate of the royal palace, whither those came that sought the decision of the king in law-matters. For judgment, that is, for legal decision. The hearer is the judicial officer whose duty it was first to hear and understand the peoples matters, and then lay them before the king, an auscultator. For just decision everything depends on careful hearing and understanding. But there is no hearer for thee on the part of the king.Absalom guards indeed against accusing the king himself of injustice; but he excites in the minds of the people distrust of the kings whole judicial practice by saying that there was no regular judicial process for a good and just cause. Perhaps neglect and partiality had crept in, so that Absalom could find some handle for his charges, and avail himself of an already existing dissatisfaction. In the words: See, thy matters are good and right, he gives (in order to win favor) a judicial decision before thorough investigation has been made. Thy just cause, says he, is not investigated; else thou wouldst not lack a favorable decision. [Absalom shows himself master of the art of political intriguinghe flatters the people and brings charges against the rulers. Perhaps his insinuations were directed in part against the princes his brothers, possibly against Solomon (Patrick), whose age, however, at this time we do not know, or whether it had been intimated that he was heir to the throne.Tr.].
2Sa 15:4. O that I were made judge, literally: who will make me judge! (Ges. 136, 1). That to me [lit. on me], might come every man. The to me is put first for the sake of emphasis; Absalom contrasts himself as just judge with the state of things under his father. (on me) stands for (to me), or, the sentence is to be explained with Thenius from the collective idea all men (): In imagination Absalom sees the litigants assembled around him; comp. Exo 18:13; Jdg 3:19; 1Sa 22:6. The phrase on me is not to be explained from the sitting of the judge and the people standing around above him. [The phrase come on me is like English press on, lean on, and implies probably that Absalom would bear their burdens, or else, the proposition here = at, near, with (apud).Tr.].I would do him justice.Absalom here presumes on the peoples litigiousness and their confidence in the justice each man of his own cause, and, having brought his fathers judicial procedure into discredit with them, promises to do every man justice. Vulg.: I should judge justly.
2Sa 15:5 sq. [Absaloms affability]. He magnanimously puts aside the honor gained by these arts, and attaches the people to him by a pretended fraternization with every man. The result of these preparations for the purposed insurrection: Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.The phrase ( ) may also mean to deceive the heart, as in Gen 31:20; but the connection shows that the meaning here is to steal the heart. [Sept. very well: made his own the heart, ; Vulg.: solicitabat corda.Tr.]. He turned the hearts of the people by guile from his father to himself. [Patrick: a most vile piece of flattery (2Sa 15:5), yet acceptable to the people. So Plato (Rep. Lib. viii.), describes those as doing that would get possession of the government; and see Aristotle Pol. V. 4. Absaloms beautiful person no doubt attracted the people, as well as his condescending familiarity of manner.Tr.]
2Sa 15:7-12. The conspiracy set on foot.
2Sa 15:7. The statement of time: At the end of forty years, is certainly wrong according to the connection. An immediate sequence of events being indicated in 2Sa 15:1 [see on 2Sa 15:1 and translators note], the phrase at the end of can only point to a previous occurrence in Absaloms lifenot, however, to his return from Geshur, which is not important enough in the narrative to serve as reckoning-point (terminus a quo) for a new series of events, but rather to his reconciliation with David (14:33). But Absaloms procedure here described (2Sa 15:1-6) up to his insurrection cannot have lasted forty years; and further, such a space of time cannot be fitted into the history of David and Absalom, though this would be allowable only in case there were here indicated some chronological-historical point of support, as it has been attempted to find, for example, in Absaloms age at this time or in the duration of Davids reign. According to these conjectures Absaloms conspiracy must have occurred in the last days of Davids reign, and this would be wholly unhistorical. The reading of Codd. 70 and 90 (Kennicott) forty days is a violent attempt to remove the difficulty, and only introduces another difficulty, since forty days is too short a time after Absaloms reconciliation with his father for all his preparations here described. We must read four years with Syr., Arab., Vulg. [but Codex Amiatinus has fortyTr.], Josephus, Theodoret (Capellus, Grotius, Ewald, Thenius, Keil and others [Bib.-Com.]).21 [Others, (as Ussher, Patrick, Cahen, Philippson) retain the number forty, and reckon it in various ways, some from the beginning of Davids reign (Abarbanel), some from Davids anointment by Samuel (Ussher and others), some from the peoples demand for a king (Seder Olam); but the objection to all these is (as Erdmann above suggests) that there is no hint in the text of so remote a terminus a quo as any of them; the time is evidently reckoned from some near event. Though the number four is more probable than forty, it is after all only a conjecture, though a well-supported one; the chronology must here be regarded as uncertain.Tr.].
2Sa 15:8. Absaloms vow and serving the Lord is to be understood of the offering of a sacrifice. He wished to sacrifice in Hebron, ostensibly, no doubt, because it was his birth-place, but really because (his father having there assumed the crown) he considered it a peculiarly suitable place for his being proclaimed king. He chose this place, not because there was dissatisfaction at the removal of the royal residence to Jerusalem (Thenius and Keil, following the Exegetical Manual), but because he could there count on a numerous following from the tribe of Judah.22 [We have here an example of sacrificial feasting not in connection with the Tabernacle (as in Davids history 1Sa 20:6), an indication that the strict law of Leviticus (Lev 17:3-4; comp. Deu 12:13-14) was not in practical operation; else David would have objected to sacrificing in Hebron.Tr.].
2Sa 15:9. David permits himself to be deceived by the pretence of a thank-offering in Hebron, which Absalom might have offered as well, or better, in Jerusalem. Ewald remarks: that David observed nothing of all this till the startling news reached him that the heart of Israel was turned to Absalom, cannot be reckoned to his disadvantage, since so ancient and simple a kingdom had nothing like our modern state-police; it is rather a mark of the noble-minded security that we elsewhere see in him, that he gives so free scope to his beloved son, who might be regarded as first-born and heir-apparent, and whose quiet nature certainly even greatly pleased him.
2Sa 15:10. Absalom sent. The verb is not Pluperfect but Imperfect, since the sending out of emissaries might be synchronous with the journey to Hebron, where Absaloms accomplices had gotten everything in readiness for proclaiming him king, else he could not have said: As soon as ye hear the sound of the trumpet,23 say, Absalom is become king in Hebron. Absalom sent emissaries into all the tribes of Israel, to find out public opinion and prepare for his attempt throughout the whole kingdom at the same time, he having already gotten the favor of the people by the arts above-related, and thrown his net over them. The emissaries had only to spread the net wider and deeper, and then at the signal to draw it in and catch the people.
2Sa 15:11. The two hundred men that accompanied him were not poor, dependent people, which would certainly have excited surprise, but courtiers such as ususually accompanied kings and kings sons on their journeys without causing remark. That these men might be perfectly at their ease, under the impression that they were going to a sacrificial feast at Hebron, and that the real purpose might the better be concealed from David, nothing was said to them of Absaloms design; they knew nothing at all of the matter. Taken by surprise in Hebron by the sudden proclamation of Absalom as king, they must have appeared to the people at Jerusalem and elsewhere as part of the royal retinue. [Bib.-Com. points out the extreme secrecy of the affair as explaining Davids ignorance of it, and also Absaloms taste for large entertainments.Tr.]. 2Sa 15:12. Ahithophel appears as Absaloms secret counsellor in the contriving of the conspiracy, and so as traitor to David, whose counsellor he was. His native city Giloh was near and south of Hebron (Jos 15:51; Jos 15:54). The text reads literally: He sent Ahithophel from his city, that is, he caused him to come. Either this expression is to be regarded as a pregnant one=he sent and brought (Keil), or we must change the vowel-points.24 Why Ahithophel abandoned David is not said; probably from dissatisfaction and ambition. [Patrick: And it is supposed by the Jews that Ahithophel was incensed against David for abusing Bathsheba, whom they take to have been his grand-daughter, she being the daughter of Eliam (11:3), and Eliam being the son of Ahithophel (23:34).So Blunt, Coincidences, Part II. (ix.)Tr.]No doubt he had been slyly working at Giloh, and had prepared everything for proclaiming Absalom. The conspiracy grew rapidly, and the people came to Absalom in constantly increasing numbers. It is noticeable that it is in the tribe of Judah that this defection from David is consummated. The elements of this so astonishingly successful insurrection of Absalom were Davids grievous sins, his weakness towards Amnon and Joab, the lacks of the royal government and the consequent dissatisfaction among the people. [The expression: while he offered bloody offerings is difficult. If the subject be Ahithophel, it does not appear why his offering should be mentioned; or if, as is more probable, the subject is Absalom, the reason for his sending for Ahithophel while he was offering is not clear; we should rather have expected the latter to be present at the beginning of the solemn sacrifice that was to pledge the conspirators. As the text stands, it cannot be rendered: he sent for Ahithophel to be present when he offered, nor: and while he sacrificed, the conspiracy grew strong, though something like one of these renderings seems to be the meaning. The text is discussed in Text, and Gram.Grotius refers to the similar procedure of Civilis (pledging conspirators at a feast), Tacit., Hist. IV. 14.Tr.]
2Sa 15:13 to 2Sa 16:14. Davids flight before Absalom.25
2Sa 15:13. Literally: the messenger; according to our usage: a messenger, the Heb. employing the Def. Art, to express the class individualized in the person in question. Comp. Ges. 109, 3, Rem. 1 b, c.The heart of the men of Israel is after Absalomto be after one means to attach ones self to him, embrace his cause. Comp. 2:10; 1Sa 12:14.
2Sa 15:14. Up! let us flee. Davids immediate flight is to be explained (according to the reason that he himself here gives) by the fact that seized not with momentary fear (Thenius), but doubtless with sudden terror at the unexpected revolution, he yet sees that the fulfilment of Nathans prophecy of approaching misfortune (12:10, 11) is now beginning, that the punishment cannot be warded off, and that to stay in Jerusalem will only occasion a storming of the city with much bloodshed, which he wishes to avoid. Against an insurrection so vigorous, and yet so thoroughly groundless and unintelligible, the best defence was to withdraw quietly and try to gain time; the first fright happily gotten over, sober thought would soon return in many places (Ewald). [How far Jerusalem was now in condition to stand a siege (Zion was probably fortified), or whether David had a well-organized standing army, and how much of the army Absalom carried off, we do not know; Davids forces seem not to have received any important addition after he left the city. Two reasons for leaving Jerusalem would be: to spare the city the horrors of a siege, and to gain the advantage of his military skill and of the discipline of his tried warriors in the open country.Tr.][2Sa 15:15. Davids servants (soldiers) declare themselves ready to obey his commandsa comfortable faithfulness in the midst of general defection.Tr.]
2Sa 15:16. The kings household went after him (), comp. Jdg 4:10; Jdg 4:15, not: on foot (Michaelis). The king left ten concubines to keep the house. It appears from 19:6 [Eng. A. V. 5] that other concubines went along with him.
2Sa 15:17. All the people, all persons attached to the court, including the numerous body of servants = the whole household (2Sa 15:16). They halted at the farthest (or far) house [Eng. A. V.: a place that was far off] on the road to Mount Olivet, but this side the Kidron. So the German phrase the last cent (der letzte Heller) used as a proper name to designate a farm lying at the extremity of a region. Probably this designation had already become a proper name among the people. [Bib. Com.: very likely a fort guarding the passage of the Kidron. Others write: Beth-merhak.Tr.]
2Sa 15:18. David having halted here with his immediate retinue (of his household), caused first all his servants to pass by at his side (), then his body guard and six hundred Gittites (who had followed him from Gath) to pass before him, so that the latter formed the vanguard. On the Cherethites and Pelethites comp. 8:18. As the six hundred men that followed him from Gath are called all the Gittites, they must be those six hundred faithful companions-in-arms that gathered about David during Sauls persecution (1Sa 22:2; 1Sa 23:13; 1Sa 25:13), went with him to Gath (1Sa 27:2 sq.) and settled with him in Ziklag (1Sa 27:8; 1Sa 29:2; 1Sa 30:1; 1Sa 30:9). Thence they marched with him to Hebron (2:3) and Jerusalem (5:6). They are the same that are called Gibborim [heroes, mighty men] in 16:6, and appear as his military escort. Comp. 20:7; 23:8 sqq., where the Gibborim seem to be identical with these. They very probably formed, from the time that David went to reside at Jerusalem, a special body, known as the Gibborim, kept always in full number (hence here also, six hundred), living in barracks at Jerusalem (see Appendix to the Books of Kings, 7), employed only in the most important undertakings (10:7; 20:7, 9) the Old Guard, as it were, who here also will protect the retreat of their lord with their stout, faithful bodies (Thenius). They are here called the Gittites because they were so called by the people, as having followed David from Gath on (Keil). There is no necessity for read- Gibborim instead of Gittites (Thenius), especially as all the versions have the latter. [This reading is discussed in Text. and Gram. Some hold these Gittites to be foreigners (Philistines) that had entered Davids service, as we know many foreigners did; and this is probable, if we retain the present text. But that the Gibborim were called Gittites (Keil) is not probable, and as there is no account of such a body of Philistines having followed David from Gath (that is, when he lived there), there is strong reason for reading Gibborim instead of Gittites.Tr.]
2Sa 15:19. Ittai was a Philistine of Gath, who had lately with other bold Philistine warriors come over to David, and, having probably had a good position in his native city, was also assigned a high place by David (Ewald). According to 2Sa 15:22 his wife and children were with him. He was given command of one-third of the army (18:2), and stood along with Joab and Abishai as an able general. It need not surprise us that a foreigner should occupy such a military position; comp. 11:3, Uriah the Hittite. David advises this faithful follower not to go with him, but to remain with the king at Jerusalem. This phrase cannot mean: with him that is or will be king, according to Gods will, whether it be David or Absalom (Keil, and so Seb. Schmidt: it is not your business to decide this contest: wait quietly, see whom God chooses and serve him), but it must be referred definitely to Absalom, who in Davids eyes is now king de facto. Ewald: David gave him the friendly advice to stay in Jerusalem with the new king. David thus neither recognizes Absalom as rightful king (Bttch.), nor ironically so calls him = with him who is acting as if he were king (Clericus). In this usurpation of the throne David recognizes and submits to a divine dispensation, and so calls Absalom king.The reason for his counsel to Ittai: For thou art a stranger and moreover an emigrant (exile) in thy place. Stranger = not an Israelite; emigrant or exile () = one not in his native land. The last phrase may be rendered: for26 thy place, or in respect to thy place, or may be taken to express a state of quiet (comp. Ges. 154, 3 e). The meaning is: as a foreigner, thou needst not care who is king, or join either side; stay where thou art. The reading of Sept., Vulg., Syr., Arab.: thou hast come from thy place, does not warrant us in changing the preposition to of the Heb. into from; for, if the latter were the original text, it is hard to see how the present difficult reading came. [The passage reads literally: Return, and abide with the king, for thou art a stranger and also an exile to thy place. Eng. A. V. transposes the last phrase, or supposes a parenthesis: return to thy place and abide, etc. (and so Kimchi), and Bib.-Com.: Return and dwell with the king (for thou art a foreigner and thou art an exile) at thy place (i. e. Jerusalem). Erdmann in his translation of the chapter (prefixed to the Exposition) gives: for thou art a stranger and moreover a man that has been carried away from his place, but here renders it quite differently: for thou art a stranger and an exile in thy place, that is, remaining quietly in thy place (Jerusalem, thy adopted home). Philippson: thou art a stranger, etc., in respect to thy place (Gath, thy native place). The parenthesis of Eng. A. V. is improbable, and Erdmanns rendering in the Exposition is impossible; we must adopt Philippsons, or change the Prep. and read from, as Erdmann in his translation. See the discussion in Text. and Gram.Tr.]Whether Ittai came with his family (2Sa 15:22) and his kinsfolk (2Sa 15:20) to Jerusalem as hostage (Thenius), or went over to David with other warriors (Ewald), cannot be determined, as nothing is said thereon. But as he was a man in high position and a distinguished military leader, and as David broke the Philistines supremacy in the last war with them (8:1), it is probable (2Sa 15:20 : thou camest yesterday) that this victory of Davids was the occasion of his coming to Jerusalem.
2Sa 15:20. The sense is: Shall 1 drag27 thee, a stranger lately come, and an exile, into my unquiet and precarious life? Since I go whither I go, without certain aim, whither the way leads me (Maurer). Comp. 1Sa 23:13.David wishes Ittai the favor and the faithfulness of God. From this and from Ittais saying: as the Lord lives, it is probable that Ittai with his whole house had already become a believer in the God of Israel. [From this expression we cannot infer anything as to Ittais religious position, much less as to that of his family. Any foreigner might believe in Jehovah as a deity and swear by His name (so Achish, 1Sa 29:6) without giving up his own gods. On general grounds it is not improbable that Ittai accepted the God of Israel; but we have no information as to any special religious depth or conversion in his history.Tr.] It is doubtful whether we should render: carry thy brethren back with thee in grace and truth. (Maurer), or take the latter part separately: with thee be grace and truth, that is, Gods (Keil); the accents favor the first, the connection of thought the second. Sept. and Vulg. have: and the Lord will do with thee grace and truth, to which Vulg. adds: because thou hast shown grace and faithfulness, whence Thenius (with Ew. and Bttch. for the Sept. reading) will correspondingly change the Heb. text.28 But the words of Sept. and Vulg. seem to be an interpreting paraphrase, with the similar words in 2:5, 6, in mind. The text without this addition gives a good sense: lead thy brethren back; with thee be grace and faithfulness.
2Sa 15:21. Ittais answer expresses unconditional devotion and fidelity for life and death.29
2Sa 15:22. David accepts Ittais vow of fidelity. The latter with his whole family (wife and children, , comp. Exo 12:37) remains in the line of march.
2Sa 15:23. Description of the deep and loud lamentation of all the faithful people over the misfortune of their king. All the land = all the inhabitants who poured out with the procession; all the people = Davids courtiers and servants, were passing by, namely, in front of these crowds of people standing on the way-side. The procession marched eastward over the brook Kedron, it being Davids aim to reach the wilderness of Judah [that is, between Jerusalem and Jericho]. The Kedron, filled with water only in the winter or rainy season, was in the valley of Jehoshaphat, east of Jerusalem, between the city and Mount Olivet. David passed in the direction of the way30 to the wilderness, the northern part of the wilderness of Judah.
2Sa 15:24-29. The priests sent back with the ark to Jerusalem.
2Sa 15:24. Zadok (of the branch of Eleazar) with the priests took the ark from its place (2 Samuel 6), brought it out to David, and set it down where he halted (after passing the Kidron) on the declivity of the mount of Olives, to give the people that were yet coming on time to join the procession (Keil). On the other hand Abiathar (of the line of Eli [branch of Ithamar]) had remained in the city till the people had all passed over from the city. He went up, that is, of course, to the summit of Mount Olivet, where the ark was set down; the rendering: he sacrificed (Schultz, Bttcher), is impossible, since the verb () never has this meaning except in connection with the substantive burnt-offering () [or some other offering, Isa 57:6.Tr.], or without reference to it in the connection; in the passages cited by Bttcher, 1Sa 2:28; 2Sa 24:22; 1Ki 3:15, the context points to offering. Thenius proposes to read: and Abiathar waited,31 for which there is no necessity, as the text in the connection (in respect to the locality) gives a good sense.[Bttcher: And Zadok, etc., bearing the ark, etc., of God, and Abiathar the son of Ahimelech at the head of all the Levites, and they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar offered sacrifices until, etc., an improbable reading, in which the inserted clause is suggested by the Sept. = Abiathar. Wellhausen acutely suggests that the words: and Abiathar went up (or, offered sacrifices), are in the wrong place; the text reads: they set down the ark till all the people, etc. It is hard to get any good sense from the present text, or to explain what part Abiathar took in the proceedings. Some think he staid in the city till the ark was set down; others (contrary to the text) that he preceded the ark, which was not set down till he stopped. Probably Abiathar ought to be somehow connected with Zadok in the bearing of the ark (see the plural your in 2Sa 15:27), and perhaps in sacrificing; but we have not the means of satisfactorily restoring the text.Tr.]
2Sa 15:25 sqq. The ark sent back. David declares that he does not need this sign of Gods gracious presence and protection. His reason for this is expressed in the words [2Sa 15:26]: if I find favor, etc., wherein in contrast with the visible sign of Gods presence he emphasizes His spiritual nearness, on which everything depends, and gives himself unconditionally up to the will of the Lord, whom he knows to be present, whose hand he sees in these events, according to the announcement made him by Nathan. He resigns himself to God in the proper sense of the word for favor or disfavor. David speaks only to Zadok, who here (as in in 2Sa 15:24) appears as the officiating high-priest at the head of the Levites. [But from 1Ki 2:35 it seems that Abiathar was the superior (Bib.-Com., Bhr on Kings (Langes Bible-work), Patrick). It is not improbable that some mention of Abiathar has here fallen out of the text (see 2Sa 15:29); though it may be that in the distribution of duties the care of the ark fell to Zadok. The two priests are throughout this narrative represented as equally faithful to David.Tr.]
2Sa 15:27 sqq. [The king says to Zadok: Return to the city, and I will await word from you at the fords.] The word [Eng. A. V. seer] presents great difficulties if we adopt the interrogative pointing, and render: Seest thou not? (Grot.), where the insertion of the negative is unwarranted, or: Seest thou? (De Wette), or: Understandest thou? namely, what I have just said (Bttcher), which renderings are partly too heavy, partly superfluous. [These translations take the word as Participle. Eng. A. V. takes it as a substantive, and unwarrantably inserts a negative, leaving out which, the rendering: art thou a seer? is grammatically possible, but not suitable to the circumstances.Tr.] Instead of the Interrogative particle () we must read the Article (), and render: Thou seer, that is, thou prophet, since a high-priest might certainly bear this higher, yet archaic name (Ewald). The high-priest might well be called a seer, because he received divine revelations through the Urim and Thummim. Davids reason for so naming him here is found in his words in 2Sa 15:25 sqq. Zadok is to return to Jerusalem and learn Gods will through events, and through him David is to learn whether the Lord will again take him into favor and restore him to Jerusalem; that is, Zadok was to act as seer for him.[This interpretation is hardly conveyed by the words. Zadok was to act as observer, as reporter or intermediary between Hushai and David, and in fact does so act. But he performs none of the functions of the official Roeh or Seer, and it is not easy to see why he should be so called. Usage forbids us to take the word in its literal sense: seeer = observer. Wellhausens reading: high-priest () belongs to a later time, and that of the Sept. see! () seems to offer fewer difficulties than any other.Tr.]Ahimaaz and Jonathan the sons of the two high-priests are to be the messengers to bring news from Jerusalem; comp. 2Sa 15:28 and 2Sa 15:36.In 2Sa 15:28 we retain (from 17:6 comp. with 19:19) the Kethib or text: the fords of the wilderness (instead of the Qeri plains32 [so Eng. A. V.], 2Ki 25:5), the point where one passed from the wilderness over the Jordan. Thither (to the west side of the Jordan) David had to repair in order to escape any threatening danger by crossing the river at one of the several fords in the vicinity; and there he would await information from Jerusalem. Comp. the Jordan-fords, Jos 2:7; Jdg 3:28.
2Sa 15:29. The ark is carried back to Jerusalem, and the two high-priests remain there.
2Sa 15:30-37. Continuation of the flight on the road to the wilderness of Judah over the Mount of Olives.
2Sa 15:30. David went up the height of the olive trees, that is, Mount Olivet [Eng. A. V.: the ascent (or acclivity) of Mount Olivet]. Deep and loud mourning of David and all the faithful people that accompanied him. Covering the head is the symbol of the mind sorrowfully sunk in itself, wholly withdrawn from the outer world. Comp. Est 6:12; Eze 24:17. Of David it is said besides that he went barefoot, as a penitent (Ewald), or: to manifest his humiliation in the sight of God (Thenius).
2Sa 15:31. It was told David,33 he learned from Jerusalem, that the crafty Ahithophel (see on 2Sa 15:12) was among the conspirators with Absalom. He replies only by a brief ejaculation, praying the Lord to make foolish the counsel of Ahithophel, that is, to bring it to naught.
2Sa 15:32. The fulfilment of this prayer is straightway prepared by the arrival of Hushai, the old, faithful friend of David, see 17:1 sq.David came to the top, that is, of Mount Olivet, its highest point, whither David had come after ascending from the height below on the declivity (comp. 2Sa 15:24 with 2Sa 15:30); for there only can have been the place where men were wont to worship. By some (Sept., Vulg., Ew.) [Eng. A. V.]) David is taken as the subject of the verb worshipped; but then an Infin. with Prep. to () must have been employed, or a Pers. Pron. () inserted before the verb (Bttch.). This place on the top of Mount Olivet, therefore, was one of the Bamoth or high places, which still existed in various places in Palestine.Hushai was a trusted, proved counsellor of the king, as appears from the duties assigned him (2Sa 15:33 sq.). That he was in close friendship with the king is shown by his repeated designation as Davids friend, 2Sa 15:37; 2Sa 16:16; 1Ch 27:33.The Arkite, from the city Erek in Ephraim, on its south border near Atharoth (Jos 16:2). Hushai came to meet David, had consequently preceded him in the flight [or else, had been out of the city]. The torn garment and the earth on the head betoken his grief, comp. 1Sa 4:12. [According to Braun this garment was like a surplice, with sleeves, worn commonly by men of rank and position (Patrick).Tr.]
2Sa 15:33 sq.David, however, suggests to Hushai to return to Jerusalem. If thou pass on with me, thou wilt be a burden to mewhy, it is not said. Ewald thinks it was because he was not used to war; but the matter in hand now was not war, but flight. Clericus supposes that he was a talented and prudent man, but not a warrior, and so Keil. Thenius: thou wouldst thus increase my cares. Probably David thinks that Hushai would impede his flight, either because he was old, or because, as the kings intimate friend and confidential counsellor he would require special care. By entering Absaloms service, he thinks, Hushai may foil Ahithophels plans (2Sa 15:34), and through the priests sons keep him informed of the state of affairs in Jerusalem. Hushai is to say to Absalom: Thy servant, O king, I will be; thy fathers servant was I formerly; but nowwell,34 I am thy servant. [This was not honest, but it was according to the policy practiced in those days, and indeed in all ages. Which Procopius Gazus approves so far as to say that a lie told for a good end is equivalent to truth. But I dare not justify such doctrine (Patrick).Tr.][2Sa 15:35-36. Zadok and Abiathar and their sons are to participate in the stratagem of Hushai, and their moral position in the matter is perhaps the same as his and Davids. Bp. Patricks judgment above cited is hardly too severe. This was not an ordinary stratagem; these men, Zadok and the rest, were not simply spies, but we can avoid calling them traitors only by supposing that the priests were not recognized as adherents of Absalom, but as indifferent non-combatants, or as friends of David.Tr.]
2Sa 15:37. Hushai returned to Jerusalem at the same time35 that Absalom entered the city. The addition of the Vulg.: and Ahithophel with him was occasioned, no doubt, by 16:15 (Thenius).
1sa 16:114. Two disturbing experiences in Davids flight continued from the summit of the Mount of Olives.1) 2Sa 16:1-4. Meeting with Ziba, and the latters calumny against Mephibosheth.
2Sa 16:1. When David was a little past the top [of Olivet], the point where he met Hushai (15:32). On Ziba, Mephibosheths servant, see 9:2 sq. He came to meet David, had therefore gone on in advance of the army (as Hushai did) in order more easily to secure Davids attention after the first disorder was over. On two saddled asses he brings a quantity of food, two hundred loaves of bread, one hundred cakes of raisins or dried grapes, one hundred cakes of fruit [probably fig-cakes] (, comp. the Sept. in Jer 40:10; Jer 40:12) and a skin of wine.
2Sa 16:2. Ziba states his purpose in bringing this food.40 [His gift was particularly thoughtful and seasonable.Tr.]His real wish was to gain the kings favor and gratitude, he being shrewd enough to see that David would come out victor over his son.
2Sa 16:3. David asks: where is the son (Mephibosheth) of thy lord (Jonathan)?; to which he replies with the calumny, that Mephibosheth had stayed in Jerusalem, hoping to regain the kingdom of his father (Jonathan), who, if he had outlived Saul, would have been king. That the helpless cripple had designs on the throne, was an evident lie. But David might now believe it, partly because the present excitement prevented quiet consideration and opened his mind to such an insinuation, partly because he feared the Sauline party, dissatisfied with his government, might use the confusion produced by Absaloms insurrection to restore Sauls dynasty under the name of the last scion of his house. The aim of Ziba in this calumny (19:25 sqq. proves it undoubtedly to have been such) was to get possession of the estate committed to him for Mephibosheths benefit (9:7 sq.), comp. 19:2729. The manner of Zibas trick was this (19:26): Mephibosheth, learning of Davids flight, had ordered asses saddled for himself and his servants, in order to repair to the king in token of his faithful attachment; Ziba had taken the asses together with the presents intended by Mephibosheth for the king, come to the latter, and left the helpless Mephibosheth in the lurch. He was therefore not only an arrant liar and calumniator, but also an impudent thief and traitor.41
2Sa 16:4. Another example of Davids credulity and haste. He believes Ziba without investigation, and bestows on him all his masters property. The impudent swindler replies to this grace with two words: 1) I bow myself, that is, I manifest my most humble and devoted thanks; 2) may I find favor in the eyes of my lord, the king. I commend myself to your further good-will, comp. 1Sa 1:18. David, in the excitement of momentary misfortune, is here guilty of a double wrong, first in treating the faithful Mephibosheth as a traitor, and then in royally rewarding the false and slanderous Ziba.
2) 2Sa 16:5-14. Shimei curses David. The flight reaches Bahurim, on the position of which place see on 3:16, Thenius in loco and Kuffers bibl. Stud. II. 154.[It was between Mount Olivet and the Jordan, but the exact site is unknown.Tr.]Shimei was of the race of Sauls house.[See the lists in Gen 46:21; 1Ch 8:1 sqq. Some identify him (but doubtfully) with the Cush of the title of Psalms 7.Tr.] This explains his rage against David, which he here vents in curses and revilings and in throwing stones at him and his followers. [Such virulence is to this day exhibited in the East towards fallen greatness. Josephus states (Ant. 7, 9, 7) that Bahurim lay off the main road, which agrees very well with the account of Shimeis behaviour (Smiths Bib.-Dict., Art. Bahurim).Tr.]
2Sa 16:7 sqq. Out, out, namely, out of the kingdom and the land. He calls David thou bloody man probably because he ascribed to him the murder of Ishbosheth and Abner (3:27 sqq.; 4:6 sqq.), of which he was wholly guiltless. [Others, less probably, think also of Saul and Jonathan, and even of Uriah.Tr.] The misfortune [Eng. A. V. not so well mischief] that Absaloms insurrection had brought on him he regards as a punishment from God, because he had become king in Sauls stead. This shows how embittered Sauls kindred were over Davids elevation to the throne, and how, therefore, Zibas slander against Mephibosheth found readier acceptance with David. [Shimei is here so far devout and religious that he ascribes the present state of things wholly to Jehovah, the God of Israel; but he ignores Samuels sentence of rejection (1 Samuel 15.), and otherwise shows a bad spirit.Tr.]
2Sa 16:9. [Abishai wishes to kill Shimei.] On Abishai compare 2:23 sq.; 3:30. The dead dog is the expression of the extremest vileness and badness, comp. 9:8. Abishai appears here as in chaps, 2., 3. [and 1Sa 26:8] violent and revengeful. He wishes to make Shimei atone for his reviling with his head.
2Sa 16:10. [David restrains Abishai.]Ye sons of Zeruiah. Joab is here joined with his brother (as in 2:23), being probably of the same opinion with him. What is there to me and to you? (comp. Joh 2:4, ; Jos 22:24; 1Ki 17:18; for the thought comp. Luk 9:52-56), that is, what have I in common with you? [Eng. A. V.: what have I to do with you?]. David decidedly repels Abishais suggestion, saying: I have here no feeling in common with you; we are different persons; I will have nothing to do with you in such self-help and revenge. He bases this strict prohibition on the admonition that Shimeis cursing is by dispensation of God. The marginal reading: so let him curse, for the Lord [so Eng. A. V.], and the insertion of Sept. and Vulg.: and let him alone (following the let him alone of 2Sa 16:11) after sons of Zeruiah, are explanations owing their origin to the difficulty that the text presented when the first particle () was taken as causal (= for or because), the second () being then very harsh. Render both particles by when, and begin the apodosis with and who (). Maurer: when he curses and when Jehovah has said to him, Curse David, who then shall say, etc.42
2Sa 16:11 sq. David here combines Shimeis cursing and Absaloms revolt under the point of view of the divine permission and causation; and the fresh reference to this divine cause shows how deeply in his pious heart David feels in this misfortune also the blows of Gods chastening hand. The repetition of the: And he said, is not superfluous, for the discourse is addressed to more persons than before (Thenius). How much more the Benjamite, that is, the member of Sauls tribe, who hate me. It is not surprising that such a one reviles me, when my own son seeks my life. David thus shows that from a purely human point of view there was no ground for the course proposed by Abishai.
2Sa 16:12. Perhaps the Lord will look on my iniquity. Instead of this () the Qeri or margin has my eye (), that is, the Lord will perhaps look on my tears, the Masorites [ancient Jewish editors of the Heb. text] not being able to comprehend how David, guiltless in respect to this reviling, could acknowledge himself guilty. We are not, however, to change the text to my affliction (, Then., Ew. [Eng. A. V.]), but to retain the idea of guilt, since David deeply feels that he has offended, not, indeed, in the matter mentioned by Shimei, but against the Lord. Gods looking on His iniquity can then be only a gracious and merciful looking. Perhaps the Lord will requite me good for the curse that has come on me this day, since I patiently bear it as a chastisement of His hand. Retain the text my curse = the curse that has befallen me, against the Qeri his curse [Eng. A. V.], that is, Shimeis. [It seems more in accordance with the thought here to read my affliction instead of my iniquity; see Text. and Gram. Davids humility is seen in his perhaps; he will not be sure of the divine blessing (Patrick). His feeling towards Shimei here seems to be controlled by an overpowering sense of Gods chastising providence. He does not exonerate his reviler, but feels that at this moment it is not his business to asssert his right, but only to bow under Gods hand. The misfortune that has befallen him is so terrible that he thinks Shimeis addition to it only natural. Afterwards (19:23) under the generous impulses of victory, he pardons him, but finally (1Ki 2:8-9) hands him over to Solomons vengeance. Whatever his feeling in this last act, it is clear that now his humble sense of Gods chastisement has driven all self-assertion and revenge from his heart.Tr.].
2Sa 16:13. Shimeis rage is increased, it would seem, by Davids quiet behaviour; he runs along the side of the acclivity (by which the road passed) opposite him, cursing and throwing stones at David and his followers.
2Sa 16:14. Davids arrival in Ajephim [Eng. A. V.: weary]. A place of this name, indeed, is not known; but that is no ground against its existence. If the word be rendered weary, no place is named to which they came, as the word there indicates. This place was certainly not Bahurim [2Sa 16:5], for 17. 18 shows that Davids rest-place was beyond Bahurim towards the Jordan, the priests sons having hidden at Bahurim, and then gone on farther towards David. [Bib. Com. suggests that Ajephim was a caravansary, for which the meaning of the word (weary) would be appropriate.Tr.].The exact statement of the localities of Davids flight [and, indeed, of the whole history of the day of flightTr.] is remarkable; comp. 15:17, 23, 30, 32; 16:1, 5, 13, 14.
HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
1. The starting-point of the shattering of the theocratic kingdom till its very existence was threatened is found in the disruption of Davids house and family by the crimes of his two oldest sons. From the royal household itself comes the seducer of the people to conspiracy and insurrection against the divinely ordained government of David. From the morally corrupt soil of the royal court, whose highest officials break faith and rise against the kingly government, springs the evil spirit (the confederate of that seducer) that drags the people into revolution. But the success of Absalom and his accomplice shows that in the nation itself there was already dissension with the Davidic government and a process of disintegration that co-operated with Absaloms act of insurrection; if there had not been widespread dissatisfaction at defects and wrongs in administration of justice, Absaloms treacherous conduct could not have had so great and immediate results. If the bonds of fidelity and obedience, which before held the people to David, had not been sorely loosened, Absalom could not have straightway turned the heart of the men of Israel from him. And it is Davids own tribe, Judah, whence the rebellion proceeds and is carried on. Absaloms general-in-chief is Amasa, a near kinsman of Joab and David; his counsellor is Ahithophel of Giloh in Judah; and the insurrection begins at Hebron, the old capital of the tribe. There must, therefore, have been dissatisfaction in Davids own tribe. Indeed this tribe murmurs and holds back after Absalom is slain, and the other tribes submit. The hereditary tribe jealousy and the old opposition between Judah and the others, are not extinct (Ew. Hist. III., p. 239). The first impulse to the insurrection was given in Judah, and in Judah its effects are longest to be seen.
If we inquire, indeed, concerning the innermost grounds and causes of the insurrection and the national disintegration, we must first and chiefly note the treachery of Absalom and his accomplice, which was combined with hypocrisy and with kindness offered as a bribe, and, on the other hand, the fickleness and unfaithfulness of the people. The ambition of Absalom and his associates used all means to befool the people and win their favor. And during time of peace the God-fearing sense that saw in David the Anointed of the Lord, the God-chosen king, had been lost by a great part of the people. Perhaps, also, David had erred in the government of the nation and State as of his house, and was partly to blame for the popular dissatisfaction. All these ethical factors combined to produce the present disintegration.But, over against this manifold human guilt, David, looking at his present misfortune from the highest point of view, the theocratic, recognizes in it a divine punishment (comp. 12:10, 11), beneath which he humbly bows. Such a recognition is contained in his flight without attempt to withstand the insurrection. He goes his way a fugitive in tears, bowing humbly and quietly beneath Gods hand. The Lord hath commanded himthis is the expression of his submission to God. This is the source of his humble tranquillity, as he pursues his fugitive way, of his childlike submission to Gods will (let Him do to me as seemeth Him good) and of the gentle patience with which he takes mens wickedness without return in word or deed, and bears it as a dispensation of God. But in all this there shows itself at the same time the fruit of this sorrowful experience: it proves to him a real visitation; he turns anew to his God with humble obedience and childlike trust; having obtained forgiveness of sins, he makes these sufferings as a paternal chastisement minister to the purification and sanctification of his heart and mind. Only through new wrestling with the divine grace, only through humble submission to Jehovahs righteous chastisement can he succeed in passing safely through this valley of death-shade.
2. Penitent humility shows itself in the truly pious in patient endurance of ills that they must recognize as the consequence of their own guilt and accept as a chastisement and means of purification, as well as in the rejection of the self-willed efforts of others to ward off the evil or take vengeance on its originators.
3. To this period is to be referred (with most expositors) the origin of Psalm 41. and 55. Both Psalms have, as Delitzsch rightly observes, the most marked historical, individual physiognomy; they are mourning Psalms, picturing the hostility and falseness of numerous adversaries of the singer, and especially lamenting the faithlessness of a trusted friend and counsellor, with whom his numerous enemies are combined. The statement in 2Sa 16:23 shows how near Ahithophel stood to David as friend and counsellor, and how much importance the latter attached to his counsel. According to Psalms 41. a long sickness of the Psalmist is the occasion for his enemies to employ all their false and treacherous arts against him. In the midst of this suffering he implores the divine mercy and help, recognizing and bearing the suffering as chastisement for sin, yet affirms his conviction of Gods favor towards him as His servant, the uprightness of his heart, his firm confidence in the saving grace of the Lord, who will not let his enemies triumph over him, and (without expressing any revengeful desires, Hupfeld), holds in view the just requital that will overtake his enemies, to which he, as a just king, was pledged (Moll). In Psalms 55. the abruptness of the words, the excited haste of the discourse and the anguished tone of the Psalmist indicate a worsened situation, the extreme danger from the insurrection, which had now flamed openly out. By the hostility of his opponents he is brought to uttermost distress (Psa 55:2-6 [Eng. A. V. 15]). He wishes for the wings of a dove, to find a refuge in the wilderness (Psa 55:7-9 [68]), while in the city and on its walls are violence and deceit (Psa 55:10-12 [911]), and a formerly trusted friend and companion joins his enemies (1315 [1214]), who are united with the hypocritical and faithless man (Psa 55:21-22 [20, 21]). On these enemies he invokes destruction as divine punishment for their insurrection against the Lords Anointed, and for their wickedness from which they do not turn (Psa 55:16-20 [1519]). In this extreme need (corresponding exactly to the situation at the beginning of Absaloms rebellion) the Psalmist exhorts his own soul to bear patiently the burden of suffering sent by the Lord, or rather, to cast it on Him, and expresses the firm hope and confidence, that the Lord will deliver the righteous by punishing evil-doers, concluding with the energetic exclamation of unconditional trust in God:But I, I trust in Thee!These traits of humble submission to Gods will and confident hope in His help answer precisely to Davids frame of mind as given in history. [The correctness of the foregoing historical explanation of these two Psalms is very doubtful. Psalms 41. was written while the author was still on a bed of sickness (Psa 55:11 [10]), as David certainly was not when he heard of Ahithophels treachery. The alleged connection between the two Psalms as portraying the rise and full bursting-forth of the rebellion is impossible; for David did not hear of it till it was consummated. As to Psalms 55., its writer seems to be in the city (Psa 55:9-12 [811]), nor does the history say anything of such intimate relations between David and Ahithophel as are indicated in Psa 55:15 [14]; it was Hushai that was Davids friend.Of course the religious value of these Psalms is not affected by our ignorance of their date and authorship.Tr.]
4. This event of Davids history is of typical significance for the sufferings of Jesus in connection with the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, of which Jesus (Joh 13:18) says, referring to Psa 41:10 [9] (he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me) that it happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The Old Testament prediction of the betrayal, assumed in Joh 17:12 and Act 1:16 must be found (according to our Lords reference to Psa 41:10 [9]) in the treachery of Ahithophel, and the fate of Judas in his fate. [This view of typical significance falls of course with the failure to establish the connection of Psalms 41. with this history. Our Lords reference in Joh 13:18 is not necessarily more than a very general one. Act 1:16 refers (see Psa 55:20) to Psa 109:8; Psa 69:26 [25]. Since David suffered for his own sins, and had probably grievously wronged Ahithophel (see note on 2Sa 15:12) it is hardly allowable to make him herein typify Christ, and to regard Ahithophel as the forerunner of Judas.Tr.]Further, the separate incidents of Davids flight are strikingly parallel to the Lords way over the same path when He was betrayed by Judas. Though David suffered for his many sins, he had yet through penitence already obtained forgiveness of sins. Thus he was the righteous sufferer, who could appeal to God for the purity of his heart and the holiness of his cause. And for this reason he may be regarded as a type of Christ, as indeed Christ Himself by His reference to the passage in Psalms 41. establishes this typical connection.
5. It is noteworthy, how this break-down in Davids theocratic government by his own fault, through family-insurrection and popular defection, led to its restoration and confirmation. We may say: just as David falls away from Jehovah, to be more firmly bound to him, so Israel turns away from David, to be (as the close of the history shows) more devotedly attached to him. The prelude to this first clearing-up of the relations between king and people is given in the conduct of the faithful band who stand firmly by David in the general defection (Baumgarten). Gods instruments for building up His kingdom often sorely injure it by their sins, but receive therefor the deepest humiliations through Gods righteous chastisements, and must to their shame admit that He does not for their sin give His cause over to ruin, but raises it the more gloriously up from the fall occasioned by this sinyea, uses them again as instruments to this end, in so far as they go not their own way in impenitent self-will (as Saul did), but (like David) with broken and grace-filled hearts go the Lords way and give themselves up wholly to His will.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Proof of the complete resignation to the painful leadings of the Lord occasioned by ones own fall, 1) In humbly holding still under the strokes of Gods hand, 2) In patiently enduring the sufferings inflicted by bad men, 3) In quietly awaiting the Lords decision, whether He will exercise His grace or His justice towards us, and 4) In wisely using the means which please God for overcoming the evil, while decidedly rejecting tempting counsels that are against Gods will.
[Taylor: Civil war is always a terrible calamity; but when the standard of rebellion is raised by a son against his father, we have about the most painful form of strife of which this earth can be the scene.. That he whom we have fondled in our arms and nestled in our bosom, and whose first lisping utterances have been in the attempt to call us father, should live to be at deadly feud with us, and to attempt our destructionthis is misery indeed. How sharper than a serpents tooth it is to have a thankless child.Tr.]
Fr. Arndt: In the manner in which David bears this deserved suffering, he appears to us again as the man after Gods own heart, in whom faith purified and strengthened by repentance had brought forth quite extraordinary steadfastness, fidelity and virtue-power, and revealed itself in a glory and elevation which throughout shines before us a picture worthy of imitation. This faith developed itself namely: 1) as obedience, 2) as resignation, 3) as prayer.
2Sa 15:1-6. Starke: When one winks at gross evil-doers too much, they become all the worse. That is the way with rude and wanton sinners; the more God attracts them by His goodness to repentance, the more they misuse it to greater and more numerous sins (Rom 2:4-5).Berl. B.: Even the proofs of grace which so greatly humble the souls that draw near to God with simplicity and uprightness, make hypocrites to be full of pride.Schlier: Ambition plunges from one sin into another; by ambition no one comes to anything right.[Henry: Those are good indeed that are good in their own place, not that pretend how good they will be in other peoples places. Those are commonly most ambitious of preferment, that are least fit for it; the best-qualified are the most modest and self-diffident.Hall: No music can be so sweet, to the ears of the unstable multitude, as to hear well of themselves, ill of their governors.Scott: For such is human nature, that these arts and attainments go much further in gaining the favor of the multitude, than wisdom and justice, truth and piety, or the most important and long-continued services. This is the old hackneyed way for men, destitute of conscience or honor, to wind themselves into important stations; and yet it is as much practiced, and as little suspected, as if it were quite a new discovery.Tr.]
2Sa 15:7-12. Schlier: How often it happens that piety is for us an outward thing, just as we put on a garment, and inwardly we are strangers to the matter.Absaloms rebellion was the Lords chastening.. Even when we have found forgiveness, we must yet always feel the Lords mighty hand; and this hand often lies quite heavily upon us.[2Sa 15:11. Hall: How many thousands are thus ignorantly misled into the train of error; their simplicity is as worthy of pity, as their misguidance of indignation. Those that will suffer themselves to be carried with semblances of truth and faithfulness, must needs be as far from safety as innocence.Tr.]
2Sa 15:13 sqq. Starke: The dear name of God and religion must always be to ungodly men a cloak for their wickedness.S. Schmid: How unfaithful the human heart is towards God, appears also from the unfaithful behaviour of men towards their greatest benefactors.Berl. B.: David would rather be regarded as a timid man, than resist God. He regarded Absalom as an executor of Gods righteousness; accordingly he yields only to God, not to Absalom.One can scarcely imagine the manifold inventions of which Gods strict love makes use, to crucify the converted souls that have once given themselves up thereto. It leaves nothing in them that is not overturned and annihilated. Before Thee, O Lord, all mountains must be made low and all valleys exalted.Starke: God makes even severe temptations endurable for His people (1Co 10:13).F. W. Krummacher: This unexpected meeting (with Ittai) immediately before the gates of the city appeared to the royal fugitive almost like a friendly greeting of his God, and dropped the first soothing balsam-drops into the painful wounds of his deeply lacerated heart.Schlier: Here we have an example of what true fidelity is, and how beautiful it is to remain faithful to ones king and lord. Fidelity becomes a man, and doubly becomes a Christian.
2Sa 15:25 sq. Cramer: Everything that opposes thee, endure it, and be patient in every sort of trouble (Sir 2:4). For patience is the best way to win.J. Lange: Well for him who has so believing and open an eye that he can see through everything to God.
2Sa 15:30. Schlier: How instructive is this picture of David; how humble and yet at the same time how spiritual is Israels king! Who can fail to see that David on the Mount of Olives goes up truly bowed and contrite, with an humbled and thoroughly softened heart? But David knew that the Lord cannot reject an humbled and broken heart. Therefore in all his humiliation he is not hopeless.Osiander: The more patiently and humbly we submit ourselves to the cross, the sooner we are released from it.Berl. B.: The too great strength which one supposes himself to possess, causes self-conceit; weakness, on the contrary, makes a man very little and lowly.Schlier: Whence comes all despair, whence all little-faith? Is it not because we still hold ourselves too good? And a thoroughly softened heart learns also more and more to take courage and be comforted, and believes ever more firmly that the Lord is kind to the humble.
2Sa 15:31. Osiander: The cunning and secret assaults of our enemies and those of the Gospel we can best bear up against and destroy through fervent prayer to God.Even short prayers are mighty, if they only proceed from faith.Starke: God can take the wise in their craftiness (Job 5:13; 1Co 3:19). When wickedness is armed with cunning and power, none but God can overcome it.Even when the need is greatest, God causes His grace to be seen, and creates means whereby the misfortune is a little softened.Schlier: Here we see what David, who bad before put all in the Lords hand, did in order really to obtain the Lords help. First of all David prayed. But after he has prayed he does not lay is hands in his bosom, but he does what he can to get help.It is wrong to think we might manage the thing without prayer; but it is not less wrong if we think that prayer alone does it, and are disposed then not to do our duty also.
2Sa 16:1-4. [Scott: Selfish men often affect to appear generous in giving away the property of others for their own advantage, and are great adepts in address and insinuation. Flatterers are generally backbiters; for it is as easy to them to forge slanders of the absent, as to pretend affection and respect for the present.Tr.].Berl. B.: Shameful as was this slander to David against the innocent Mephibosheth by the false earner of thanks and eye-servant, in like manner inexcusable is the credulity and forgetfulness of David towards his faithful friend, Jonathan, in that he is here so swift to give a decree against his son, and does not once investigate the accusation against him, but condemns him unheard, contrary to his own practical knowledge.Cramer: It is wrong to give a decision at once upon the allegations of one side, and to believe one partys account. Persons in authority should guard against this (Pro 14:15). [Audi alteram partem.Tr.]
2Sa 16:5-14. Starke: Judgment begins at the house of God (1Pe 4:17). Who need wonder then if Christ and all holy men of God have been the worlds execration and off-scourings?Schlier: It is always wrong to scorn and revile an enemy; and doubly wrong when it is done to an unfortunate, whose sorrow without this might almost break his heart.Starke: Pious men should not murmur when they are chastened by the Lord, but should rather remember their sins, and recognize that after Gods strict judgment they would well have deserved something more (Mic 7:9).Even in righteous zeal one must take good account of the time; for an untimely zeal, although righteous, amounts to nothing.Schlier: The Lord controls even the sin of men, and where something evil has been devised in ones heart, God takes even the evil into His service, and does not suffer it to do what the man wishes, but God does with it what He wishes. Therefore David bows, not indeed to that insolent man, but he bows to the Lord. He thinks of his sin; he confesses himself guilty and accepts even the injustice that is done him as a wholesome medicine. [Hall: Every word of Shimei was a slander. He that took Sauls spear from his head, and repented to have but cut the lap of his garment, is reproached as a man of blood. The man after Gods own heart is branded for a man of Belial. He that was sent for out of the fields to be anointed, is taxed for an usurper; if Davids hands were stained with blood, yet not of Sauls house. It is not possible that eminent persons should be free from imputations; innocence can no more protect them than power.Tr.]
2Sa 16:9. Berl. B.: It is a strong sign of pride to take offence at everything.Cramer: Without Gods permission nothing evil can befall the pious (Act 18:10).Berl. B.: Almost all men commit the fault of looking to those who persecute them, instead of fixing their eyes only on God and His holy command. And this causes all the great sufferings that are experienced in such a case, the bitterness and the aversion that are felt for persecutors. David also did indeed commit precisely this fault, when Nabal refused him bread, on which account he also repented afterwards. But as he has now gone further, everything comes to him as a command of God, and his eye discerns Gods direction in everything. Therefore he suffered patiently, without growing indignant.David is here above measure edifying in his behaviour, and beautifully teaches us in what way we should bear every sort of cross, and in all oppression, injustice and distress should bow and humble ourselves, not before man but before God from whom everything comes. There is nothing that amid all injustice and sufferings from men more quiets our mind and gives it peace than this consideration, that nothing befalls us through the wickedness of men without Gods holy and wise government.[Maurice: To have his peoples heart stolen from him, to have his child for his enemy, to be deserted by his counsellors, to lose his kingdom, to be mocked and cursed,this was rough discipline surely. But he had desired it; he had said deliberately, Make me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. And that blessing,if it was granted him in part at once, if he rose up from that very prayer a freed man with a free spirit,yet was to be realized through his whole life and to be secured by methods which he certainly would not have devised or chosen for himself.
2Sa 16:11. Hall: Even while David laments the rebellion of his son, he gains by it, and makes that the argument of his patience, which was the exercise of it. The wickedness of an Absalom may rob his father of comfort, but shall help to add to his fathers goodness. It is the advantage of great crosses, that they swallow up the less.Tr.]
2Sa 16:12. Cramer: It is a great consolation in suffering, to have a good conscience (Psa 7:4; 1Pe 3:16).Osiander: If we patiently leave vengeance to God, we move Him to cover us with blessings in place of the evil we have suffered.Starke: Even in the midst of the cross we should not allow our hope and trust in God to sink (Heb 10:35; Rom 5:3-5).Berl. B.: David suffers the evil with a gentle, quiet and humble spirit, and hopes that for this evil God will send him good. And this hope did not deceive him.
2Sa 16:13. David acted like one who does not turn at the barking of a dog, and thereby gives you this lesson: If you know well what you have inwardly within yourself, you will not care what men say outwardly about you.Schlier: We should receive as from the Lords hand the wrongs that assail us, and if men insult and revile us we should not look at men but at the Lord, who rules and guides every thing.[Wordsworth: S. Gregory observes that David was thus brought to a deeper sense of his own sins, and was exercised in true repentance, and so found cause to be thankful for these indignities, which made him nearer and dearer to God. It was a wise saying of S. Chrysostom that no man is ever really hurt by any one but himself. And even the heathen poet could bless heaven for injuries, and say, It is a most wretched fortune to have no enemy.Hall: In good dispositions, injury unanswered grows wearied of itself, and dies in a voluntary remorse; but evil natures grow presumptuous upon forbearance.Tr.]
[15:6. Stealing the peoples hearts. 1) The kinghis weak negligence in not preventing, nor even perceiving all this. Men in responsible positions should be always on their guard. 2) The demagogue; a) his ostentation (2Sa 15:1), b) his painstaking (2Sa 15:2; 2Sa 15:6), c) his flatteries (2Sa 15:3; 2Sa 15:5), d) his lavish promises (2Sa 15:4). 3) The peopletheir folly in being duped by transparent artsthe net spread in their very sight, and they go in (Pro 1:17).Tr.]
[2Sa 15:7-8. To make pretended devoutness a cloak for wicked designs, is one of the most heinous sins a man can possibly commit.
2Sa 15:19-21. David and Ittaiunselfish generosity, and unselfish fidelity.
2Sa 15:25-26. Sending back the ark. a) David does not suppose the presence of the ark to be a necessary condition of Gods presence. Contrast 1Sa 4:4-5. b) He does not despair of Gods favor, c) He is resigned to Gods will. Comp. 1Sa 3:18.Tr.]
[14:513. David and Shimei: 1) The baseness of seizing a time of calamity to revile. And encouraged by finding it unpunished (14:13). Comp. 19:19, 20. 2) The false accusations. As to the house of Saul, David had been neither a) bloody, nor b) wicked in general. He was indeed in his calamity because of his sins, but they were not what Shimei charged. Revilers of the unfortunate often accuse falsely. 3) Davids devout patience under gross insult. Represses the resentment of his nephew, a) This insult is a trifle compared with Absaloms course. b) David accepts the reviling as a punishment from Jehovah. c) He has hope that Jehovah may yet requite him for it (comp. 15:25).Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1][2Sa 15:5. This is the only place in the O. T. where the verb is followed by with the object taken hold of (though it is sometimes followed by and by the simple noun), and here 29 MSS. and 2 printed EDD. have . Perhaps this was imitated from, or by error of copyist arose from the following .Tr.]
[2][2Sa 15:7. Though the true reading is here unknown, the reading four instead of forty has been adopted in the revised translation because it seems at any rate much more nearly correct than the Heb. text. The reading forty is found in Sept. and other Greek VSS., Chald., Vulg., Cod. A. (Amiatinus); four in Syr., Arab., Vulg., Cod., B. C. D. E. F. K. Veronensis, Josephus.Tr.]
[3][2Sa 15:8. The Kethib or text is Hiph. Impf. (), the Qeri or marginal reading () is Qal Impf. () or Qal Inf. Absolute (). The text is maintained by Bttcher and Erdmann as a repetition of the finite verb for emphasis; but this, if possible here, is certainly less probable than the Inf. Absol. construction (favored by Sept., Syr., Chald.): write Hiph. Inf. (Thenius, Wellhausen, Bib.-Com.).Tr.]
[4][2Sa 15:10. A few MSS. and EDD. have as prefix instead of ; here impossible.Tr.]
[5][2Sa 15:12. The present Heb. text (), whether it be pointed as Qal or as Piel, cannot be so rendered, but means and he sent, which gives no sense. Only Chald. renders the Heb. literally; the other versions insert or (to) after the verb, Vulg. accersivit (so Eng. A. V.). Others (as Bttcher, Thenius) insert : and he sent and brought Ahithophel; Wellhausen suggests: and he sent to Ahithophel and he came (), Some such change seems necessary in order to make sense of the passage.The following phrase also: as he was sacrificing is obscure, as it does not appear what his sacrificing has to do with the matter. Cod. Amiatinus of the Vulg. reads: and when he sacrificed (was sacrificing), the conspiracy became strong, thus connecting the growth of the conspiracy with the sacrifice, and so Bttcher: when the man was come to Absalom to Hebron, as he was sacrificing, etc., while Wellhausen would omit the phrase. But there is no sufficient ground for changing the text here, not even for adopting the slight change of the Vulg., which Thenius prefers, rendering: and by his sacrificing the confederation () was made firm, that is, under the solemn excitement of the offering the conspirators were brought to swear fidelity to Absalom. But the meaning of the Heb. rather is that the conspiracy grew strong by accession of numbers. If we retain the text, we shall have to understand that Ahithophel was brought away as he was discharging a solemn duty, that is, summoned in haste to join the conspiracy, where success depended on rapid movement, or that he was summoned to join Absalom as the latter was sacrificing (so Chandler, Bib.-Com.). Patrick says: after he had sacrificed, but the words do not permit thisTr.]
[6][2Sa 15:14. = to (according to) the mouth, or at the mouth.Tr.]
[7][2Sa 15:17. The Sept. here varies somewhat from the Heb., and various changes of the latter have been suggested. The Sept. translation, however, in its present form contains a duplet; two different renderings of 17 b and 18 are combined, and these two in general confirm the Heb. text. The first Sept. rendering (2Sa 15:17-18) is: and the king went forth and all his servants (Heb. all the people, but some MSS. agree with the Greek, and Chald. has all his household) on foot (properly at his feet, after him), and stood in the far house. And all his servants passed by at his hand and all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites and all the Gittites the six hundred men that came after him from Gath and going before the face of the king, which varies from the Heb. in one word only, putting servants (i. e., body-guard) instead of people. The second Sept. rendering (beginning with 17 b and inserted in the above after the word Pelethites) is: and stood at the olive-tree in the wilderness ( instead of far house), and all the people (Heb. servants) went by at his side (hand) and all those about him (this is possibly a general rendering of Cherethites and Pelethites, who formed a body-guard) and all the stout men and all the warriors (perhaps a double rendering of heroes, which they read instead of Gittites) six hundred men, and were at his hand, after which the phrase Cherethites and Pelethites is repeated by error of copyist. From a comparison of the Heb. and Greek texts Bttcher proposes to read at the olive-tree in the wilderness (2Sa 15:17) instead of at the far house; to which Thenius replies that this is impossible, since David had not then passed over the Kidron. Thenius himself would adopt the mighty men () suggested by the Sept. instead of the Gittites of the Hebrew; this emendation is a very natural one, but the fact of Davids having a band of foreign warriors is not so strange and improbable as to call for correction; the other versions here support the Heb. In 2Sa 15:17 Wellhausen prefers the servants of the Sept. to the people of the Heb. as indicating that Davids body-guard stood with him while the army passed on: and this reading, which is supported by some MSS. and EDD., and by the Chald. (see above) is probable; so in 2Sa 15:18 Sept. has people instead of servants. Wellhausen thinks also that some phrase introducing Ittai is necessary at the end of 2Sa 15:18, and that there are traces in the Heb. text of some such original passage; as, the statement that the six hundred men came after him from Gath, which was not true of this march. 2Sa 15:18 might then read: and all the people passed on by him, and all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites and all the heroes (Gibborim), six hundred men, and Ittai also the Gittite, who not long before had come from Gath to Jerusalem, passed on before the king. While this would ease the text and explain the circumstances, it seems too violent a change to make without more external support, especially as abrupt introduction of personages well-known at the time is not contrary to the usage of our narrative.Tr.]
[8][2Sa 15:19. Eng. A. V. here gives the only possible translation (which is also that of Pagninus) of the Heb. text in its present form. Pagninus: Return (and abide with the king, for thou art a stranger and an exile) to thy place. Bib.-Com.: Return and abide with the king (for thou art, etc.) at thy place. But this parenthesis is very hard, and it would seem better either to remove the to thy place and put it after return (in the Heb.), a change that is without external support, or to read from () instead of to (), and render: and an exile art thou from thy place (so one MS., several printed EDD., and Sept., Syr., Arab., Vulg.). Cahen follows the Chald.: for thou art a stranger, and also if thou wilt migrate, go to thy place, which differs from Eng. A. V. only in inserting the word go instead of transposing the phrase to thy place. Philippson: thou art an exile for thy place, which gives no good sense.Bttcher and Thenius object to the supposed satirical tone of the remark: abide with the king; the former would read in the city () of the king, which is an improbable phrase, the latter simply in the city. The Syr. and Arab. also seem to have felt a difficulty here; Syr.: desist from the king, Arab.: go not forth with the king. The Heb. text is preferable.Tr.]
[9][2Sa 15:22. Sept.: Come and pass over with me. And Ittai the Gittite passed over, and the king and all his men, etc., which Thenius adopts, but Bttcher and Wellhausen remark that it entirely misrepresents the scene, where the troops are passing in review before the king, and it is impossible to suppose that his little ones were with him; the king himself does not pass over the brook till 2Sa 15:23.Tr.]
[10][2Sa 15:23 Instead of voice some Heb. MSS., Syr., Arab., have weeping, an unnecessary change. Some MSS. and EDD. omit the difficult at the end of the verse, but Bttcher changes it to olive in accordance with his untenable correction in 2Sa 15:17 (and so Thenius and some anonymous Greek versions).Wellhausen omits the first , changes into and into , and renders: and all the land wept with a loud voice and passed over; and the king stood in the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over in his presence the way of the wilderness. The first correction is unnecessary, since the Heb. text (omitting ) gives a good sense; the second correction, which represents the king as standing in the brook while the people passed, is not probable; the third gets rid of the superfluous repetition of the statement that the people passed over, but has the disadvantage of representing the bystanders (all the land) as passing over, which there is no reason to suppose they did.Tr.]
[11][2Sa 15:24. The Sept. insertion here, , a corruption apparently of , has suggested various changes of the text. Probably our text is here defective, and Abiathar was perhaps more prominent in the original; but there is no ground for Wellhausens remark that we have here a post-exilian attempt to eliminate Abiathar from the narrative in the interests of the Zadokites.Tr.]
[12][2Sa 15:27. The present Heb., with the masoretic pointing can only be rendered: art thou a seer? Erdmann, changing the pointing ( into ): Thou seer! To this Thenius objects that prophet and seer are two different things, and that there is no propriety in here calling Zadok by the latter name; he himself writes: turn back, which, however, does not account for the text-reading. The simplest emendation is that of Wellhausen, who writes: to Zadok the high-priest. To this the objection is that the phrase occurs only in late books, Kings, Jer., Ezra, Chron., and this is not satisfactorily removed by Wellhausens remark that the expression comes from the redactor, since this would be the only instance in which a late (postexilian?) redactor has used the expression. The reading or would be supported by the same word at the beginning of 2Sa 15:28, as well as by Sept. The Syr. omits the word.Tr.]
[13][2Sa 15:28. So (with Kethib) Erdmann, Bttcher, Thenius, Wellhausen, Keil. Cahen and Wordsworth: passages of the wilderness (leading to the river).Tr.]
[14][2Sa 15:29. Sept.: It abode there, preferred by Wellh., but unsupported by other versions, and not decidedly better than the Heb.Tr.]
[15][2Sa 15:32. Or, where it was the custom to worship God, an indication that public worship of God was maintained also elsewhere than at the Tabernacle.Hushai is here called simply the Arkite, but in the Septuagint the Arkite, the friend of David ( = ), see 2Sa 15:37. This is probably an addition of the Sept., as Bttcher remarks.The word rendered coat in Eng. A. V. is the Kuttoneth or tunic (), but we do not know its exact shape and size; it seems to have been shorter than the meil, which was the outer garment or robe.Tr.]
[16][2Sa 15:34. The present form of the Sept. reads: and if thou return to the city and say to Absalom, Thy brethren are passed over, and the king behind me has passed over, thy father; and now I am thy servant, O king, suffer me to live; thy fathers servant was I then and lately, and now I am thy servant; and thou shalt disconcert for me the counsel of Ahithophel. Ewald would adopt the words thy brethren, etc., as a statement that David and his other sons had gone on while Hushai went to Jerusalem. But Thenius and Wellhausen properly remark that the Sept. text here contains a duplet; the sentence thy brethren, etc., is simply a misreading of the Heb. words thy servant am I, etc. The phrase suffer me to live (which Wellh. calls too spaniel-like) is the rendering of (instead of the text ); and Bttcher remarks that the and lately () is an addition of the Sept. without support in the Heb.The frequency of the (and) in this verse is remarkable, and is imitated only by the Chald.: I indeed was thy fathers servant, and now I indeed am thy servant, a form of address intended to convey the eagerness of the speaker.Tr.]
[17][2Sa 15:37. The Impf. . Ewald (Gr. 346 b): the Impf. in simple narrations, where we should perhaps expect the Perf., indicates something synchronous or continuous. Here, when Absalom was on the point of entering Jerusalem.Tr.]
[18][2 Samuel 16. 2Sa 15:8. Margin of Eng. A. V.: behold thee in thy evil. Vulg,: thy evils press thee. Anonymous Greek: and he showed me thy evil (misreading, for ). The context shows that is here calamity rather than mischief.Tr.]
[19][2Sa 16:10. Eng. A. V. here follows the Qeri. Erdmann, Maurer, Wellhausen, Thenius, Philippson and others retain the Kethib and render the variously; Maurer: when; De Rossi: for; Philippson: yea; Cahen: if. The apodosis may be begun with or with ; in the first case render: when he curses, Jahveh has bidden him, etc.; in the second case: when he curses, and when Jahveh has bidden him, who will say? Sept. and Vulg. (from 2Sa 15:11): let him alone.;Bttcher renders: if (), he curses the mouth of Jahveh ( , that is, Jahveh Himself) has ordered it. This reading was suggested to him, he says, by the fact, that, reading in the twilight, he mistook the for ; but it has little in its favor.Tr.]
[20][This remark is made also by Thenius and Keil, but it is doubtful whether the idea of immediateness is contained in the adverb itself, that is, especially in the prefix . This prefix (= from) cannot in itself convey the idea, and the meaning of the adverb must be determined by usage; but it occurs too seldom in the O. T. (only three times 2Sa 3:28; 2Sa 15:1; 2Ch 32:23) to permit us to draw the conclusion stated by Thenius.Tr.]
[21]According to Ewald and Bttcher our text arose from the fact that [arbaim shanah, forty years] occurs much more frequently than [arba shanim, four years], and the terminations a and im were confounded by the careless hearing of the scribe. The numbers from 2 to 10 usually take the plural after them; but there are exceptions, as 2Ki 22:1. Comp. Ges. 120.2.
[22] is not Infin., but Impf. Hiph., used for emphasis instead of the Infin.; if he really bring me back. Comp. Bttcher. [On this see Text. and Gram.Tr.]
[23][Cahen: As it was impossible to hear one trumpet all over the land, we must suppose that there were various stations where the signal was repeated.Tr.]
[24]So as to read [Piel] for [Qal]. [But this does not help. See Text, and Gram.Tr.]
[25][Ewald remarks that a completer history is given of this day than of any other day in the Bible-narrativea day crowded with events.Tr.]
[26] , the as Dat. commod.
[27]Instead of the Kethib [Qal] read the Qeri , Hiph. of , to waver, wander. [Bttcher thinks the Qeri an old Qal with the force of Hiphil.Tr.]
[28] , so Then., Bttcher and Ew. after Sept.; , so Thenius [to which latter Bttcher objects, and calls it a medieval gloss. Martianus explains that Jerome in this addition gives what he thought was contained in Davids wish.Tr.]
[29]The Kethib = surely, is to be retained against the Qeri . Comp. Gen 40:1; Job 42:8; Ew., 356 b. The second = yea! or is a simple particle of introduction = [that].
[30] .[On the text see Text. and Gram.Tr.]
[31] [from ; Bttcher rejects the form as unsupported (in Gen 8:10 Qeri he reads Piel).Tr.].
[32] instead of .
[33]Instead of read (after Sept., Vulg., Chald., Cod. Kenn. 254) with Thenius , or with Ewald ( 131 d) (an unusual Hophal-form). with Accus. of the person informed (instead of the usual ) occurs, indeed, in some passages (Job 31:37; Job 26:4; Eze 43:10); but the rendering: David announced (Mich., Schulz, Gesen.), as if David had known it before, and had only kept silence out of consideration for his friends, gives no sense appropriate to the connection, since the next sentence: And David said, etc., necessarily presupposes that information has just been received. Nor do other constructions, such as the supplying a [informant] (Maurer), or the change of to taking the verb impersonally: one told David (Keil [Eng. A. V.]), or the change of to with impersonal construction of the verb: and on the way one announced (Bttch.), commend themselves, because of their arbitrariness and violent character.
[34]The apodosis is both times introduced by , comp. Ew. 348 a.
[35]On synchronousness expressed by with following Impf. (here ) see Ew. 346 b.
[40]For Kethib (an obvious clerical error) read . [Some MSS. and edd. have this Qeri in the textTr.]
[41][It is impossible to say whether Mephibosheth was quite guiltless or not. If Psalms 116. was composed after the quelling of Absaloms rebellion, 2Sa 14:11 may contain Davids confession of a hasty judgment in the matter (Bib. Com.)Tr.]
[42][On the text see Text, and Gram.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The history of Absalom’s rebellion, and David’s distress, is continued through this chapter. Ziba, by a false report against Mephibosheth to David, obtains his master’s inheritance. Shimei cometh forth and curseth David. Ahithophel counselleth Absalom.
2Sa 16:1
(1) And when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
There is much of God’s providence in this visit of Ziba. This base servant meant no good to David, it is probable, more than he did to Mephibosheth. But the Lord overruled it for good, David’s few friends would need the common necessaries of life; and in this manner the Lord was pleased to have him and them supplied. Reader! if you wish to have a real enjoyment of even the most common blessings of life, the secret of so doing, is to trace the hand of the Lord in them. Every mercy is doubly sweet, when we can discern the Lord’s appointment in it. Paul’s thought on this point is delightful; Phi 4:19 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Absalom
2 Samuel 14-16
THESE chapters are full of men who reveal human nature in its best and its worst aspects. What plots and counterplots are here! What hypocrisy, and what unfeigned sorrow! The whole world is in these few chapters in miniature. What action, what colour, what passion, what cunning! But where the crowd is so great, discrimination is the more necessary. Let us, then, discriminate between those who serve God and those who serve him not.
In chapter 14 we have a picture of Absalom:
“But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year’s end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king’s weight” ( 2Sa 14:25-26 ).
Absalom having been for a long time voluntarily or involuntarily exiled from the capital, came back again as the result of a very cunning intrigue on the part of Joab. But Joab would not come to see him. For two whole years Absalom was left to do what he could with his own society he “saw not the king’s face” ( 2Sa 14:28 ). He sent for Joab, but Joab would not come. Then what did he do? Here he showed that if he was without wisdom, he was not without craft and sagacity of a certain narrow and penetrating kind:
“Therefore he said unto his servants, See, Joab’s field is near mine, and he hath barley there; go and set it on fire. And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire. Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom unto his house, and said unto him, Wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire?” ( 2Sa 14:30-31 ).
Thus we get a taste of the quality of men. For two whole years Joab paid no attention to the returned son of David, but the moment his barley-field was set on fire he paid Absalom a visit of inquiry. It was crafty on the part of Absalom. Perhaps he looked upon it as a last resort and thought the end would justify the means. But there is a spiritual use of this incident which is well worth considering. We do not strain the text when we get out of it such spiritual uses. Is it not so that when we will not go to God lovingly, voluntarily, he sets our barley-fields on fire, saying, Now they will pray? We desert his church, we abandon his book, we release ourselves from all religious responsibilities; God calls, and we will not hear; then he sets all the harvest in a blaze, and we become religious instantaneously. Or he sends the cold east wind to blow upon the earth day and night, week after week; then we begin to consider whether we had not better appeal to his mercy and beseech the exercise of his clemency. Though Absalom had no such gracious intent in view, yet it is lawful to learn a lesson even from an enemy and from a man who turns the events of life to practical purpose. We are the richer if we have lost a barley-field, and found the God of the harvest. He will make up the barley-field to us, if so be we accept the providence aright, and say, This is God’s thought concerning us severe outwardly, a temporary loss, but concealing wondrous solicitude, expressing a purpose of love in a flame of fire; let us arise, and go to our father, and say to him across the blazing field, “Father, we have sinned.” Those who will not come at the voice of love may be constrained to come at the bidding of terror.
We wonder how a man so beautiful as Absalom will deport himself in the practical affairs of life; and we are not permitted to wonder long, for in chapter 2Sa 15:1-6 the answer is given.
“And it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him ” ( 2Sa 15:1 ).
Where is personal beauty now? Mark the insidious progress. “Absalom prepared him chariots and horses,” but we have seen that they were forbidden in Israel. Egyptians and Assyrians and the heathen nations might boast themselves of their iron chariots and their strong horses, but Israel was to have neither the one nor the other. This is the first time we read of chariots and horses in connection with Israel. This man is determined to make a very showy appeal to the public imagination. He will take that imagination captive. When the children of Israel see this innovation they will think it justified, because it was originated by the king’s son; and there is something in men, including the children of Israel, that responds to great chariots, to rushing horses whose necks are clothed with thunder; and Absalom knows enough of human nature to know that this appeal will not be lost upon people who asked for a king that they might be like the other nations of the earth. They would have a king, and God says, You shall have enough of them! God sometimes over-answers the prayers of people. He says in effect: You want kings or one king? The answer is: We want a king one king. God says: You shall have a hundred kings; you shall have kings until you are surfeited with them; I will keep up the supply of kings, and ply you at every point. Verily, he gives men their desire and sends leanness into their souls.
“And Absalom rose up early” ( 2Sa 15:2 ). Ambition is not a long sleeper. A man who has made up his mind to conquer the world can easily conquer himself so far as to get up quite early in the morning. This was a bid for popularity, as well as an expression of energy. We admire this. He means it. He is no sluggard. He does not begin his day at twelve o’clock: he looks out for the sun, and almost chides that rising light, saying, I have been watching for thee: how long thou hast tarried! If men can get up early in the morning to do that which is traitorous, unholy, and unworthy, are the servants of the living God to be sleeping away their opportunities? “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.” Saith the sluggard, “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.” Thus his poverty comes as one that travelleth, and his want as an armed man. We should be more energetic, more passionate; we should recall enthusiasm; for religion dead, is irreligion. Let the cunning and crafty man for a time have his way; his policy is worthy of him, and is a thing to be admired for its astuteness and adaptation of means to ends.
“And it was so, that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him, and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right; but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom said moreover, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice!” ( 2Sa 15:2-4 ).
The eternal speech of the mere demagogue! Bad men have no originality; they are like their father, the devil, who has only one lie and keeps repeating it through all the ages: it is the same lame story; the same poor, earthly selfish appeal; the same base, narrow villainy; the same rag that is held out as if it were a purse that contained all earth’s gold. And men run after it. Who has not misled the people by making them great promises which could never be redeemed? Have we not known man after man stand up as upon a pedestal and say, “Friends, what you want is——” and then came a glowing programme authorised only by the signature of the unknown speaker. He would divide the land, and apportion the gold, and settle the hours of labour, and create an earthly paradise, and open a public road to heaven. Falsehood is not scrupulous: it abounds in flattering promises, all of which are to be realised without any toil or labour on our part! That circumstance should at once doom such promises to contempt. There is no position upon earth worth having, except as the result of labour, the prize of training, the crown of honest capability or industry. Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to any kingdom that is everlasting and blissful; wide the gate, broad the road, leading to destruction an infinite turnpike down to hell! Believe not those who come with paper programmes only: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God,” and the test is this: self-denial, payment for all you have, an honest quid pro quo , a fair commerce and barter, honest wages for honest toil. But people who have grievances or grudges or controversies are in a temper of mind which prepares them to hear the speeches of the Absaloms of the ages: they are in immediate necessity, and on the ground of the proverb “Any port in a storm,” they may be glad to avail themselves of any promise that is large enough and reckless enough.
Then how he flattered his suitors and invested his affections:
“And it was so, that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him” ( 2Sa 15:5 ).
Now came the open revolt; now the king left his palace and became a wanderer. David saw the day was darkening, and he hastened away, saying,
“Arise, and let us flee; for we shall not else escape from Absalom; make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword…. And the king went forth, and all the people after him, and tarried in a place that was far off” ( 2Sa 15:14-17 ).
See how David is beginning to suffer. He was told that the sword should never depart from his house because of the murdered man. The man was buried, but his grave reeked as a hidden furnace. We cannot bury murdered men, so that the soil shall lie quietly on their dead breasts and make no sign. It is well that the king should be thus punished. Banish him, strip him, smite him with rods of iron, O ye holy angels: for this is just. See what sin comes to:
“And all the country wept with a loud voice; and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness…. And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up weeping as they went up” ( 2Sa 15:23-30 ).
This comes of murdering Uriah! “The way of transgressors is hard.” When we have wept our sympathetic tears over banished king David, let us go down to the grave of the valiant Uriah the honest and ill-used soldier and cry still more copiously over his dishonoured body. It is right that David’s harp should be broken, that David’s throat should be choked, and that for songs he should have groaning and distress. God takes care of his law; man cannot sin against it without being made to feel the penalty of justice.
And David weeps as he goes up by mount Olivet. We cannot but pity David now and again. He was a noble soul he was a poet When the devil gave him breathing space he said beautiful things, and purposed charitable actions. Perhaps we may never pity David more than when his punishment took the form of humiliation ( 2Sa 16:5-14 ).
“And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera: he came forth, and cursed still as he came” ( 2Sa 16:5 ).
There may be dignity in some cursing. There we do not pity king David. But in the sixth verse a new phase is revealed of the bitterness of his humiliation: “And he [Shimei] cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David: … and thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial: the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned” ( 2Sa 16:7-8 ). This was right. Humble him still more; throw stones at him, spit upon him, mock him! It is right that society should thus take up the cause of dead men. David knew this. The people asked if they might not go over and take off the head of Shimei; but David said, “No; ‘let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David;’ wait: this is right: by-and-by ‘it may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day.'” A man knows his punishment is just. So “Shimei went along on the hill’s side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust;” and the object of all this violent derision was the darling of Israel! “The way of transgressors is hard.” Do not tempt the living God; do not come within the sweep of his sword or within the rush of his thunder. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” This would be the end of sin upon the earth but for the great evangelical provision but for the cross of Christ, the Saviour of the world. It is well to see what sin really comes to to watch the black harvest grow, and to be made to go into the field with the sickle and begin to cut it down. But there is still mercy with God, but it is mercy through righteousness; there is compassion in heaven, but it is compassion that expresses law. God can now be just, yet the justifier of the ungodly. He can now forgive thieves, murderers, and the worst of men of every phase and type, but he can only do this because of the priesthood of his own Son. A mystery we cannot explain; but we feel our need of it when we feel the agony of sin and the justness of our punishment. This cross is not to be taken to pieces, and explained in literal words, and made easy to the common understanding: “Great is the mystery of godliness.” Our intellectual eyes cannot see it, our vain imagination cannot bear the glory, but when we are stricken down because of sin, and penitent because we have felt its distress and abominableness in the sight of God, then something within us yea, the very soul catches a glimpse of the cross the beginning of heaven, because beginning of pardon.
Whilst we must be severe upon David, and therefore upon ourselves for David was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, only exceptionally sinful in the accident, not in the essence and reality of things it is right also to turn in the other direction, and ask, Is there any pity in heaven? Is there any compassion in God? Is there any way of escaping the results of iniquity? And whilst we ask the question, a great voice, a voice as of many waters, sounds, and resounds, saying, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon;” so, though there is terrible law, there also is a gracious gospel.
Prayer
Almighty God, we rejoice that thou hast promised to slay the prince of this world. We cannot understand his existence, but we can attest it. He is a murderer from the beginning, and a liar; but he is under thy control: for there is but one living and true God. We know nothing of time; we cannot tell what happened in the world’s Yesterday; we dimly remember what happened in our own. We cannot tell what the world’s To-morrow will be, except through thy gracious revelation: it is to be a Sabbath day, a day of the Son of man, a period cut out of the glory of heaven. This is enough to know. We are glad to know it, for the night is heavy upon us; there is no message from the darkness; our sight leads us but to despair. But through our faith thou dost send us gospels, pure as dew, radiant as light, glad as music The whole earth shall be filled with the glory of God. We wonder at the time it takes long, long time; but then we cannot tell what time is: we go only by our mechanism and our own consciousness: we have yet to learn that there is neither thousand years nor one day to the Lord, that all such misleading definitions are unknown in the economy of heaven. Help us to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him, knowing that he will give us our heart’s desire, if that desire be that his kingdom should come, and his will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. For all religious comfort we bless thee. Other comfort fades and perishes in the using, but this tender solace reaches the whole life, subdues and delights the whole spirit: it is the very comfort of God the very grace of the cross of Christ. We would open our hearts to receive it; we would be no longer disquieted and tossed to and fro as if living in an uncontrollable tumult: we would rest in the living God; we would say, The Lord reigneth: the Lord doeth all things well: all things work together for good to them that love God; and repeating these great assurances, our joy will return, and the peace of God will make us calm. Let thy mercies be daily multiplied towards us according to our need. May every heart feel the nearness of God and know the preciousness of Jesus Christ, and witness to the sanctifying energy of the Holy Spirit. Then, come what may high hills, or deep, long, weary valleys the road will all lead to one place the city whose walls are jasper and whose streets are gold. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
2Sa 16:1 And when David was a little past the top [of the hill], behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred [loaves] of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
Ver. 1. Met him with a couple of asses saddled. ] His master Mephibosheth could not get him to saddle one ass for him to go along with David, 2Sa 19:26 for he had a design by false accusation, to wrest his land from him, as also he did; furnishing, meanwhile, this rich present out of Mephibosheth’s means; which it is likely he made bold with for his own advantage.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
top. Compare 2Sa 15:32.
behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
Mephibosheth. Now thirty-one. Born in 965. Compare 2Sa 4:4.
bottle = skin-bottle (Jos 9:4. Mat 9:17).
wine. Hebrew. yayin. See App-27.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 16
And when David was a little past the top of the hill, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys that were loaded down with bread, raisins, summer fruits, a bottle of wine. David said, What do you mean by all these things? And Ziba [lied to him,] he said, The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on; the bread and the summer fruit are for the young men to eat; and the wine, so that those that are faint in the wilderness may drink. The king said, And where is Mephibosheth? And Ziba said to the king, Behold, he abides at Jerusalem: because he said, Today they’ll restore the kingdom back to me ( 2Sa 16:1-3 ).
In other words, he’s lying to David about Mephibosheth declaring that Mephibosheth was looking to this and saying, “Hey, I’m going to get the kingdom back.” That’s not true. That’s a lie of Ziba.
So David said,
Well everything that I gave to Mephibosheth is yours if we ever get back ( 2Sa 16:4 ).
Of course later on David found out that he was lying to them.
As he was going along, another relative of Saul, a cousin of sorts, Shimei, the guy’s name.
And Shimei came out and began to curse David, running along and throwing rocks at David, throwing dirt in the air, and cursing him. Now Abishai said to David, David that dirty dog, he has no right doing that, let me go take his head off. And David said, No let him go. Maybe God’s put it in his heart to curse me ( 2Sa 16:5-10 ).
David has no fire, just you know, “Maybe God wants him to curse me. Maybe that’s what’s in God’s heart.” David is so broken at this point, realizing that this is the fruit of my sin, and yet there is a beautiful submission to David unto God, and unto the will of God, and even unto the judgment of God that which made David a man after God’s own heart. He was willing to just commit himself now totally to God, to the judgment of God, “God, if You want to wipe me out, if You want to destroy me, if You want to curse me, whatever You want to do God, do what You want to me.”
David isn’t resisting any longer. His life now is one of total and complete commitment. He was brought to that place of brokenness. Which so often is necessary in order that we might enter into that place of complete and total submission unto the will of God. Though it is sort of sad to see the fire gone, yet in another way it’s beautiful to see now no more resisting, no more defending himself, but just that total commitment, “whatever God wants, let it be.”
So Absalom came into Jerusalem, [and David had left ten of his concubines to keep his palace.] And so Ahithophel said to Absalom, Look, put up a tent on the roof of the house, and take the ten concubines in the sight of all the people and take them into the tent. And there in a sense, humiliate them ( 2Sa 16:15 , 2Sa 16:21 ).
Now this was showing that a breech was being created between Absalom and David that could not be healed. In other words, the people would feel secure now in following Absalom, because they feel, “Wow, there’s no way David could ever forgive this sin.” Also, this was a common practice for a king who took over the kingdom from his predecessor, one of the acts of taking the kingdom from his predecessor was taking the king’s wives. Even as David took Saul’s wives. Taking of the wives of the predecessor again was a part of the succession in the kingdom. So Absalom was really taking this position of superseding David as king, and also creating a breech irreparable between himself and his father.
This was the counsel of Ahithophel and Absalom followed it ( 2Sa 16:23 ).
The further prophecy of Nathan was fulfilled as we find the wives of David there in the sun before all the people, being publicly humiliated.
Next week we’ll begin our lesson in chapter seventeen.
There was one thing I passed over, and I want to come back to it, in verse twenty-five of chapter fourteen it tells a little bit about Absalom, “And all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom, for his beauty. From the sole of his foot, to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him.” He was a very beautiful person outwardly, but he was cunning, cruel, and all inwardly. Then it says that he pulled his hair annually. “Because his hair was heavy on him, therefore he pulled it, and the weight of his hair was about two hundred shekels after the king’s weight.” For every year he grew about three to four pounds of hair.
Now part of their pay was by the pulling of their hair. They would give them so much per shekel and so forth for the pulling of their hair. His weighed between three and four pounds annually, when they’d shave his head and weigh it, about three to four pounds. But it was interesting, it was his hair that led to his death. He was riding through the woods, and his hair got caught on a branch, and he was hanging there by his hair when Joab came along and threw the dart through his heart. So you know, there may be disadvantages but there can be advantages too.
Shall we stand?
Our Father we give thanks unto You for those lessons that can be learned as we study Thy Word together. Lord, enrich us in the knowledge of Thy purposes and Thy will. Help us Lord to grow in grace and in the understanding of Thy truth. Lord, we pray now that Thy Word will be hid in our hearts, and may we be cleaned, washed, through the Word that You have spoken. In Jesus’ name, Amen. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
David’s sorrows multiplied. Those recorded here are typical. Ziba, a man who for purely selfish reasons took advantage of temporary trouble to traduce an absent friend, was utterly despicable, and the more so because at the moment the sorrow he brought to the heart of David was his feeling that his kindness toward Mephibosheth was ill requited. Shimei was of a higher type than Ziba, but was mean beyond measure. He struck when his foe was in the dust. David’s attitude toward Shimei is remarkable in its revelation of his attitude toward God. He spoke of Shimei as sent to curse him.
As we thus follow David through these days of humiliation and shame, while with him we recognize the perfect justice of all the sufferings that came to him, we nevertheless understand more perfectly that he was indeed a man after God’s own heart.
Arriving in Jerusalem, Absalom was surprised to find Hushai, David’s friend, still there. He turned from him to Ahithophel for counsel. Ahithophel advised an action which would make the breach between himself and his father permanent, and constituted a supreme claim to the succession. To enter and possess the harem of a king was the right only of his successor.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
a Day That Revealed Character
2Sa 16:1-12
There may have been some truth in Zibas statement, but we should balance it with 2Sa 19:24. Shimei vented the spleen of the house of Saul. He probably referred to the recent execution of the sons of Rizpah, and perhaps suggested that David had been guilty of all the disaster that had befallen Sauls house from the day of Gilboa. When men curse us, whether we deserve it or not, let us look past them to the permissive will of God. Let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him!
When, through the treachery of Judas, the bitter cup came to the lips of our Lord, he said, It is the cup that my Father hath given me to drink. Pain and sorrow, treachery and hard speeches, may be devised against us by the malignity of an Ahithophel, a Shimei, or a Judas; but by the time these have passed, through the permissive will of God, we may receive them as the strokes of His chastening rod, that we may partake of His holiness. We are not the sport of chance or human caprice. God deals with us as with sons.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
2Sa 16:17
I. This inquiry rebukes all merely exclamatory loyalty.
II. It rebukes all cheap loyalty.
III. It calls us sharply to practical loyalty.
Parker, Fountain, April 21st, 1881.
References: 2Sa 17:1-3.-F.W. Krummacher, David King of Israel, p. 420. 2Sa 17:2.-Parker, vol. vii., p. 240. 2Sa 17:23.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 181. 2Sa 17:27-29.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1544; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 108. 2Sam 17-19.-Parker, vol. vii., p. 183. 2Sa 18:3.-Ibid., p. 241. 2Sa 18:14, 2Sa 18:15.-R. Tuck, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 4. 2Sa 18:17.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 313. 2Sa 18:23.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 31. 2Sa 18:29.-Ibid., Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1433; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 108. 2Sa 18:31.-F. W. Krummacher, David the King of Israel, p. 434. 2Sa 18:33.-J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 465; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 21. 2Sa 19:2.-Parker, vol. vii., p. 194. 2Sa 19:10.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 808. 2Sa 19:14, 2Sa 19:15.-F. W. Krummacher, David the King of Israel, p. 434. 2Sa 19:15.-J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. i., p. 260.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
6. The Sorrows and Testings of the King
CHAPTER 16
1. Lying Ziba (2Sa 16:1-4)
2. Shimei curses and stones David (2Sa 16:5-14)
3. Absalom enters Jerusalem (2Sa 16:15-19)
4. Ahitophels wicked counsel (2Sa 16:20-23)
Ziba in great craftiness meets the exiled king with provisions and acts as the false accuser of Mephibosheth. And David hastily puts all that belongs to Mephibosheth into his hands. Strange that David could believe in the falsehood of Ziba. How could one who was a helpless cripple aspire to possess a kingdom? Mephibosheth had been deceived (2Sa 19:26) by Ziba and David readily believed the lying story.
Shimei (my fame) appeared, cursing David, stoning him and his servants. His accusation that he was responsible for all the blood of the house of Saul was unfounded and unjust. He was not responsible for the death of Saul and Jonathan, and equally guiltless of the death of Abner and Ish-bosheth. And yet David saw something else in the curses of Shimei and in calling him a bloody man. The blood of Uriah which he had shed must have suddenly come to his mind. And when Abishai offers to kill Shimei, David rebuked him. (See Luk 9:52-56.) Let him curse, because the LORD hath said to him, Curse David–Let him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD hath bidden him. He realizes Shimei is but an instrument in the Lords hands; He had permitted it and David acknowledges thus that he had deserved the curses. It may be that the LORD will look on mine affliction, and that the LORD will requite me good for his cursing this day. His eyes now look to the Lord whose chastening hand rested so heavily upon him.
Absalom is now in Jerusalem and Hushai succeeds in his commission given to him by David. He deceives Absalom. Whom did Hushai mean, when he said, Whom the LORD and this people, and all the men of Israel choose, his will I be, and with him will I be? They can only be applied to David; most likely in his heart he meant David. But it was flattery which wicked Absalom gladly accepted. Absalom followed the vile counsel of Ahitophel and committed the unnatural crime to show to all Israel that the breach between him and his father David was beyond remedy. Gods predicted judgment upon David had come literally true. (See 2Sa 12:11-12.) The world will yet find out that Gods judgments, though long delayed, will find ultimately their literal fulfilment.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
little past: 2Sa 15:30, 2Sa 15:32
Ziba: 2Sa 9:2, 2Sa 9:9-12
with a couple: 2Sa 17:27-29, 2Sa 19:32, 1Sa 17:17, 1Sa 17:18, 1Sa 25:18, 1Ch 12:40, Pro 18:16, Pro 29:4, Pro 29:5
summer: These were probably pumpkins, cucumbers, or water-melons; the two latter being extensively used in the East to refresh travellers in the burning heat of the summer; and probably, as Mr. Harmer supposes, called summer fruits on this very account. Jer 40:10, Jer 40:12, Amo 8:1, Mic 7:1
a bottle: 1Sa 10:3, 1Sa 16:20
Reciprocal: 2Sa 9:11 – According 2Sa 17:28 – beds 2Sa 19:17 – Ziba Psa 7:1 – words Psa 118:18 – chastened Pro 17:8 – whithersoever Pro 18:17 – General Pro 30:10 – Accuse not Amo 8:2 – A basket
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Sa 16:1. Behold Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him This crafty man, being persuaded that God would in due time appear for the righteous cause of so good a king, and scatter the cloud which was now upon him, takes this occasion to make way for his own future advancement, by making David a handsome present of provisions, which was the more welcome, because it came seasonably. A hundred of summer fruits These, the Seventy suppose, were dates, but the more common opinion is that they were figs, as the Chaldee paraphrast supposes them to have been; from whence Dr. Delaney infers that this flight of David was about the beginning of summer, when the early figs were wont to be gathered, and when a present of them must have been very seasonable and refreshing. A bottle of wine Containing, no doubt, a quantity that was proportionable to the rest of the present. Their bottles, being made of skins, or leather, were some of them very large.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Sa 16:3. Where is thy masters son? Ziba had been servant to Jonathan. Here is another sad case superinduced by a civil war. Mephibosheth, a prince at the mercy of a covetous and a lying servant, a traitor who by accusing his master of high treason, obtained the grant of Sauls estates. We should always hear the other party.
2Sa 16:7. Shimei cursed David. See on Gen 9:25.
2Sa 16:11. Let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him; spoken subjunctively, it may be the Lord hath bidden him.
2Sa 16:14. The king and all the peoplecame weary, and refreshed themselves there. That is, at the fords of Jordan opposite to Mahanaim, to be ready to pass over on the approach of Absaloms army, and to receive the kings friends every moment flocking to the royal standard. Here, according to Josephus, he numbered his army and appointed the officers.
2Sa 16:21. Thy fathers concubines. This advice was unique in its kind, and consummate in its character. Truly Absalom and his counsellor had a spirit of error sent from God.
REFLECTIONS.
What a chapter of instruction is this to princes, and to nations: what a monitor to loyalty under reverses, and to consistency of character. A civil war lays open all the vileness of the human heart. David having left Jerusalem weeping, and wisely without a garrison, wished to collect his forces into one body all the way to Jordan. Among these came Ziba the servant of Saul, whom the king had reappointed to the stewardship of his masters lands. He brought rich and seasonable presents. But he had deceived Mephibosheth; and saddled the ass for himself instead of his lord, that he might accuse him of treason to the king. Ziba was made rich, as servant of Sauls house; yet through covetousness he wished to destroy his master, that he might inherit his wealth: and taking advantage of David when his soul was loaded with anguish, and his heart softened with grief, he obtained a promise of the land. A servant, who through interest accuses his master, should seldom be credited without the fairest evidence. The king on leaving Jerusalem was beset with a hypocrite, and on entering Bahurim he was assailed by Shimei, an open foe. Had Sauls house reigned, this man had been a prince. Hence, disappointment, envy and malice, had long lurked in his heart; and now he ventured to disgorge the whole on his afflicted sovereign. Impelled by implacable passions, he confined not his reproaches to truth. He accused the king as the cause of every visitation which befel that house. He went on cursing him, and throwing stones towards him, indicating that he ought to be stoned for his complicated crimes. It is cruel to reproach any man suffering under the hand of God; but adversity makes manifest the human heart. By this strange conduct Shimei justly forfeited his life; and his curses and stones ultimately recoiled on his own head.
Davids restraining Abishai from smiting Shimei, is characteristic of a great and noble mind, actuated by a high sense of superior virtue. Deeply affected with the rebellion, he regarded his own sins as the principal cause; and viewing himself in Gods hands, and as a criminal at his bar, he would not inflict justice on another criminal. So our blessed Lord, while on the cross, prayed for those who mocked and derided and falsely accused him. It is the best and brightest ornament of a christian to bear calumny and reproach in the spirit of our Master.
But what must Shimei feel, after thus exhausting his malice in the frantic effusions of passion? What must he feel in his chamber, when he found his life had been spared, and no notice taken of his wickedness? Must he not say, surely David, who has spared my life under all these atrocious provocations, could never be accessory to the fall of Sauls house. I have acted the part of a traitor and a fool; and if the king shall return in peace, perhaps my life will be required for my folly. Acute indeed are the reproaches of conscience, after a violent excess of passion.
Leaving the king reposed on the Jordan, and encreasing in strength, we are conducted back to Jerusalem. This city Absalom had entered, and almost on the steps of his father. In the council, Ahithophel, accounted an oracle of the age, and supposed to be grandfather of Bathsheba, was first consulted. This old and wicked man perceiving many in the army afraid that a compromise would take place between the father and the son, and consequently that all the blame of the revolt would be thrown on them, advised Absalom openly to dishonour his fathers bed; then every one would be confident that no reconciliation could ever be effected. This was to brand the prince with the indelible infamy of Reuben, and of Phnixs sin. But though this advice might remove the fears in view, it did far more mischief in revolting the feelings of every virtuous mind. He who advises his sovereign against morality, advises him against his God. It was artful advice, and being adapted to the well known passions of the son, it was immediately put in execution. Let us learn never to do evil that good may come; for here the adviser and the advised perished in their folly, and were monuments of vengeance to all future ages. He is a base minister who flatters the royal passion.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 16:1-4. Soon after passing the summit of the Mt. of Olives David is met by Ziba, the servant of Meri-baal (2Sa 4:4), with a present of two asses laden with provisions. Ziba, representing that Meri-baal has turned traitor, obtains a grant of his property.
2Sa 16:5-14. At Bahurim, somewhere on the way to the Jordan, Shimei, a kinsman of Saul, follows David, uttering curses and throwing stones. David refuses to retaliate, feeling that his sufferings may move Yahweh to pity him.
2Sa 16:14. It is probable that the name of some place has dropped out.
1Sa 16:15 to 1Sa 17:14. Absalom Comes to Jerusalem. Ahithophel and Hushai (J).
2Sa 16:15-23. Hushai joins Absalom. On the advice of Ahithophel, Absalom takes over his fathers harem (2Sa 3:7*).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Passing over the mountain, David was met by Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth, who had with him two donkeys carrying a large provision of bread, raisins and summer fruits, as well as a skin of wine. Questioned by David Ziba told him that these things were for David’s men. David was puzzled that Mephibosheth’s servant should come with these things that evidently belonged to Mephibosheth yet Mephibosheth was not there. Ziba then reported that Mephibosheth had chosen to remain in Jerusalem with the expectation that the kingdom of Israel would be handed over to him (v.3).
David ought to have immediately suspected that there was something questionable in Ziba’s words. Ziba was evidently not bringing these things with Mephibosheth’s permission. But more than this, Mephibosheth’s attitude toward David had before proven admirable. Would he change so drastically? Also, how would he ever expect to have the kingdom when he was crippled on both feet and Absalom was an attractive, popular man who had gained the admiration of the people? In fact, later it was proven that Ziba’s accusation was totally false (ch.19:24-30). He had taken advantage of Mephibosheth’s lameness to see that he had no way of coming to David. But Mephibosheth had been in such mourning for David’s absence that he had not trimmed his beard nor cared for his feet nor even washed his clothes all the time David was away. David had not fully appreciated Mephibosheth’s attachment to him, as he ought to have.
However, David was so deceived by Ziba’s false words that he judged the matter without inquiry. He told Ziba that now all Mephibosheth’s property was to belong to Ziba. This was an unjust judgment simply in the fact that he was taking away from Mephibosheth all that rightly belonged to him and giving it to a servant who had no right to it at all. Of course it was worse than this, as the subsequent history proved. The fawning reply of Ziba was only hypocrisy, “I humbly bow before you, that I may find favor in your sight, my lord, 0 king.” In this matter, David’s wisdom failed him greatly.
ln contrast to David’s sad failure of wisdom in the case of Ziba’s deception, in the succeeding incident David shows a wisdom and self-judgment that is most commendable. A man named Shimei, of the house of Saul, came out from Bahurim cursing David and throwing stones at him and his servants (v.6). His words too were insulting and bitter, calling David a “bloodthirsty man” and ” a man of Belial” (worthlessness), and declaring that the Lord was now bringing judgment on David because David reigning in place of Saul. He was inferring that David was guilty of the deaths of the men of Saul’s house, and now God was punishing him for this.
What he was saying was not actually true, but David discerned that there was some underlying truth m the fact of David’s having shed blood without proper cause. Abishai was anxious to immediately cut off Shimei’s head, and urged David to let him do it (v.9). But David’s response is one that every believer should take deeply to heart. He refuses the very suggestion, for he sees beyond Shimei, to realize that God had told him to curse David. Of course Shimei’s bitter attitude did not have God’s approval, but God had not hindered him from cursing, and David knew that he deserved cursing, even though Shimei was going beyond what was even true. How much better then for David to learn from God in this matter rather than to silence Shimei by killing him. In fact, he says that his own son Absalom was doing far worse than Shimei, seeking David’s life (v.2). He had already been mourning before God in recognizing God’s serious dealings with him in this painful experience. If he was to bow to God’s governing hand in Absalom’s case, then surely he was to do the same in the case of Shimei.
What he says therefore in verse 12 was true. If one bows to the government of God, to leave matters in the hand of God in such cases is the way of true blessing in the end. David proved it in experience.
David’s attitude therefore stands in sharp contrast to that of Shimei, who had reason to be surprised that David did not lower himself to the same offensive bitterness in defending himself. Yet Shimei continued his cursing, throwing stones and kicking up dust for some time. Shimei was evidently very certain that David would never regain the throne and therefore did not hesitate to abuse him when he was down. When David did return, Shimei found himself humiliated to the pont of having to recant and apologize to David (ch.19:18-20).
After the long day’s trip the king and all the people with him became weary and took time while still on the road to refresh themselves.
In the meantime Absalom , Ahithophel and the many conspirators had taken possession of Jerusalem. Absalom was surprised by the presence of Hushai, who greeted him enthusiastically, “Long live the king! Long live the king!” Of course we know that Hushai really meant King David, but he knew Absalom would not see through this. Yet Absalom knew that Hushai was a close friend of David. and asks the pointed question, “is this your loyalty to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?” (v.17). Hushai’s answer, not at all being a lie, was yet a masterpiece of deception. He knew Absalom’s pride and took advantage of this in his speaking. “No,” he says, “but whom the Lord and this people and all the man of Israel choose, his will I be, and with him I will remain.” Of course Absalom thought this applied him. Hushai had confidence that really applied to David. More than this, he adds “Whom should I serve? Should I not serve in the presence of his son? As I have served in your father’s presence, so will I be in your presence.” This was so worded that Absalom thought Hushai would serve in devotion to Absalom, but Hushai had in mind that even in Absalom’s presence he would still be serving David, just as he had done before. Absalom accepted him without further question.
The counsel of Ahithophel to Absalom in verse 21 can only be disgusting to any upright heart, but Ahithophel was determined to sacrifice decency to his cause of vindictive hatred against David. He wanted to be sure that the rift between Absalom and David would be irreconcilable. This was necessary if Absalom’s kingdom was to be established. Absalom accepted his counsel and a tent was spread on the top of the house (the very place where David’s sin with Bathsheba began), where everyone knew that Absalom was committing fornication with David’s concubines. Thus it was made clear that Absalom was absolutely rejecting his father. Yet what a reminder is this of God’s words to David in chapter 11:11-12 that the results of David’s sin would be emblazoned before the eyes of the people!
Verse 23 assures us that the counsel of Ahithophel was regarded with highest respect, as though he had the wisdom of God behind him David had valued his counsel, and so it was with Absalom also. Of course he did not speak as God’s oracle, but his counsel was given with unusual discernment of what would best serve the interests of the kingdom, for he saw his own interests as bound up with this.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
16:1 And when David was a little past the {a} top [of the hill], behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred [loaves] of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
(a) Which was the hill of olives, 2Sa 15:30.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The kindness of Ziba 16:1-4
"David now encounters Ziba (2Sa 16:1-4), the first of two men with links to the house of Saul (the other is Shimei [2Sa 16:5-14]). Although Ziba attempts to ingratiate himself to him and Shimei curses him, David treats each with courtesy. The brief account of the king’s kindness to Ziba (2Sa 16:1-4) has obvious connections with the narrative of his kindness to Mephibosheth (ch. 9) . . ." [Note: Youngblood, pp. 998-99.]
Ziba’s report of Mephibosheth’s reaction to the news that Absalom had rebelled seems to have been untrue (cf. 2Sa 19:24-28). Perhaps he believed Absalom would kill his master and then David would reward him. David accepted Ziba’s report too quickly without getting all the facts, perhaps because Ziba showed himself to be a friend of David by sustaining him in his flight. We sometimes accept a friend’s analysis of the motives of another person too quickly because we do not bother to get all the facts. Here David slipped because he too willingly accepted the complimentary words of a friend.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XXI.
FROM JERUSALEM TO MAHANAIM.
2Sa 16:1-14; 2Sa 17:15-22 and 2Sa 17:24-26.
AS David proceeds on his painful journey, there flows from his heart a gentle current of humble contrite, gracious feeling. If recent events have thrown any doubt on the reality of his goodness, this fragrant narrative will restore the balance. Many a man would have been beside himself with rage at the treatment he had undergone. Many another man would have been restless with terror, looking behind him every other moment to see if the usurper’s army was not hastening in pursuit of him. It is touching to see David, mild, self-possessed, thoroughly humble, and most considerate of others. Adversity is the element in which he shines; it is in prosperity he falls; in adversity he rises beautifully. After the humbling events in his life to which our attention has been lately called, it is a relief to witness the noble bearing of the venerable saint amid the pelting of this most pitiless storm.
It was when David was a little past the summit of Mount Olivet, and soon after he had sent back Hushai, that Ziba came after him, – that servant of Saul that had told him of Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, and whom he had appointed to take charge of the property that had belonged to Saul, now made over to Mephibosheth. The young man himself was to be as one of the king’s sons, and was to eat at the royal table. Ziba’s account of him was, that when he heard of the insurrection he remained at Jerusalem, in the expectation that on that very day the kingdom of his father would be restored to him. It can hardly be imagined that Mephibosheth was so silly as to think or say anything of the kind. Either Ziba must have been slandering him now, or Mephibosheth must have slandered Ziba when David returned (see 2Sa 19:24-30). With that remarkable impartiality which distinguishes the history, the facts and the statements of the parties are recorded as they occurred, but we are left to form our own judgment regarding them. All things considered, it is likely that Ziba was the slanderer and Mephibosheth the injured man. Mephibosheth was too feeble a man, both in mind and in body, to be forming bold schemes by which he might benefit from the insurrection. We prefer to believe that the son of Jonathan had so much of his father’s nobility as to cling to David in the hour of his trial, and be desirous of throwing in his lot with him. If, however, Ziba was a slanderer and a liar, the strange thing about him is that he should have taken this opportunity to give effect to his villainy. It is strange that, with a soul full of treachery, he should have taken the trouble to come after David at all, and still more that he should have made a contribution to his scanty stores. We should have expected such a man to remain with Absalom, and look to him for the reward of unrighteousness. He brought with him for David’s use a couple of asses saddled, and two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine. We get a vivid idea of the extreme haste with which David and his company must have left Jerusalem, and their destitution of the very necessaries of life as they fled, from this catalogue of Ziba’s contributions. Not even were there beasts of burden “for the king’s household” – even Bathsheba and Solomon may have been going on foot. David was evidently impressed by the gift, and his opinion of Mephibosheth was not so high as to prevent him from believing that he was capable of the course ascribed to him. Yet we cannot but think there was undue haste in his at once transferring to Ziba the whole of Mephibosheth’s property. We can only say, in vindication of David, that his confidence even in those who had been most indebted to him had received so rude a shock in the conduct of Absalom, that he was ready to say in his haste, “All men are liars;” he was ready to suspect every man of deserting him, except those that gave palpable evidence that they were on his side. In this number it seemed at the moment that Ziba was, while Mephibosheth was not; and trusting to his first impression, and acting with the promptitude necessary in war, he made the transfer. It is true that afterwards he discovered his mistake; and some may think that when he did he did not make a sufficient rectification. He directed Ziba and Mephibosheth to divide the property between them; but in explanation it has been suggested that this was equivalent to the old arrangement, by which Ziba was to cultivate the land, and Mephibosheth to receive the fruits; and if half the produce went to the proprietor, and the other half to the cultivator, the arrangement may have been a just and satisfactory one after all.
But if Ziba sinned in the way of smooth treachery, Shimei, the next person with whom David came in contact, sinned not less in the opposite fashion, by his outrageous insolence and invective. It is said of this man that he was of the family of the house of Saul, and that fact goes far to account for his atrocious behaviour. We get a glimpse of that inveterate jealousy of David which during the long period of his reign slept in the bosom of the family of Saul, and which seemed now. like a volcano, to burst out all the more fiercely for its long suppression. When the throne passed from the family of Saul, Shimei would of course experience a great social fall. To be no longer connected with the royal family would be a great mortification to one who was vain of such distinctions. Outwardly, he was obliged to bear his fall with resignation, but inwardly the spirit of disappointment and jealousy raged in his breast. When the opportunity of revenge against David came, the rage and venom of his spirit poured out in a filthy torrent. There is no mistaking the mean nature of the man to take such an opportunity of venting his malignity on David. To trample on the fallen, to press a man when his back is at the wall, to pierce with fresh wounds the body of a stricken warrior, is the mean resource of ungenerous cowardice. But it is too much the way of the world. “If there be any quarrels, any exceptions,” says Bishop Hall, “against a man, let him look to have them laid in his dish when he fares the hardest. This practice have wicked men learned of their master, to take the utmost advantage of their afflictions.”
If Shimei had contented himself with denouncing the policy of David, the forbearance of his victim would not have been so remarkable. But Shimei was guilty of every form of offensive and provoking assault. He threw stones, he called abusive names, he hurled wicked charges against David; he declared that God was fighting against him, and fighting justly against such a man of blood, such a man of Belial. And, as if this were not enough, he stung him in the most sensitive part of his nature, reproaching him with the fact that it was his son that now reigned instead of him, because the Lord had delivered the kingdom into his hand But even all this accumulation of coarse and shameful abuse failed to ruffle David’s equanimity. Abishai, Joab’s brother, was enraged at the presumption of a fellow who had no right to take such an attitude, and whose insolence deserved a prompt and sharp castigation. But David never thirsted for the blood of foes. Even while the rocks were echoing Shimei’s charges, David gave very remarkable evidence of the spirit of a chastened child of God. He showed the same forbearance that he had shown twice on former occasions in sparing the life of Saul. “Why,” asked Abishai, ”should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go, I pray thee, and take off his head.” ”So let him curse,” was David’s answer, “because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David.” It was but partially true that the Lord had told him to do so. The Lord had only permitted him to do it; He had only placed David in circumstances which allowed Shimei to pour out his insolence. This use of the expression, “The Lord hath said unto him,” may be a useful guide to its true meaning in some passages of Scripture where it has seemed at first as if God gave very strange directions. The pretext that Providence had afforded to Shimei was this, “Behold, my son, which came out of my bowels, seeketh my life; how much more then may this Benjamite do it? Let him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him. It may be that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day.” It is touching to remark how keenly David felt this dreadful trial as coming from his own son.
“So the struck eagle stretched upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart
That winged the shaft that quivered in his heart;
Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel
He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel;
While the same plumage that had warmed his nest
Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast.”
But even the fact that it was his own son that was the author of all his present calamities would not have made David so meek under the outrage of Shimei if he had not felt that God was using such men as instruments to chastise him for his sins. For though God had never said to Shimei, “Curse David,” He had let him become an instrument of chastisement and humiliation against him. It was the fact of his being such an instrument in God’s hands that made the King so unwilling to interfere with him. David’s reverence for God’s appointment was like that which afterwards led our Lord to say, ”The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink of it?” Unlike though David and Jesus were in the cause of their sufferings, yet there is a remarkable resemblance in their bearing under them. The meek resignation of David as he went out from the holy city had a strong resemblance to the meek resignation of Jesus as He was being led from the same city to Calvary. The gentle consideration of David for the welfare of his people as he toiled up Mount Olivet was parallel to the same feeling of Jesus expressed to the daughters of Jerusalem as He toiled up to Calvary. The forbearance of David to Shimei was like the spirit of the prayer – “Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do.” The overawing sense that God had ordained their sufferings was similar in both. David owed his sufferings solely to himself; Jesus owed His solely to the relation in which He had placed Himself to sinners as the Sin-bearer. It is beautiful to see David so meek and lowly under the sense of his sins – breathing the spirit of the prophet’s words, “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.”
There was another thought in David’s mind that helped him to bear his sufferings with meek submission. It is this that is expressed in the words, “It may be that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day.” He felt that, as coming from the hand of God, all that he had suffered was just and righteous. He had done wickedly, and he deserved to be humbled and chastened by God, and by such instruments as God might appoint. But the particular words and acts of these instruments might be highly unjust to him: though Shimei was God’s instrument for humiliating him, yet the curses of Shimei were alike unrighteous and outrageous; the charge that he had shed the blood of Saul’s house, and seized Saul’s kingdom by violence, was outrageously false; but it was better to bear the wrong, and leave the rectifying of it in God’s hands; for God detests unfair dealing, and when His servants receive it He will look to it and redress it in His own time and way. And this is a very important and valuable consideration for those servants of God who are exposed to abusive language and treatment from scurrilous opponents, or, what is too common in our day, scurrilous newspapers. If injustice is done them, let them, like David, trust to God to redress the wrong; God is a God of justice, and God will not see them treated unjustly. And hence that remarkable statement which forms a sort of appendix to the seven beatitudes – “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and speak all manner of evil against you falsely for My name’s sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.”
Ere we return to Jerusalem to witness the progress of events in Absalom’s camp and cabinet, let us accompany David to his resting-place beyond the Jordan. Through the counsel of Hushai, afterwards to be considered, he had reached the plains of Jordan in safety; had accomplished the passage of the river, and traversed the path on the other side as far as Mahanaim, somewhere to the south of the Lake of Gennesareth, the place where Ishbosheth had held his court. It was a singular mercy that he was able to accomplish this journey, which in the condition of his followers must have occupied several days, without opposition in front or molestation in his rear. Tokens of the Lord’s loving care were not wanting to encourage him on the way. It must have been a great relief to him to learn that Ahithophel’s proposal of an immediate pursuit had been arrested through the counsel of Hushai. It was a further token for good, that the lives of the priests’ sons, Jonathan and Ahimaaz, which had been endangered as they bore tidings for him, had been mercifully preserved. After learning the result of Hushai’s counsel, they proceeded, incautiously perhaps, to reach David, and were observed and pursued. But a friendly woman concealed them in a well, as Rahab the harlot had hid the spies in the roof of her house; and though they ran a great risk, they contrived to reach David’s camp in peace.
And when David reached Mahanaim, where he halted to await the course of events, Shobi, the son of Nahash, king of Ammon, and Machir, the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentils, and parched pulse, and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David and for the people that were with him to eat; for they said. The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.” Some of those who thus befriended him were only requiting former favours. Shobi may be supposed to have been ashamed of his father’s insulting conduct when David sent messengers to comfort him on his father’s death. Machir, the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, was the friend who had cared for Mephibosheth, and was doubtless thankful for David’s generosity to him. Of Barzillai we know nothing more than is told us here. But David could not have reckoned on the friendship of these men, nor on its taking so useful and practical a turn. The Lord’s hand was manifest in the turning of the hearts of these people to him. How hard bestead he and his followers were is but too apparent from the fact that these supplies were most welcome in their condition. And David must have derived no small measure of encouragement even from these trifling matters; they showed that God had not forgotten him, and they raised the expectation that further tokens of His love and care would not be withheld.
The district where David now was, “the other side of Jordan,” lay far apart from Jerusalem and the more frequented places in the country, and, in all probability, it was but little affected by the arts of Absalom. The inhabitants lay under strong obligations to David; in former times they had suffered most from their neighbours, Moab, Ammon, and especially Syria; and now they enjoyed a very different lot, owing to the fact that those powerful nations had been brought under David’s rule. It was a fertile district, abounding in all kinds of farm and garden produce, and therefore well adapted to support an army that had no regular means of supply. The people of this district seem to have been friendly to David’s cause. The little force that had followed him from Jerusalem would now be largely recruited; and, even to the outward sense, he would be in a far better condition to receive the assault of Absalom than on the day when he left the city.
The third Psalm, according to the superscription – and in this case there seems no cause to dispute it – was composed ”when David fled from Absalom his son.” It is a psalm of wonderful serenity and perfect trust. It begins with a touching reference to the multitude of the insurgents, and the rapidity with which they increased. Everything confirms the statement that “the conspiracy was strong, and that the people increased continually with Absalom.” We seem to understand better why David fled from Jerusalem; even there the great bulk of the people were with the usurper. We see, too, how godless and unbelieving the conspirators were – “Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God.” God was cast out of their reckoning as of no consideration in the case; it was all moonshine, his pretended trust in Him. Material forces were the only real power; the idea of God’s favour was only cant, or at best but “a devout imagination.” But the foundation of his trust was too firm to be shaken either by the multitude of the insurgents or the bitterness of their sneers. “Thou, Lord, art a shield unto me “-ever protecting me, “my glory,” – ever honouring me, “and the lifter up of mine head,” – ever setting me on high because I have known Thy name. No doubt he had felt some tumult of soul when the insurrection began. But prayer brought him tranquility. “I cried unto God with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill.” How real the communion must have been that brought tranquility to him amid such a sea of trouble! Even in the midst of his agitation he can lie down and sleep, and awake refreshed in mind and body. “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people that have set themselves against me round about.” Faith already sees his enemies defeated and receiving the doom of ungodly men. “Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God; for Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.” And he closes as confidently and serenely as if victory had already come – “Salvation belongeth unto the Lord; Thy blessing is upon Thy people.”
If, in this solemn crisis of his history, David is a pattern to us of meek submission, not less is he a pattern of perfect trust. He is strong in faith, giving glory to God, and feeling assured that what He has promised He is able also to perform. Deeply conscious of his own sin, he at the same time most cordially believes in the word and promise of God. He knows that, though chastened, he is not forsaken. He bows his head in meek acknowledgment of the righteousness of the chastisement; but he lays hold with unwavering trust on the mercy of God. This union of submission and trust, is one of priceless value, and much to be sought by every good man. Under the deepest sense of sin and unworthiness, you may rejoice and you ought to rejoice, in the provision of grace. And while rejoicing most cordially in the provision of grace, you ought to be contrite and humble for your sin. You are grievously defective if you want either of these elements. If the sense of sin weighs on you with unbroken pressure, if it keeps you from believing in forgiving mercy, if it hinders you from looking to the cross, to Him who taketh away the sin of the world, there is a grievous defect. If your joy in forgiving mercy has no element of contrition, no chastened sense of unworthiness, there is no less grievous a defect in the opposite direction. Let us try at once to feel our unworthiness, and to rejoice in the mercy that freely pardons and accepts. Let us look to the rock whence we are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence we are digged; feeling that we are great sinners, but that the Lord Jesus Christ is a great Saviour; and finding our joy in that faithful saying, ever worthy of all acceptation, that “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,” even the chief.