Bible Commentaries

II. External Shattering of the Royal Authority till its Loss

2 Samuel 15-18

1. Absalom’s revolt and David’s flight. 2 Samuel 15:1 to 2 Samuel 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 2 And 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 4 Absalom 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 6 And 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 8 For 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. Song of Solomon 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 11 And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called; and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not anything 12 And Absalom sent for⁵ Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s 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 14 And 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 15 And the king’s servants said unto the king. Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint16[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 17 house. 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 20 Whereas 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 21 And 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 22 And 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 24 And 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 25 And 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 26 bring 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 27 The 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 Song of Solomon, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar 28 See, I will tarry in the plain [by the fords¹³] of the wilderness, until there come word from you to certify 29 me. 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 33 Unto whom David said [And David said to him], If thou passest on with me, then shalt thou be a 34 burden 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 father’s servant hitherto, so will I now also [and now I will] be thy servant; then mayest thou for me defeat the 35 counsel 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 king’s house, thou shalt tell it [om. it] to Zadok and 36 Abiathar the priests. Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz Zadok’s son, and Jonathan Abiathar’s son; and by them ye shall send unto me 37 everything that ye can [om. can] hear. So [And] Hushai David’s friend came into [to] the city, and Absalom came¹⁷ into [to] Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 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 bottle2[skin] of wine. And the king said unto Ziba, What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, The asses be [are] for the king’s 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 3thy 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 [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 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 Belial8[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 9 Then 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 10 And 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 Song of Solomon, 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 12 It may be that the Lord [Jehovah] will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord [Jehovah] will requite 13 me 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 hill’s 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 [or, came to Ajephim] and refreshed themselves there.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

2 Samuel 15:1-12. Absalom’s insurrection.

2 Samuel 15:1. “After this.” The word here used (מֵאַחֲרֵי כֵן comp3:28) shows that what is here related follows immediately²⁰ on the event narrated in14:28–33. 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, 1 Kings 1:5.

2 Samuel 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 people’s 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 king’s 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 Hebrews, is not investigated; else thou would’st not lack a favorable decision. [Absalom shows himself master of the art of political intriguing—he 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.].

2 Samuel 15:4. “O that I were made Judges,” 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. עַל (“on me”) stands for אֶל (“to me”), or, the sentence is to be explained with Thenius from the collective idea “all men” (כָּל־אִישׁ): “In imagination Absalom sees the litigants assembled around him;” comp. Exodus 18:13; Judges 3:19; 1 Samuel 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 people’s litigiousness and their confidence in the justice each man of his own cause, and, having brought his father’s judicial procedure into discredit with them, promises to do every man justice. Vulg.: “I should judge justly.”

2 Samuel 15:5 sq. [Absalom’s 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 (גָּנַב לֵב) may also mean “to deceive the heart,” as in Genesis 31:20; but the connection shows that the meaning here is “to steal the heart.” [Sept. very well: “made his own the heart,” ἰδιοποιεῖτο; 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 ( 2 Samuel 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. Absalom’s beautiful person no doubt attracted the people, as well as his condescending familiarity of manner.—Tr.]

2 Samuel 15:7-12. The conspiracy set on foot.

2 Samuel 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 2 Samuel 15:1 [see on 2 Samuel 15:1 and translator’s note], the phrase “at the end of” can only point to a previous occurrence in Absalom’s life—not, 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 Absalom’s procedure here described ( 2 Samuel 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 Absalom’s age at this time or in the duration of David’s reign. According to these conjectures Absalom’s conspiracy must have occurred in the last days of David’s reign, and this would be wholly unhistorical. The reading of Codd70,90 (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 Absalom’s reconciliation with his father for all his preparations here described. We must read “four years” with Syr, Arab, Vulg. [but Codex Amiatinus has “forty”—Tr.], 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 David’s reign (Abarbanel), some from David’s anointment by Samuel (Ussher and others), some from the people’s 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.].

2 Samuel 15:8. Absalom’s “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 David’s history 1 Samuel 20:6), an indication that the strict law of Leviticus ( Leviticus 17:3-4; comp. Deuteronomy 12:13-14) was not in practical operation; else David would have objected to sacrificing in Hebron.—Tr.].

2 Samuel 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 Song of Solomon, who might be regarded as first-born and heir-apparent, and whose quiet nature certainly even greatly pleased him.”

2 Samuel 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 Absalom’s 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.

2 Samuel 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 Absalom’s 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 David’s ignorance of it, and also Absalom’s taste for large entertainments.—Tr.]. 2 Samuel 15:12. Ahithophel appears as Absalom’s 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 ( Joshua 15:51; Joshua 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 David’s 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.]

2 Samuel 15:13 to 2 Samuel 16:14. David’s flight before Absalom.²⁵

2 Samuel 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, Rem1 b, c.—“The heart of the men of Israel is after Absalom”—“to be after one” means “to attach one’s self to him, embrace his cause.” Comp2:10; 1 Samuel 12:14.

2 Samuel 15:14. Up! let us flee. David’s 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 Nathan’s 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; David’s 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.]—[ 2 Samuel 15:15. David’s servants (soldiers) declare themselves ready to obey his commands—a comfortable faithfulness in the midst of general defection.—Tr.]

2 Samuel 15:16. The king’s household went “after him” (בְּרַגְלָיו), comp. Judges 4:10; Judges 4:15, not: “on foot” (Michaelis). The king left ten concubines to keep the house. It appears from19:6 [Eng. A. V:5] that other concubines went along with him.

2 Samuel 15:17. “All the people,” all persons attached to the court, including the numerous body of servants = “the whole household” ( 2 Samuel 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.]

2 Samuel 15:18. David having halted here with his immediate retinue (of his household), caused first all his servants to pass by at his side (עַל־יָדוֹ), 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” comp8:18. 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 Saul’s persecution ( 1 Samuel 22:2; 1 Samuel 23:13; 1 Samuel 25:13), went with him to Gath ( 1 Samuel 27:2 sq.) and settled with him in Ziklag ( 1 Samuel 27:8; 1 Samuel 29:2; 1 Samuel 30:1; 1 Samuel 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] in16:6, and appear as his military escort. Comp20:7; 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 David’s 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.]

2 Samuel 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 2 Samuel 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; comp11:3, 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 God’s 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 David’s 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 (Böttch.), 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” (גֹּלֶה) = 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 Erdmann’s rendering in the Exposition is impossible; we must adopt Philippson’s, 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 ( 2 Samuel 15:22) and his kinsfolk ( 2 Samuel 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 ( 2 Samuel 15:20 : “thou camest yesterday”) that this victory of David’s was the occasion of his coming to Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 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. 1 Samuel 23:13.—David wishes Ittai the favor and the faithfulness of God. From this and from Ittai’s 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 Ittai’s 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, 1 Samuel 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, God’s (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 Böttch. 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 in2:5, 6, in mind. The text without this addition gives a good sense: “lead thy brethren back; with thee be grace and faithfulness.”

2 Samuel 15:21. Ittai’s answer expresses unconditional devotion and fidelity for life and death.²⁹

2 Samuel 15:22. David accepts Ittai’s vow of fidelity. The latter with his whole family (wife and children, טַף, comp. Exodus 12:37) remains in the line of march.

2 Samuel 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” = David’s 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 David’s 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 way”³⁰ to the wilderness, the northern part of the wilderness of Judah.

2 Samuel 15:24-29. The priests sent back with the ark to Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 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, Böttcher), is impossible, since the verb (עלה) never has this meaning except in connection with the substantive “burnt-offering” (עוֹלָה) [or some other offering, Isaiah 57:6.—Tr.], or without reference to it in the connection; in the passages cited by Böttcher, 1 Samuel 2:28; 2 Samuel 24:22; 1 Kings 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.—[Böttcher: “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. ἀπὸ βαινὰρ = 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 2 Samuel 15:27), and perhaps in sacrificing; but we have not the means of satisfactorily restoring the text.—Tr.]

2 Samuel 15:25 sqq. The ark sent back. David declares that he does not need this sign of God’s gracious presence and protection. His reason for this is expressed in the words [ 2 Samuel 15:26]: “if I find favor,” etc., wherein in contrast with the visible sign of God’s 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 2 Samuel 15:24) appears as the officiating high-priest at the head of the Levites. [But from 1 Kings 2:35 it seems that Abiathar was the superior (Bib-Com., Bähr on “Kings” (Lange’s Bible-work), Patrick). It is not improbable that some mention of Abiathar has here fallen out of the text (see 2 Samuel 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.]

2 Samuel 15:27 sqq. [The king says to Zadok: Return to the city, and I will await word from you at the fords.] The word הראה [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 (Böttcher), 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 (הֲ) we must read the Article (הָ), 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. David’s reason for so naming him here is found in his words in 2 Samuel 15:25 sqq. Zadok is to return to Jerusalem and learn God’s 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. Wellhausen’s reading: “high-priest” (ראש) belongs to a later time, and that of the Sept. “see!” (רְאֵה) 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. 2 Samuel 15:28 and 2 Samuel 15:36.—In 2 Samuel 15:28 we retain (from17:6 comp. with19:19) the Kethib or text: “the fords of the wilderness” (instead of the Qeri “plains”³² [so Eng. A. V.], 2 Kings 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, Joshua 2:7; Judges 3:28.

2 Samuel 15:29. The ark is carried back to Jerusalem, and the two high-priests remain there.

2 Samuel 15:30-37. Continuation of the flight on the road to the wilderness of Judah over the Mount of Olives.

2 Samuel 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. Esther 6:12; Ezekiel 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).

2 Samuel 15:31. “It was told David,”³³ he learned from Jerusalem, that the crafty Ahithophel (see on 2 Samuel 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.

[According to Braun this garment was like a surplice, with sleeves, worn commonly by men of rank and position (Patrick).—Tr.]

2 Samuel 15:33 sq.—David, however, suggests to Hushai to return to Jerusalem. If thou pass on with me, thou wilt be a burden to me—why, 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 king’s intimate friend and confidential counsellor he would require special care. By entering Absalom’s service, he thinks, Hushai may foil Ahithophel’s plans ( 2 Samuel 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 father’s servant was I formerly; but now—well,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 Gazæus 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.]—[ 2 Samuel 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 David’s. Bp. Patrick’s 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.]

2 Samuel 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, by16:15 (Thenius).

1 Samuel 16:1–14. Two disturbing experiences in David’s flight continued from the summit of the Mount of Olives.—1) 2 Samuel 16:1-4. Meeting with Ziba, and the latter’s calumny against Mephibosheth.

2 Samuel 16:1. When David was a little past the top [of Olivet], the point where he met Hushai (15:32). On Ziba, Mephibosheth’s servant, see9:2 sq. He came to meet David, had therefore gone on in advance of the army (as Hushai did) in order more easily to secure David’s 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] (παλάθαι, comp. the Sept. in Jeremiah 40:10; Jeremiah 40:12) and a skin of wine.

2 Samuel 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 king’s favor and gratitude, he being shrewd enough to see that David would come out victor over his son.

2 Samuel 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 Absalom’s insurrection to restore Saul’s 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 Mephibosheth’s benefit (9:7 sq.), comp19:27–29. The manner of Ziba’s trick was this (19:26): Mephibosheth, learning of David’s 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

2 Samuel 16:4. Another example of David’s credulity and haste. He believes Ziba without investigation, and bestows on him all his master’s 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. 1 Samuel 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) 2 Samuel 16:5-14. Shimei curses David. The flight reaches Bahurim, on the position of which place see on3:16, Thenius in loco and Käuffer’s 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 Saul’s house.—[See the lists in Genesis 46:21; 1 Chronicles 8:1 sqq. Some identify him (but doubtfully) with the Cush of the title of Psalm 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 Shimei’s behaviour (Smith’s Bib-Dict., Art. Bahurim).—Tr.]

2 Samuel 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 Absalom’s insurrection had brought on him he regards as a punishment from God, because he had become king in Saul’s stead. This shows how embittered Saul’s kindred were over David’s elevation to the throne, and how, therefore, Ziba’s 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 Samuel’s sentence of rejection ( 1 Samuel 15.), and otherwise shows a bad spirit.—Tr.]

[Abishai wishes to kill Shimei.] On Abishai compare2:23 sq.; 3:30. The “dead dog” is the expression of the extremest vileness and badness, comp9:8. Abishai appears here as in chaps, 2, 3. [and 1 Samuel 26:8] violent and revengeful. He wishes to make Shimei atone for his reviling with his head.

[David restrains Abishai.]—Ye sons of Zeruiah. Joab is here joined with his brother (as in2:23), being probably of the same opinion with him. “What is there to me and to you?” (comp. John 2:4,τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοὶ; Joshua 22:24; 1 Kings 17:18; for the thought comp. Luke 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 Abishai’s 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 Shimei’s 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 2 Samuel 16:11) after “sons of Zeruiah,” are explanations owing their origin to the difficulty that the text presented when the first particle (כִּי) was taken as causal (= “for” or “because”), the second (וְכִּי) being then very harsh. Render both particles by “when,” and begin the apodosis with “and who” (וּמִי). Maurer: “when he curses and when Jehovah has said to him, Curse David, who then shall say,” etc.⁴²

2 Samuel 16:11 sq. David here combines Shimei’s cursing and Absalom’s 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 God’s 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 Saul’s 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.

2 Samuel 16:12. “Perhaps the Lord will look on my iniquity.” Instead of this (עֲוֹנִי) the Qeri or margin has “my eye” (עֵינִי), 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” (עָנְיִי, 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. God’s “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, Shimei’s. [It seems more in accordance with the thought here to read “my affliction” instead of “my iniquity;” see “Text. and Gram.” David’s 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 God’s 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 God’s hand. The misfortune that has befallen him is so terrible that he thinks Shimei’s addition to it only natural. Afterwards (19:23) under the generous impulses of victory, he pardons him, but finally ( 1 Kings 2:8-9) hands him over to Solomon’s vengeance. Whatever his feeling in this last Acts, it is clear that now his humble sense of God’s chastisement has driven all self-assertion and revenge from his heart.—Tr.].

2 Samuel 16:13. Shimei’s rage is increased, it would seem, by David’s 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.

2 Samuel 16:14. David’s 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 [ 2 Samuel 16:5], for1718 shows that David’s 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 David’s flight [and, indeed, of the whole history of the day of flight—Tr.] is remarkable; comp15:17, 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 David’s 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 Absalom’s act of insurrection; if there had not been widespread dissatisfaction at defects and wrongs in administration of justice, Absalom’s 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 David’s own tribe, Judah, whence the rebellion proceeds and is carried on. Absalom’s 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 David’s 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, p239). 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 (comp12:10, 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 God’s hand. “The Lord hath commanded him”—this 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 God’s will (“let Him do to me as seemeth Him good”) and of the gentle patience with which he takes men’s 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 Jehovah’s 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. and55. Both Psalm have, as Delitzsch rightly observes, “the most marked historical, individual physiognomy;” they are mourning Psalm, 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 2 Samuel 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 Psalm 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 God’s 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 Hebrews, as a just king, was pledged” (Moll). In Psalm 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 ( Psalm 55:2-6 [Eng. A. V:1–5]). He wishes for the wings of a dove, to find a refuge in the wilderness ( Psalm 55:7-9, 6–8]), while in the city and on its walls are violence and deceit ( Psalm 55:10-12, 9–11]), and a formerly trusted friend and companion joins his enemies (13–15 12–14]), who are united with the hypocritical and faithless man ( Psalm 55:21-22, 20, 21]). On these enemies he invokes destruction as divine punishment for their insurrection against the Lord’s Anointed, and for their wickedness from which they do not turn ( Psalm 55:16-20, 15–19]). In this extreme need (corresponding exactly to the situation at the beginning of Absalom’s 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 God’s will and confident hope in His help answer precisely to David’s frame of mind as given in history. [The correctness of the foregoing historical explanation of these two Psalm is very doubtful. Psalm 41. was written while the author was still on a bed of sickness ( Psalm 55:11, 10]), as David certainly was not when he heard of Ahithophel’s treachery. The alleged connection between the two Psalm 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 Psalm 55, its writer seems to be in the city ( Psalm 55:9-12, 8–11]), nor does the history say anything of such intimate relations between David and Ahithophel as are indicated in Psalm 55:15, 14]; it was Hushai that was David’s friend.—Of course the religious value of these Psalm is not affected by our ignorance of their date and authorship.—Tr.]

4. This event of David’s history is of typical significance for the sufferings of Jesus in connection with the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, of which Jesus ( John 13:18) says, referring to Psalm 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 John 17:12 and Acts 1:16 must be found (according to our Lord’s reference to Psalm 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 Psalm 41. with this history. Our Lord’s reference in John 13:18 is not necessarily more than a very general one. Acts 1:16 refers (see Psalm 55:20) to Psalm 109:8; Psalm 69:26, 25]. Since David suffered for his own sins, and had probably grievously wronged Ahithophel (see note on 2 Samuel 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 David’s flight are strikingly parallel to the Lord’s 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 Psalm 41. establishes this typical connection.

5. It is noteworthy, how this break-down in David’s 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). God’s instruments for building up His kingdom often sorely injure it by their sins, but receive therefor the deepest humiliations through God’s 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 sin—yea, 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 Lord’s 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 one’s own fall, 1) In humbly holding still under the strokes of God’s hand, 2) In patiently enduring the sufferings inflicted by bad men, 3) In quietly awaiting the Lord’s decision, whether He will exercise His grace or His justice towards us, and4) In wisely using the means which please God for overcoming the evil, while decidedly rejecting tempting counsels that are against God’s 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 destruction—this is misery indeed. “How sharper than a serpent’s 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 God’s 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.

2 Samuel 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 ( Romans 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 people’s 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.]

2 Samuel 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.—Absalom’s rebellion was the Lord’s chastening..… Even when we have found forgiveness, we must yet always feel the Lord’s mighty hand; and this hand often lies quite heavily upon us.—[ 2 Samuel 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.]

2 Samuel 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 God’s righteousness; accordingly he yields only to God, not to Absalom.—One can scarcely imagine the manifold inventions of which God’s 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 ( 1 Corinthians 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 one’s king and lord. Fidelity becomes a man, and doubly becomes a Christian.

2 Samuel 15:25 sq. Cramer: Everything that opposes thee, endure it, and be patient in every sort of trouble ( Sirach 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.

2 Samuel 15:30. Schlier: How instructive is this picture of David; how humble and yet at the same time how spiritual is Israel’s 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.

2 Samuel 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; 1 Corinthians 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 Lord’s hand, did in order really to obtain the Lord’s 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.

[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 Song of Solomon, 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 party’s account. Persons in authority should guard against this ( Proverbs 14:15). [“Audi alteram partem.”—Tr.]

2 Samuel 16:5-14. Starke: Judgment begins at the house of God ( 1 Peter 4:17). Who need wonder then if Christ and all holy men of God have been the world’s 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 God’s strict judgment they would well have deserved something more ( Micah 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 one’s 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 Saul’s 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 God’s 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 David’s hands were stained with blood, yet not of Saul’s house. … It is not possible that eminent persons should be free from imputations; innocence can no more protect them than power.—Tr.]

2 Samuel 16:9. Berl. B.: It is a strong sign of pride to take offence at everything.—Cramer: Without God’s permission nothing evil can befall the pious ( Acts 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 God’s 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 God’s holy and wise government.—[Maurice: To have his people’s 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.

2 Samuel 16:11. Hall: Even while David laments the rebellion of his Song of Solomon, 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 father’s goodness. It is the advantage of great crosses, that they swallow up the less.—Tr.]

2 Samuel 16:12. Cramer: It is a great consolation in suffering, to have a good conscience ( Psalm 7:4; 1 Peter 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 ( Hebrews 10:35; Romans 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.

2 Samuel 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 Lord’s 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 people’s hearts. 1) The king—his weak negligence in not preventing, nor even perceiving all this. Men in responsible positions should be always on their guard2) The demagogue; a) his ostentation ( 2 Samuel 15:1), b) his painstaking ( 2 Samuel 15:2; 2 Samuel 15:6), c) his flatteries ( 2 Samuel 15:3; 2 Samuel 15:5), d) his lavish promises ( 2 Samuel 15:4). 3) The people—their folly in being duped by transparent arts—the net spread in their very sight, and they go in ( Proverbs 1:17).—Tr.]

[ 2 Samuel 15:7-8. To make pretended devoutness a cloak for wicked designs, is one of the most heinous sins a man can possibly commit.

2 Samuel 15:19-21. David and Ittai—unselfish generosity, and unselfish fidelity.

2 Samuel 15:25-26. Sending back the ark. a) David does not suppose the presence of the ark to be a necessary condition of God’s presence. Contrast 1 Samuel 4:4-5. b) He does not despair of God’s favor, c) He is resigned to God’s will. Comp. 1 Samuel 3:18.—Tr.]

14:5–13. David and Shimei: 1) The baseness of seizing a time of calamity to revile. And encouraged by finding it unpunished (14:13). Comp19:19, 202) 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 falsely3) David’s devout patience under gross insult. Represses the resentment of his nephew, a) This insult is a trifle compared with Absalom’s course. b) David accepts the reviling as a punishment from Jehovah. c) He has hope that Jehovah may yet requite him for it (comp15:25).—Tr.]

Footnotes