2 Samuel 19

2Sa 19:1-8.

JOAB

CAUSES THE

KING TO

CEASE

MOURNING.

3. the people gat them by stealth . . . to the city--The rumor of the

king's disconsolate condition spread a universal and unseasonable

gloom. His troops, instead of being welcomed back (as a victorious army

always was) with music and other demonstrations of public joy, slunk

secretly and silently into the city, as if ashamed after the commission

of some crime.

4. the king covered his face--one of the usual signs of mourning

(see on

2Sa 15:30).

5. Thou hast shamed . . . the faces of all thy servants--by withdrawing

thyself to indulge in grief, as if their services were disagreeable and

their devotion irksome to thee. Instead of hailing their return with

joy and gratitude, thou hast refused them the small gratification of

seeing thee. Joab's remonstrance was right and necessary, but it was

made with harshness. He was one of those persons who spoil their

important services by the insolence of their manners, and who always

awaken a feeling of obligation in those to whom they render any

services. He spoke to David in a tone of hauteur that ill became a

subject to show towards his king.

7. Now . . . arise, go forth, and speak comfortably unto thy

servants--The king felt the truth of Joab's reprimand; but the threat

popularity with the army, showed him to be a dangerous person; and that

circumstance, together with the violation of an express order to deal

gently for his sake with Absalom, produced in David's mind a settled

hatred, which was strongly manifested in his last directions to

Solomon.

8. the king arose, and sat in the gate--He appeared daily in the usual

place for the hearing of causes.

all the people came before the king--that is, the loyal natives who had

been faithful to his government, and fought in his cause.

Israel had fled--that is, the adherents of Absalom, who, on his defeat,

had dispersed and saved themselves by flight.

2Sa 19:9-43.

THE

ISRAELITES

BRING THE

KING

BACK.

9-11. all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of

Israel--The kingdom was completely disorganized. The sentiments of

three different parties are represented in

2Sa 19:9, 10:

the royalists, the adherents of Absalom who had been very numerous, and

those who were indifferent to the Davidic dynasty. In these

circumstances the king was right in not hastening back, as a conqueror,

to reascend his throne. A re-election was, in some measure, necessary.

He remained for some time on the other side of Jordan, in expectation

of being invited back. That invitation was given without, however, the

concurrence of Judah. David, disappointed and vexed by his own tribe's

apparent lukewarmness, despatched the two high priests to rouse the

Judahites to take a prominent interest in his cause. It was the act of

a skilful politician. Hebron having been the seat of the rebellion, it

was graceful on his part to encourage their return to allegiance and

duty; it was an appeal to their honor not to be the last of the tribes.

But this separate message, and the preference given to them, occasioned

an outburst of jealousy among the other tribes that was nearly followed

2Sa 19:40-43].

13. And say ye to Amasa, &c.--This also was a dextrous stroke of

policy. David was fully alive to the importance, for extinguishing the

rebellion, of withdrawing from that cause the only leader who could

keep it alive; and he, therefore, secretly intimated his intention to

raise Amasa to the command of the army in the place of Joab, whose

overbearing haughtiness had become intolerable. The king justly

reckoned, that from natural temper as well as gratitude for the royal

pardon, he would prove a more tractable servant; and David, doubtless,

intended in all sincerity to fulfil this promise. But Joab managed to

retain his high position

(see on

2Sa 20:4-10).

14. he bowed the heart of all the men of Judah--that is, Amasa, who

had been won over, used his great influence in re-attaching the whole

tribe of Judah to the interest of David.

15. Judah came to Gilgal--the most convenient place where preparations

could be made for bringing the king and court over the Jordan.

16-23. Shemei . . . a thousand men of Benjamin with him--This

display of [Shemei's] followers was to show what force he could raise

against or in support of the king. Expressing the deepest regret for

his former outrageous conduct, he was pardoned on the spot; and

although the son of Zeruiah urged the expediency of making this chief a

public example, his officiousness was repulsed by David with

magnanimity, and with the greater confidence that he felt himself now

re-established in the kingdom

(see on

1Ki 2:8).

17. Ziba, the servant of the house of Saul--He had deceived his master;

and when ordered to make ready the ass for the lame prince to go and

meet the king, he slipped away by himself to pay court first; so that

Mephibosheth, being lame, had to remain in Jerusalem till the king's

arrival.

18. ferry boat--probably rafts, which are still used on that part

of the river.

20. I am come the first . . . of all the house of Joseph--that is,

before all the rest of Israel

(Ps 77:15; 80:1; 81:5;

Zec 10:6).

24-30. Mephibosheth . . . came down to meet the king--The reception

given to Mephibosheth was less creditable to David. The sincerity of

that prince's grief for the misfortunes of the king cannot be doubted.

He had neither dressed his feet--not taken the bath,

nor trimmed his beard--The Hebrews cut off the hair on the upper lip

(see on

Le 13:45),

and cheeks, but carefully cherished it on the chin from ear to ear.

Besides dyeing it black or red colors, which, however, is the

exception, and not the rule in the East, there are various modes of

trimming it: they train it into a massy, bushy form, swelling and

round; or they terminate it like a pyramid, in a sharp point. Whatever

the mode, it is always trimmed with the greatest care; and they usually

carry a small comb for the purpose. The neglect of this attention to

his beard was an undoubted proof of the depth of Mephibosheth's grief.

The king seems to have received him upbraidingly, and not to have been

altogether sure either of his guilt or innocence. It is impossible to

commend the cavalier treatment, any more than to approve the partial

award, of David in this case. If he were too hurried and distracted by

the pressure of circumstances to inquire fully into the matter, he

should have postponed his decision; for if by "dividing the land"

(2Sa 19:29)

he meant that the former arrangement should be continued by which

Mephibosheth was acknowledged the proprietor, and Ziba the farmer, it

was a hardship inflicted on the owner to fix him with a tenant who had

so grossly slandered him. But if by "dividing the land," they were now

to share alike, the injustice of the decision was greatly increased. In

any view, the generous, disinterested spirit displayed by Mephibosheth

was worthy a son of the noble-hearted Jonathan.

31-40. Barzillai the Gileadite--The rank, great age, and chivalrous

devotion of this Gileadite chief wins our respect. His declining to go

to court, his recommendation of his son, his convoy across the Jordan,

and his parting scene with the king, are interesting incidents. What

mark of royal favor was bestowed on Chimham has not been recorded; but

it is probable that David gave a great part of his personal patrimony

in Beth-lehem to Chimham and his heirs in perpetuity

(Jer 41:17).

35. the voice of singing men and singing women--Bands of professional

musicians form a prominent appendage to the courts of Oriental princes.

37. buried by the grave of my father and of my mother--This is an

instance of the strong affection of people in the East towards the

places of sepulture appropriated to their families.

40-43. the king went on to Gilgal, . . . and all the people of Judah

conducted the king, and also half the people of Israel--Whether from

impatience to move on or from some other cause, David did not wait till

all the tribes had arrived to conduct him on his return to the capital.

The procession began as soon as Amasa had brought the Judahite escort,

and the preference given to this tribe produced a bitter jealousy,

which was nearly kindling a civil war fiercer than that which had just

ended. A war of words ensued between the tribes--Israel resting their

argument on their superior numbers; "they had ten parts in the king,"

whereas Judah had no more than one. Judah grounded their right to take

the lead, on the ground of their nearer relationship to the king. This

was a claim dangerous to the house of David; and it shows the seeds

were already sown for that tribal dissension which, before long, led to

the dismemberment of the kingdom.