2 Samuel 16

Chap. XVI. Ver. 1—23. Ahithophel’s treason; Ziba’s slander of Mephibosheth, and Shimei’s curses against David.— We omitted to notice the incident respecting Ahithophel and Hushai, in the close of the pe chapter, because we think it connects more suitably with this. “One told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray thee turn the counsel of Ahithophel to foolishness.” This man, we are afterwards told was “an oracle” of wisdom in his day; (ver. 23.) but David employed another of his old counsellors, Hushai, to act as his spy; and so to contravene and counteract the counsel of Ahithophel, and so it was utterly defeated. Another base character is now placed before us, namely, Ziba, Saul’s servant, who by false insinuations against Mephibosheth, procures a grant of Saul’s estates, which had been lately conferred upon his master.

Shimei, another of Saul’s servants, was not the secret, but the open enemy of David, and cursed and abused him to his face: but David had been so completely humbled, partly by the sense of his guilt, and partly by the weight of his afflictions, that he would not suffer him to be hurt; “‘because (said the king) the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David;” that is, “He hath in his providence permitted him to do so, in order to humble and punish me.” No reasonable man can suppose that Shimei had a commission, or even a license for cursing; but this, as other moral evils, was permitted, to correct David’s enormous crimes. Good Bishop Hall remarks, “The sin of Shimei’s curse was his own; the smart of the curse was God’s.

God wills that as David’s chastisement, that he hates as Shimei’s wickedness; that lewd tongue moved from God; it moved lewdly from Satan. Wicked men are never the freer from guilt or punishment, from that hand that God hath in their offensive actions.” Here is a fine contrast in these two characters: Shimei goes on cursing and throwing dirt and stones: David goes on praying, and encouraging himself in God. “It may be (says —) that the Lord will look on my affliction, (and my tears,) and requite me good for his cursing this day.” Thus, “Out of the eater cometh forth meat,” as Samson observes, in his famous riddle: and it is well when we can draw blessings from our afflictions. The following verse, by the late C.

Wesley, perfectly paraphrases this sentiment: “Lord, I adore thy righteous will, Through every instrument of iii My Father’s goodness see; Accept the complicated wrong Of Shimei’s hand and Shimei’s tongue, As kind rebukes from thee.”

Notes on the verses

Chap. XVI. Ver. 1. Two hundred loaves.—The Hebrew loaves were cakes, or biscuits——Summer fruits —[These were probably pumpions, 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 Harmer supposes, called summer fruits on this very account.—A bottle.—That is, probably, a goat skin.] Ver. 2. Asses for the king’s.—(This is the eastern mode of speaking when presenting any thing to a great man;—‘This is for the slaves of the servants of your majesty;’ when at the same time the presents are intended for the sovereign himself, and it is so understood.)—Bagster. Ver. 4. Behold, thine are all, &c.—This was rash, as will appear hereafter, and is only to be accounted for from the perturbed state of the king’s mind.——I humbly beseech thee.—David was proof against Shimei’s abuse, but not against Ziba’s flattery.

Ver. 7. Bloody man.—This was certainly a false charge, as respects Saul and his family, to whom, we have seen, David was remarkably tender and Ver. 13. And cast dust.—See Margin. [It was an ancient custom, in those warm and arid countries, to lay the dust before a person of distinction, by sprinkling the ground with water. Dr. Pococke and the consul were treated with this respect when they entered Cairo.—The same custom is alluded to in the well known fable of Phædrus, in which a slave is represented going before Augustus, and officiously laying the dust. To throw dust in the air while a person was passing was therefore an act of great disrespect; to do so before a sovereign prince, an indecent outrage.

But it is probable that Shimei meant more than disrespect and outrage to this afflicted king. Sir J. Chardin informs us, that in the East, in general, those who demand justice against a criminal throw dust upon him, signifying, that he ought to be put in the grave; and hence the common imprecation among the Turks and Persians, “Be covered with earth,” or, “Earth be upon thy head.”]—Bagster. Ver. 15. The men of Israel.—These words are wanting in the ancient versions, and in some MSS. Ver. 21. Go in unto thy father’s concubines.—The wives of a conquered king were always the property of the conqueror.—Orient.; for a son to take his father’s wives, was an abomination, both among Jews and Gentiles.

Absalom, however, was a most profligate and abandoned youth. Ver. 23. Counsel of Ahithophel.—[The first counsel of this sagacious but wicked man to Absalom was more like an oracle of Satan, both for subtlety and atrocity. He advised the shameless measure just detailed, in order to establish Absalom in the kingdom, and to preclude the possibility of a reconciliation with David.]—Bagster.