2 Samuel 4

Chap. IV. Ver. 1—12. Two of Ish-bosheth’s Captains murder him, and bring his head to David, who orders them to be executed as traitors.—Though Ish-bosheth could not but feel great uneasiness at the insolence and ambition of Abner, yet he must have felt more when deserted by him, as the king himself appears to have been a man neither of energy, nor talents. If David, who possessed both, complained of the sons of Zeruiah being too strong for him, much more must Ish-bosheth feel his weakness to oppose Abner, who had engrossed all the authority in his own hands. In such circumstances it must be easy to foresee that the tottering throne of Israel would soon fall into other hands. When such an event is anticipated, there are always vermin about a court, who are anxious to provide for their own interests; and it is one of the most painful effects of war, that it trains up many bloodthirsty villains who are always ready to commit par treason or murder, when temptation and opportunity present themselves.

This is not meant as an indiscriminate reflection on the military profession, in which there are doubtless many persons, not only of honour, but of piety; but they would have been the same in any other situation of life. Two traitors of the character just reprobated were found in the establishment of Ish-bosheth. Some of the ancient versions call them “captains of banditti;” and it seems to have been the general practice, in those early and barbarous times,

Notes on the verses

Ver. 24. What hast thou done.—[Joab and his brother Abishai, David’s nephews, had been very faithful and highly useful to him in his distresses; and from gratitude and natural affection, he had inadvertently permitted them to “assume almost as much ascendency over him as Abner had over the pusillanimous Ish-bosheth: he trusted and feared them too much, and allowed them all the importance they claimed; which had emboldened them, especially Joab, to a high degree of presumption.]—Bagster.

Ver. 29. Let there not fail—The sense is, let there always be in the house of Joab, the unclean, the feeble, the wounded, and the poor. “All these verbs (says Dr. Clarke,) may be rendered in the future, ‘It shall rest,” &c. but this question shall be maturely considered, when we come to the imprecatory (Psalms 5), xxxv., &c.*;

Ver. 30. In the battle.—That the ancient law of the Goel, or avenger of blood, did not apply to the case of persons slain in battle, see (1 Kings 2:5-6).—Mischaclis on the Laws of Moses.

Ver. 31. David said to Joab.—[David, intending no doubt to punish Joab, and to lessen his authority with the people, commanded him to take upon him the office of chief mourner; as his revenge was gratified, his rival removed, and no heavier punishment inflicted, it is probable his hardened mind would feel but little objection to the ceremony.]—Bagster.

mFollowed the bier.—Hebrew, ‘The bed.” Josephus mentions that Herod was carried to one on his state bed, gilt and ornamented with precious stones.—Bishop.

Ver. 33. Died Abner as a fool dieth?—The term fool is here (as elsewhere) used for a criminal. Did Abner die as a condemned criminal? No: he was neither in prison nor in fetters; he was innocent in the matter of Asahel, and suffered as a man falling among thieves—Hebrew, “the children of iniquity.” This was a severe reproof to Joab, and intended to show that David utterly prescinds his conduct: and this, it appears by ver. 36, “pleased all the peo-

Ver. 34. Thy hands were not bound.—[The hands of malefactors were usually secured with cords, and their feet with fetters; a custom to which David affectingly alludes in his lamentation over the dust of Abner.

Thy hands, O Abner, were not bound, as found to be a malefactor, nor thy feet put in fetters; thou wast treated with honour by him whose business it was to judge thee, and thy attachment to the house of Saul was esteemed rather generous than culpable: as the best of men may fall, so thou fellest by the sword of treachery, not of justice.]—Bagster.

—aa when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth. 5 And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, who lay on a bed at noon.

6 And they came thither into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him under the fifth rib: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7 For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and gat them away through the plain all night. 8 And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth unto David to Hebron, and said to the king, Behold the head of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul thine enemy, which sought thy life; and the Lord hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed. 9 And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them, As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, 10 When I one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings: 11 How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon to make predatory excursions to collect provisions and other booty.

In the preceding chapter (ver. 22.) we find Joab had just “returned from pursuing a troop” of this kind, and had brought home much spoil. These Captains were, perhaps, obliged by Abner to lodge their spoil in the king’s storehouses, which appear to have joined the palace; and this circumstance gave them an easy access to the king’s apartment, where, as is customary in the East during the hot season, he had lain down upon a bed to rest, and probably had fallen asleep. This gave these wretches an opportunity to assassinate their master, in a manner even more base and treacherous than the conduct of Joab to Abner. They doubtless saw that David was rising to power and greatness, and not knowing his principles, supposed that they should recommend themselves to promotion in his court also.

David entertained them with the story of the Amalekite, who, on the death of Saul, had brought him his diadem and bracelet; and after upbraiding them with the enormity of their offence, decreed them a like, but more liberal reward; they were not only slain, but gibbeted, as a warning to other traitors, while the head of their master was honourably buried in the tomb of Abner. Thus is villany, in one respect like virtue, “its own reward.” The short paragraph respecting Mephibosheth seems thrown into this chapter by way of parenthesis; perhaps to show

AP. IV. Ver. 4. Lame of his feet.—Even “both his feet,” (2 Samuel 9:13). The fact appears to be, that by the fall here mentioned, both his ankles were [injured]; and having no one at hand to set them, he never recovered the use of them.

Ver. 6. As though they would have fetched wheat.—[It is still the custom of the East, according to Dr. Perry, to allow the soldiers a certain quantity of corn, with other articles of provision, together with some pay: and as it was the custom also to grind the corn, as needed, at the break of day, these two captains very naturally went the day before to the palace, where the king’s stores appear to have been kept, to fetch wheat in order to distribute it to the soldiers under them, to be ground at the accustomed hour in the morning. The princes of the East, in those days, as appears from the history of David, repasted on their couches till the cool of the evening; they therefore came in the heat of the day, when they knew their master would be resting on his bed; and as it was necessary to have the corn before it was needed, their coming at that time, though it might be earlier than usual, excited no suspicion.]—Bagster.

—Under the fifth rib.—See note on ch. ii. 23.