2 Samuel 20

2 Samuel 20:1-3

Have seen do the clouds return after the rain! No sooner is one of David’s troubles ever, but another arises. 1. Before he reaches Jerusalem, a new rebellion is raised by Sheba, ver. 1, 2. 2. When he comes thither, he condones his concubines to perpetual imprisonment, ver. 3. 3. Amafa is sent to raise an army, but is too slow in his motions, ver. 4-6. 4. Took barbarously murder him, ver. 7-13. 5. Sheba’s rebellion is crushed, ver. 14-21. A short account is given of David’s great officers, ver. 23-26.

1. AND there happened to be there a man of Belial, who he came to Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite, and he blew a trumpet, and said, ‘We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jeffe: every man to his tents, O Israel. 2. So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem. 3. And David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in a ward, and fed them, but were not in unto them; so they were shut up unto the day of their death, & living in widowhood.

When men’s spirits are exasperated in popular tumultu, some crafty and ambitious head falls not to improve the circumstances for his own advancement.

1. Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite, a man of Belial, thinking he might now step into the throne, widens the breach into rebellion. Since Judah seemed to engross the king, he advises the men of Israel to renounce the ten parts they claimed, and to have no part in David. The trumpet is blown, and Sheba now is their leader. Note, (1.) We must not promise ourselves long peace here below. Whilst the old enmity reigns in the heart of the future, new thorns will arise. (2.) Foulish quarrels have dangerous consequences. (3.) We are apt to be swinging to extremes; those who seemed the most zealous friends, turn the bitterest enemies.

2. David proceeds to Jerusalem, and his full care is to shut up his concubines, whom Abislam hath defiled: as a punishment for their easy compliance, and as by their unhappy case unite for the royal bed, they are condemned to perpetual privacy and widowhood. Note, Obscure retirement is the first place for those who have made themselves publicly scandalous.

3. Then said the king to A’mafa, Assemble me the men of Judah within three days, and be thou here present. 5. So Amafa went to assemble the men of Judah; but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him. 6. And David said to Abifhai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Abislam: take thou thy lord’s servants and pursue after him, left he get him fenced cities, and escape us. 7. And there went out after him Joab’s men, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men: and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri. 8. When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amafa went before them: and Joab’s garment that he had put on was girded unto him, and upon it a guide with a sword fathered upon his bons in the sheath thereof, and as he went forth, it fell out. 9. And Joab said to Amafa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amafa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him. 10. But Amafa took no deed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand: so he fmote him therewith in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again, and he died: so Joab and Abifhai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri. 11. And one of Joab’s men stood by him, and said, He that favoureth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab. 12. And Amafa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway: and when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amafa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by him, stood still. 13. When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.

2 Samuel 20:4-13

David is in haste to crush this rebellion in the bud, and therefore dispatches Amafa, advanced now in Joab’s head, to raise the men of Judah, and pursue after Sheba.

1. Amafa is either tardy in his proceedings, or the people unwilling to follow the general, who had been so lately in rebellion, or perhaps the three days were not sufficient to collect the needful forces. David expresses his great unselfishs hereupon, least this should be a worse affair than the former; and therefore resolved to disgrace Joab for what he did to Abislam, he dispatches Abifhai with the guards, in order to give the rebel no time to strengthen himself; and Joab, though without a commission, accompanied his brother. Note, (1.) Delays are dangerous. (2.) They who depend upon the favour of kings, stand daily in jeopardy of disgrace; but they who trust on the King of kings, shall know no shame.

2. At Gibeon, the rendezvous, Amafa meets the forces under Abifhai, and there Joab plots against and murders him. As he approached Amafa, by way of civility, he contrived to hang his sword so as to fall out of its scabbard, as it were accidentally, just as he stooped to salute him; and taking him by the beard with his right hand, Amafa heeded not the sword he had taken up in his left, till too late he felt it in his body. Thus fell the brave general at the head of his troops, hastily afflicted out of jealousy and pride, by the bloody son of Zeruiah, hardened in murders, condemning all laws human and divine; and so his revenge was gratified, hazzard the safety of king and country. Note, (1.) Impunity hardens and emboldenes the former. (2.) They who are too great for human laws, though they escape punishment below, will find an avenging God.

3. Joab now takes the command of the forces, and leads them against Sheba; hoping, no doubt, the success of the enterprise would make some atonement for his crime, and get

him John Chud

1. I have off with impurity. He appoints a man to stand by the corpse, and hid the people follow Joab; and when they stopped at the place, he removed the body, and covered it with a cloth, and then all the people followed Joab, their old and successful general, and probably promised themselves better speed under his guidance, than under Amala, the general of the late rebellion, and unsuccessful withal. Note, Blood may be covered, but it hath a noise that will cry against the murderer, though it be never folconcealed.

2. I have blamed, to move over. I could, it. 16. 17. 2. Or, They quite in the saying of the Lord. Love, they will be gone of Aled, and foade to not ther in 10. If the personder the ory. 6. Can exist. 15. 3. I could, it. 11. 1. I have how you said.