Categoria: 2 Samuel

This chapter starts with a tremendous conundrum as God incites David to count the fighting men of Israel and Judah and then ends up punishing them for exactly this which resulted in the death of 70,000 people!

Anyway, the count took 9 months and 20 days to complete the census of fighting men which showed that there were 800,000 able-bodied men in Israel that could handle a sword, and there were 500,000 in Judah. David recognized his sin in having conducted the census and asked forgiveness. Then God gave 3 options of punishment to David for having carried out the census and David opted for the 3 days of plague which killed 70,000 people.

So David purchased a threshing floor and there he built an altar for the Lord where he sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. Hence God answered prayer and the plague on Israel was stopped.

This chapter contains the final oracle of David which is a poem of praise to God thinking back over his reign and over his mighty warriors. David remembers God’s covenant with his house and the positive results of righteous rule. The oracle defines the ideal king as one who rules in righteousness and the fear of God, bringing light to the people as sun after the rain. And David compares the righteous ruler with a wicked one whom he describes as a thorny bush which is hard to handle.

Then David goes on to recall some of his most valiant warriors like Josheb-Basshebeth who killed 800 men in one go! Next he cited the case of Eleazar son of Dodai who stood his ground against the Philistines even when his fellow Israelites retreated, and he fought so hard that his hand froze to his sword! Next was Shammah who took his stand in the middle of a field. Then comes Abishai who killed 300 with his spear and next comes Benaiah who killed 2 of Moab’s best men and also killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day, and killed a huge Egyptian. He ends up listing more warriors who were less famous. It is interesting to notice that the last warrior listed is Uriah the Hittite who was the husband of Bathsheba.

This song of praise is also found in Psalm 18. In this song David praises God for his power and protection. God is his rock, fortress, deliverer, refuge, shield and the strength of his salvation. David praises God for delivering him from the jaws of death and poetically describes God’s power like the thunder and lightning of nature. He says that God delivered him and brought him into a spacious place. He says God is his lamp which turns his darkness into light, and with God he can run through a barricade or even scale a wall! He says God makes his feet like the feet of a deer and he praises God for all his victories. He says the Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, my Rock, my Saviour!

David asked God what the cause was of a 3-year famine in Israel and God said it was because of Saul’s killing of the Gibeonites which had betrayed Israel’s oath to spare them. So David asked the Gibeonites what could be done to make amends for the wrong done to them. They requested 7 male descendants of Saul to be killed by them and to be exposed by them on a hill at Gibeah, and this David gave to them, whilst saving Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth because of David’s oath to Jonathan. Rizpah, mother of the dead men, held a vigil over the dead men’s abandoned bodies defending them from scavengers. Upon hearing of this David was provoked to give them a decent burial together with the bones of Saul and Jonathan in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. Thus the atonement having been made God ended the famine.

The end of this chapter relates further battles between Israel and the Philistines. In the first David became exhausted and had to be rescued by Abishai. The next battles were at Gob where apparently the brother of Goliath was killed. Then came a further battle at Gath where a huge man was killed who had 6 fingers and 6 toes!

Following on from Absalom’s rebellion now was the turn of Sheba, a Benjamite, to revolt against David. The men of Israel supported Sheba but not the men of Judah. With David now back in Jerusalem he put his 10 concubines in a house under guard, but didn’t have sex with them ever again after Absalom’s abuse of them. David them sent men loyal to him to pursue Sheba, and when they got to Gibeon Amasa met with Joab who had never got over his substitution as commander of David’s army. Joab took his chance to get his own back against Amasa, stabbed him with his dagger in his belly, his intestines spilled out onto the ground, and he died. Then all the troops proceeded with Joab and besieged Sheba at Abel Beth Maacah. There a wise woman negotiated a solution for the stand-off offering Sheba’s head for peace, and this was agreed. So Joab was reestablished as David’s army commander.

David kept on weeping and mourning the death of his rebellious son Absalom so that he was failing to thank his soldiers for having fought for him. Thus Joab denounced this imbalance of emotions and told David that is he didn’t show gratitude to the men he would soon lose their backing. David heeded Joab and got up and took his seat in the gateway demonstrating his willingness to be reinstated as king with the support of the army.

Initially there was disagreement as to who should now be king after the Absalom fiasco, but David made a clever diplomatic and political move appointing Amasa, who had been the commander of Absalom’s army, as commander of his army replacing Joab, and this unified support for David so that the men sent word to David to return to Jerusalem as king.

When David crossed the River Jordan Shimei met him together with a thousand Benjamites and pleaded for forgiveness for having cursed David and thrown stones at him. Abishai said that Shimei should be put to death, but David wouldn’t hear of it. David forgave Shimei and promised him freedom to live. Then Mephibosheth came to David and said that his servant Ziba deceived and betrayed him on the occasion of Ziba’s earlier encounter with David, and that he had only not gone with David when he fled because he was lame. As a consequence David divided Mephibosheth’s land half and half between him and Ziba though the text is not clear how this ended up. Finally David spoke to Barzillai and invited him to go with him to Jerusalem but he declined alleging old age, and he sent his servant in his place.

Tensions were always near the surface between the men of Israel and the men of Judah, with the former group accusing the latter group of leaving them out of the reinstatement of David as king. A fierce argument ensued.

Astute military man David carefully planned and organized his army into 3 sections led by Joab, Abishai and Ittai. David wanted to go to battle too but his generals would not hear of it as he was too valuable an asset, so David stayed behind asking for his men to go carefully with Absalom! So the battle took place in the Ephraim Forest where David’s men defeated Absalom’s men killing 20,000 men. Then Absalom came to his end in an unusual way. For whilst riding his mule through the forest his hair got caught up in the branches of an oak tree, the mule kept doing leaving Absalom dangling from the tree. Joab had no mercy and plunged 3 spears into Absalom’s heart, and once he was dead the battle came to an end.

When word reached David of his son’s death he was devastated and went into a period of profound mourning. David withdrew, despite everything, and wept saying, “O my son Absalom. If only I had died instead of you”!

Absalom sought counsel on how to consolidate his coup by eliminating or capturing his father David. Counsellor Ahithophel proposed a surprise attack against David with an elite force of 12,000 men, but Hushai countered this plan saying David was too wiley to fall for this. Hushai proposed a mass attack mobilizing the entire Israelite army which appealed to Absalom’s vanity and this ploy was adopted. However secretly Hushai sent word to David telling him of the plan and advising David and his men to immediately cross the Jordan to a safer location which he did. When Ahithophel realized that his proposal had not been followed he hung himself! Then Shobi, Makir and Barzillai took abundant supplies to David and his men because they were hungry, tired and thirsty in the desert.

David continued his flight from Absalom and after going beyond the summit of the Mount of Olives he met Ziba, steward of Mephibosheth, who gushingly gave him donkeys laden with provisions. David asked after Mephibosheth and Ziba dubiously said that he had stayed behind in the hopes of regaining the throne previously belonging to his grandfather. (This story will be contested by Mephibosheth in chapter 19) But David believed Ziba and gave him the land belonging to Mephibosheth.

Then a member of Saul’s clan named Shimei came and started cursing David and throwing stones at him and his officials. Abishai wanted to go and kill Shimei but David wouldn’t allow it seeing the cursing as a possible message from God.

Meanwhile Absalom set himself up as king in Jerusalem seeking to put into effect the coup, and Ahithophel was with him as was David’s friend and spy Hushai. Ahithophel advised Absalom to make his claim to the throne clear cut ending all possibility of a rapprochement with his father by having sex with his father’s concubines and this he did.

For 4 years Absalom conducted a subtle campaign of self-promotion in Israel undermining his father King David’s authority. He then went to Hebron where he staged a coup by declaring himself king following him receiving growing support from many people. Word then came to David in Jerusalem that “the hearts of the men of Israel were with Absalom” and David fled Jerusalem to avoid bloodshed and civil war because of the rebellion. David left his 10 concubines to take care of the palace and he marched around Israel accompanied by a large following. David sent the ark back to Jerusalem with Zadok the priest and his son Abiathar, but David went weeping with his head covered and barefoot up the Mount of Olives. It was a demonstration of humility, mourning and grief. He then sent his friend Hushai to Jerusalem to try and frustrate Ahithophel’s advice to Absalom who was then arriving back in the city.

Joab, King David’s army commander, knew how much David was missing his son Absalom so he devised a plan to promote their reconciliation. He got a wise woman from Tekoa to come and spin a yarn to the king telling him that one of her son’s had killed the other, people wanted vengeance, but she asked David to grant her son  pardon, which he readily did. The woman then revealed the true intention of her visit by asking David why he didn’t grant a pardon to his son Absalom for having killed his brother. David questioned if Joab was behind this, and upon learning that he was he granted permission for Joab to go and get Absalom, though he would have to stay at his own house out of contact and view of the king.

Absalom was extremely handsome and when he cut his hair on rare occasions it would weigh over 2 kg. He had 3 sons and a daughter whom he named Tamar in honour of his sister of the same name, and she became very beautiful. When Absalom had spent 2 years back in Jerusalem he sent for Joab to try and change the situation, but Joab ignored him until he set alight his barley field which soon had him running! Absalom said he would be better living back in Geshur if he wasn’t going to see his father, so upon hearing this David finally summoned his son Absalom and the king kissed him.

Amnon fell in love with his half-sister Tamar and he was so obsessed with her as to become ill because he could see no way that he could have her. Then with the help of his friend Jonadab he engineered a way to get Tamar to his room where he grabbed her and tried to seduce her to have sex with him. Tamar resisted and said no way so Amnon used his superior strength and raped her. Amnon’s frustration then came to a head and his love for Tamar turned to hate. Tamar became a desolate woman after having been raped and Absalom felt deep hate for Amnon because he had disgraced his sister.

2 years later Absalom’s sheep-shearers were gathered at Baal Hazor and he invited King David’s sons insisting that Amnon had to come. Absalom then gave his men orders to kill Amnon at the height of the party. When they did this all the other sons of David fled, and a false rumour reached David that they had all been killed. When David however met his sons they all wept together and he mourned the death of his son every day, and Absalom fled to Geshur where he stayed for 3 years. David missed Absalom and came to terms with Amnon’s death.

God sent Nathan to confront David about his sinful affair with Bathsheba through a parable. He said there was a wealthy man with a large number of livestock and a poor man who only had one pet lamb. When a visitor came the rich man didn’t prepare a meal using his flocks and herds, but killed the poor man’s lamb! David was livid about the evil practiced, but Nathan told him that he was the rich man who had had Uriah killed and taken his wife. Nathan prophesied that God would therefore bring calamity upon David as a result of his sin,  and that someone close to him would have sex with his wives in broad daylight. David confessed his sin which was forgiven by God, but his punishment was the death of his son with Bathsheba. David comforted her and then they had another son called Solomon.

Then David mustered the army and attacked and captured Rabbah, and he took the 34 kg crown of gold and precious stones of their king and it was placed on his head. David took a great amount of plunder and put all the Ammonites into hard labour.

Joab was away besieging Rabbah with the Israelite army, but David remained in Jerusalem. He already had 7 wives, but one day he saw Bathsheba bathing, desired her, sent for her and had sex with her whilst her husband Uriah the Hittite was away with the army. When Bathsheba was confirmed pregnant she sent word to David.

David tried to cover his tracks by sending to bring Uriah back from war and tried to get him to sleep with his wife, but he refused in the name of solidarity with the troops he had left behind. When David sent Uriah back to the siege he told Joab to put Uriah on the front line of battle where he was most likely to die and this was what happened. So when Bathsheba’s period of mourning was over David took her as his 8th wife and she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

David sent a delegation to express sympathies for the death of King Nahash of the Ammonites, but the lovely gesture backfired and was seen as an exploit of spying. So the late king’s son Hanun seized David’s men, shaved half of their beards off, cut off their clothes in the middle of their buttocks and sent them away in this humiliating state! There then evolved a battle between the Ammonites supported by the Arameans against Israel, but Joab used clever tactics and soon the Arameans fled leading to the Ammonites fleeing too. Later the Arameans re-grouped but Israel successfully counter-attacked killing 700 charioteers and 40,000 soldiers. The Arameans learnt their lesson and became afraid to help the Ammonites.

David made enquiries as to whether there were any descendants left of Saul’s family so that he could show them kindness for his great late friend Jonathan’s sake with whom he had made a covenant. He learnt that Jonathan’s crippled son Mephibosheth was alive and well, so he had him brought to the palace, and restored to him all his grandfather Saul’s land. Mephibosheth was overwhelmed and asked what a dead dog like him had done to deserve it? David instructed Saul’s servants to farm the land for Mephibosheth and said that he would aways eat at the palace like one of his sons.

This chapter relates the victories of David over the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, Ammonites and Arameans. The method of killing the Moabites was strange as they were made to lie down and were measured by a cord and were killed, or not, according to their height! David fought King Hadadezer of Zobah to restore his control of the River Euphrates and he captured 1,000 chariots, 7,000 charioteers and 20,000 soldiers. He also hamstrung all the horses except 100! When the Arameans came in support of Hadadezer David killed 22,000 of them and took lots of gold and bronze from them. David also killed 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt.

The chapter concludes by showing what a well organized, just and efficient ruler David was. Joab was his army commander, Zadok and Ahimelech were priests, Seraiah was secretary, Benaiah was a regional ruler and David’s sons were royal advisers.

After King David had settled in his beautiful palace, and things were peaceful on the battle front, David started toying with the idea of building a temple to match his palace. However God spoke to David through the prophet Nathan that this wasn’t what God desired. To the contrary God’s concern was with David’s “house” or dynasty and not with physical constructions. God wanted to establish David’s “house” so that there will be Davidic kings long after his own death, promising to establish his lineage and throne forever. This covenant is a foundational promise for the lineage of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

David replied to God in prayer questioning who he was to be so blessed? He exalts the greatness of God asking who is like the Lord and who can be compared with the nation of Israel? David yet praises the sovereignty of God and the trustworthiness of his word which assures him that the house of David will be blessed forever.

David chose 30,000 men to bring the ark to Jerusalem. They set the ark on a new cart and celebrated with songs and musical instruments as they moved along. However there was a hitch when the oxen stumbled and Uzzah reached out for the ark which angered God who struck him down and he died there and then. This in turn angered David for Uzzah having died and so David held off on receiving the ark in Jerusalem immediately leaving it with Obed-Edom for 3 months. Finally after all went well for this period David brought the ark to Jerusalem and David was overjoyed dancing before the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. Then David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings and fed all the people. When he eventually got home one of his wives, Michal, criticized him for his dancing so she ended up sterile for the rest of her life.

Finally at this point the elders of Israel anointed David King over Israel. So David had reigned 7 and a half years over Judah, then reigned 33 years over Israel and Judah united, making a total reign of 40 years.

When King Ish-Bosheth heard of Abner’s death he became despondent. Jonathan had a son called Mephibosheth who was lame in both feet as a result of a fall with his nurse when news reached them of Saul and Jonathan’s deaths.

Then 2 of Ish-Bosheth’s captains, Recab and Baanah, went to Ish-Bosheth’s house and upon finding him having his after lunch nap they stabbed him in the stomach and cut off his head! They then took it to David probably expecting a reward. David however was livid and ordered his men to execute them. They cut off their hands and feet and hung their bodies by the Hebron pool. Then they took Ish-Bosheth’s head and buried it in Abner’s tomb at Hebron.

While David was at Hebron he had 6 sons born, all of different women. David thus had 7 wives at this stage, as he was about to recover Michal the daughter of Saul.

The war between the house of Saul (Israel) and the house of David (Judah) was perpetuated for a long time. However Israel’s King Ish-Bosheth fell out with his army commander Abner and this resulted in Abner switching allegiance to King David. Abner negotiated with David the uniting of the kingdom under King David and things were progressing very well to this end. However Joab interfered, not understanding the healthy negotiations that were going on, and he killed Abner in revenge for him having killed his brother Asahel previously. David was furious and wept out loud at the funeral to the extent that it became clear to the people that David had no connection to the killing and was totally opposed to it.

After some time God directed David, his 2 wives, his men and their families to go and settle in Hebron and there the men came and anointed him king of the house of Judah, where he reigned for 7 and a half years. However Ish-Bosheth, son of Saul, was made king of Israel reigning for 2 years, and the familiar theme of rivalry between Saul’s and David’s families soon resurfaced. Fighting initially took place between 2 groups of 12 men involved in armed wrestling, but this evolved into a full-scale battle which David’s men won.

Following this the very fast runner from David’s men called Asahel chased the fleeing Abner who was the commander of Saul’s men’s army, but it was Abner who won the duel driving his spear right through Asahel! Then the 2 sides of this civil war tried to calm things down after David’s side losing 19 men and Abner’s side losing 360, but the civil war was far from over.

We now come to the second book of Samuel which tells about David’s reign as king of Israel and the establishment of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. It shows the successes and failures of David, including the sad Bathsheba story, and on the other hand speaks of the enduring covenant which God made with him.

This chapter begins with an Amalekite telling David that Saul and Jonathan were dead. When David sought confirmation of the deaths the man said that he himself had found Saul in the throes of death from battle and that he finished him off as Saul had requested. The man brought Saul’s crown with him. So David had him executed for having killed the Lord’s anointed and he mourned the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. He said “How the mighty have fallen!.. Saul and Jonathan – in life they were loved and gracious and in death they were not parted. They were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions… O daughters of Israel, weep for Saul… I grieve for you Jonathan my brother… your love for me was more wonderful than that of women”!