CHAPTER 17
1. Then Akhithofel said to Avshalom, “Please let me select 12,000 men, so I can rise up and chase after David tonight.
We are told in verse 14 that this was excellent advice. It appears he is following the precedents of Moshe, who chose 1,000 from each tribe to fight Midyan (Num. 31:3) and all the tribes of Israel who took 12,000 of the most valiant men to avenge the concubine who was ravaged when the Binyamites would not turn the guilty parties over for justice. (Judges 21:10) Apparently each tribe kept 1,000 elite warriors ready for such eventualities.
2. “Then I can come upon him while he is worn out and his hand relaxed, and I can rout him, and when all the people who are with him have fled, I can attack the king by himself.
Rout him: or, cause him to tremble. By himself: This is the Amaleqite way. (Deut. 25:17-19; compare the claim of the Amaleqite in 1:13 of this book as well.)
3. “Thus I will turn all the people back to you, as everyone returned to the man you are searching for; all the people will be safe.”
As everyone returned to [David]: possibly just after Sha’ul’s death.
4. And the matter seemed straightforward in Avshalom’s eyes and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel.
This is because it was the obvious thing to do. Yet YHWH did not want it carried out, because it would benefit the wrong king.
5. But Avshalom said, “Let’s call Hushai the Arkite also, so we can hear what is in his mouth as well!”
YHWH used the fact that Avshalom, like his brother Shlomo, knew that “in a multitude of counselors there is safety” (Prov. 11:14; 15:22; 24:6, the last of which is written in a military context). Both probably deduced this from watching David’s practices. This way he could see the picture from more angles, and he was particularly interested in the opinion of one who is an expert on the battlefield.
6. So Hushai came to Avshalom, and Avshalom said to him, “Akhithofel has spoken in such and such a manner. Shall we carry out his word? If not, you speak!”
7. And Hushai said to Avshalom, “This time the advice that Akhithofel has given is not appropriate.”
This time: He is very diplomatic, careful not to sound like he thinks Akhithofel is a bad advisor overall.
8. Hushai added, “You have been acquainted with your father and his men, because they are heroic and bitter of soul, like a bear bereaved [of its cubs] in the field. And your father, being a man of war, will not spend the night with the people.
He knows this is not true; David is depressed rather than furious, but Avshalom does not know this, and this is part of the bluff.
9. “In fact, he must already be withdrawn into one of the pits or one of the [other] places, and it will turn out that once [any] start falling among them, it will be heard of, and whoever hears it will say, ‘There has been a [deadly] strike on those who follow after Avshalom!’
The rumor mill will now start working against Avshalom, just as it had brought him to power. Pits: specifically one dug by men, usually as an animal trap. Over and over David had hidden in caves. Normally a soldier would not expose the civilians to the danger he must face; indeed this is David’s modus operandi, but in the case it is again not true.
10. “Then even the capable son, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will be completely melted away, because all of Israel knows that your father is a hero, and those who are with him are capable sons.
Capable son: or, son of the army, i.e., a professional soldier. He thought Avshalom might be forgetting his father’s chief trait because he had been so soft on Avshalom personally.
11. “So this is what I advise: Let all of Israel be gathered together to yourself, from Dan as far as Be’er-sheva’, like the sand that is by the sea for sheer numbers, then you can approach and go face him.
Dan and Be’er-sheva’ are the northern and southern extremes of the habitable part of Israel. But this would buy David time while they assembled.
12. “Then when we come to him in one of the places where he may be found, we will be on top of him like the dew falling on the ground! Then not even one of the men who are with him will be left for him.
Like the dew: which covers everything very suddenly when the saturated air cools to a certain temperature.
13. “And if he has been brought into [association with] a city, then all of Israel will carry ropes to that city, and we will drag it into the riverbed until not even a pebble can be found there!”
The riverbed: He is assuming that any city would be built by such a water-source. Again, this is hardly likely, but it sounds impressive, and he probably says it with gusto, playing to the ego of the man who likes grandiose events, in the style of many of his Arab cousins today.
14. Then Avshalom and all the men of Israel said, “Hushai the Arkite’s advice is better than Akhithofel’s advice!” Thus YHWH had ordained [it] to render Akhithofel’s excellent advice ineffective, in order that YHWH could bring calamity to Avshalom.
YHWH let Hushai out-“spin” Avshalom, precisely fulfilling David’s prayer in 15:31 since he had done something to make what he asked for possible.
15. Then Hushai said to Tzadoq and to Evyathar, the priests, “Akhithofel has advised Avshalom and the elders of Israel thus and so, and I have advised him like this and like that.
16. “So now, send [word] to David quickly, to say, ‘Do not pass the night at the transitions [into] the wilderness, but be sure to cross right over, lest the king be swallowed up along with all the people who are with him!”
Transitions: Heb., aravoth--possibly a scribal error, for 15:28 calls the place he would wait “avaroth”—the fords, which makes sense in relation to his crossing the Yarden (v. 21). David had gained strength in the wilderness on numerous occasions before this.
17. Both Y’honathan and Akhimaatz were standing at Eyn-Rogel, and a servant-girl went and told them, and they went and reported it to King David, because they could not be seen coming into the city.
These were the sons of the priests who had been designated as couriers by David. (16:36) Eyn-Rogel means “spring of the footman or fuller”, and is on the border of the territories of Binyamin and Yehudah between Maaleh Adumim and Gilgal.
18. But a young man saw them and told Avshalom, so they both left hurriedly and came into the house of a man in Bakhurim, and he had a well in his courtyard, into which they went down.
They may have gotten this idea from hearing Hushai talking of David hiding in a pit. (v. 9)
19. Then the woman took and stretched a cloth over the face of the well, and spread out on it some grain [to be ground], so the matter was not noticeable.
20. When Avshalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Akhimaatz and Y’honathan?” And the woman told them, “They crossed over the enduring water.” When they had looked [for them] but did not find them, they returned to Yerushalayim.
Enduring water: or, prevailing water, i.e., a perennial stream, as contrasted with the many seasonal streambeds that are all around the Land of Israel. She was not technically lying, because a well is a place of “enduring water” too! Lake Rakhel, Rahav, and Ya’el, it seems women are the best at hiding things! Since the only resident of Bakhurim mentioned previously was Shim’i, it is possible that this woman is his wife, so that not only tribes but even households are divided against one another as in many a “civil” war. Yahshua may have been thinking of this precedent when he spoke of how it would again be just before his kingdom begins, when again the “son who is called the father” (Avshalom means “father of peace”) tries to usurp his constituency. Atheists do not care to oppose the restoration of the ancient interpretations of the Scriptures; it is those of the same household—Christians who cannot distinguish between the Father and the Son—who take sides against those who again follow the Torah.
21. Now after they had left, what took place was that they came up out of the well, then went and reported to King David. What they told David was, “Get up and quickly cross over the water, because this is the counsel Akhithofel has [brought] against you.”
Get up….cross: The commands are in the plural. Hushai does not tell him that Akhithofel’s advice has been nullified. Did he think Avshalom might change his mind? Prior to this, Avshalom does not seem to have had any intention of killing David, but now that Akhithofel has put it into his mind that this is necessary, Hushai had to speak in the same vein, and there was still the possibility that they could attack him while he was weary, so he had to at least take this into consideration. Though he seems to have lost his edge because he had run out of enemies to fight and the people are no longer galvanized by a common enemy, and the fact that his own son had become his enemy had caught him by surprise, still the instinct remained in him to set up a spy network, and it is working to his advantage.
22. So David rose up along with all the people who were with him, and they were crossing over the Yarden until the light of the morning—until there was not one lacking, who failed to cross the Yarden.
23. When Akhithofel saw that his advice was not carried out, he saddled his donkey and got up and went to his home in his city, gave orders to his household, then hanged himself and died, and he was buried in his father’s tomb.
Hanged: or simply, strangled. Now that he sees that Avshalom is doomed, he chooses to commit suicide rather than face the certain wrath of David. The two of these verses together form the backdrop for Yahshua’s prayer just before his arrest (Yochanan 17:12), where he mentions that of all that the Father has given him, he has not lost one, except the one who was designated for destruction. It may have been this juxtaposition of verses that first tipped him off that, like Akhithofel, one who had formerly been among those closest to him would betray him.
24. While David was arriving at Makhanayim, Avshalom crossed over the Yarden—he and all the men of Israel with him!
He may have had a 40-mile lead if Avshalom crossed at the same point, but it seems from v. 26 that he crossed further north. David was at the place where Yaaqov had seen a vision of two army camps. (Gen. 33:2) One was Yaaqov’s own, and another was the camp in the wilderness with the Tabernacle in its midst; now there is a third camp at that location, for David may have seen it as a place where he could be reminded that YHWH was for him.
25. Now Avshalom had set Amasa over the army in place of Yo’av. And Amasa was the son of a man named Yithra, who had gone in to Avigal, the daughter of Nakhash, the sister of Yo’av’s mother Tz’ruyah.
Amasa means “burden-bearer”. Yithra means “overabundance”. Avigal means “my father has rejoiced”—a variation on Avigayil, though not the same person as David’s wife by that name. However, she was David’s sister (1 Chron. 2:15-16), so the two generals are first cousins. It sounds as though Avigal was the wife of another man, and that therefore Amasa was not one who could join the congregation of Israel at festivals. (Deut. 23:2)
26. Then Israel and Avshalom encamped in the land of Gil’ad.
27. But as David arrived in Makhanayim, Shovi the son of Nakhash from Rabbah of the Sons of Ammon, as well as Makhir the son of Ammi’el from Lo-D’var and Barzillai the Gil’adite from Rogelim
Shovi means “my captivity”. Nakhash means “hissing serpent” or “bronze”. He is not the same Nakhash as the man in v. 25, but is an Ammonite. Rabbah means “great chief”, and was at the site of the present-day capital of Jordan, Amman. . Makhir means “sold”; Lo’D’var means “no word”. This was also a place in Gil’ad where Mefibosheth had been given asylum by the same Makhir before David brought him to the palace. (9:4) Rogelim is also in the highlands east of the Yarden. That there are three foreigners east of the Yarden bringing him help is prophetic of the fact that the end-times counterfeit Messiah will not be able to take over the lands of Ammon, Moav, or Edom (Dani’el 11:41), which constitute the habitable parts of Jordan today, and that this area is charged with providing a refuge for those who have to flee the land of Israel in a day to come. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 16)
28. brought cots and bowls and earthen vessels, and wheat, barley, and flour, and beans, lentils, and parched [grain]
29. and honey and sheep’s butter, and cow’s [milk] cheese near for David and for the people who were with him to eat, because they said, “The people are hungry, exhausted, and thirsty in the wilderness.”
Shovi was more noble than his brother Khanun of chapter 10 infamy.
CHAPTER 18
1. So David mustered the people who were with him and set over them captains of thousands and captains of hundreds.
2. And David sent one third under the command of Yo’av, one third under the command of Avishai the son of Tz’ruyah (Yoav’s brother), and one third under the command of Ithai the Githite. And the king said to the people, “I myself will also certainly go out with you.”
Under the command of: literally, by the hand of. David understood well the concept of the threefold cord which cannot easily be broken. If three different groups are being attacked, it is difficult for them all to be surrounded. Possibly because the place reminded him of what Yaaqov did here in Makhanayim when he was about to encounter his brother Esau, he is doing some things correctly. He is recovering some strength. As we see from Psalm 3, which he wrote during this very time, he keeps going back to his confidence in YHWH over and over, but cannot seem to remain grounded in it. Since there is no longer an enemy from outside, David is in a sense battling himself as Yaaqov was. It is his own flesh and blood that is the only enemy now. I will go out: He also knew that the best army is led by one who goes into battle ahead of them rather than sending them while he himself sits in a safe place.
3. But the people said, “You must not go out, because even if we run away, they will not set [their] heart on us, and if half of us die, they will not care, and now we are about 10,000. So now it is better that you come to be a help for us from the city.”
We are about 10,000: or possibly (implying), “You are worth 10,000 of us”. I.e., he is the only real target, so they will not even expose him to battle now, to ensure that his rule can be reestablished.
4. So the king said to them, “I will do whatever is best in your eyes.” So the king stayed near the gate, while all the people went out by hundreds and thousands.
He is not acting like a king, but like an elected representative. Like Yaaqov at Sh’khem, he is refusing to judge. He did not even consult YHWH.
5. And the king gave orders to Yo’av, Avishai, and Ithai, saying, “Be gentle toward Avshalom for my [sake].” And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the captains concerning the matter of Avshalom.
David is still following the advice of the woman in chapter 14, but Yo’av, who put her up to it, has changed his opinion.
6. When the people went out [to] the field to meet Israel, and the battle broke out in the Forest of Efrayim,
To meet Israel: Thus “the people” here refers to Yehudah—at least the part that has remained with David, for we will see that many sided with Avshalom as well. Is this a picture of the Church’s reaction to the resurgence of Messianic Jews? Forest of Efrayim: Not in Efrayim’s territory, but across the Yarden in the northwestern part of Gad’s. Josephus says it was in the Aravah (the plain of the Rift Valley near the Yarden River). So why is it called Efrayim? Since forests in Scripture are often symbolic of people and even armies (Yeshayahu 10:18-34; 37:24; 44:14; Y’hezq’el 15:2-6; 20:26-27; Zkh. 11:2), it is a picture of the fact that it will take the presence of the armies of Efrayim—the reborn Northern Kingdom of Israel--to defeat the Counterfeit Messiah.
7. and the people of Israel were beaten before David’s servants, and a great blow was dealt there that day—20,000 [were struck down].
8. Now what took place there [was that with] the battle dispersing over the whole surface of the territory, the forest was increasingly devouring more people than the sword had devoured that day.
The forest there today is very sparse, but prior to 701 B.C.E., when the earth’s axis was turned over 6 degrees southward, there was much better rainfall and far more vegetation in this region. Similarly, the stars are said to have fought for YHWH’s people against their enemies (Judges 5:20), and YHWH cast great stones from the sky to help Y’hoshua win his battle. (Y’hosh. 10:11) Creation will come to the aid of those who are doing His will. In Revelation 12:16, we also see the earth coming to the aid of the woman the dragon is trying to destroy. One of the ways the forest helped was with great pits that were there (v. 17); here is another:
9. When Avshalom encountered David’s servants, Avshalom was riding on the mule, and the mule came under the thick [network of] boughs of a large terebinth [tree], and his head became caught in the terebinth, and he was put between the heavens and the earth, and the mule that was under him kept on going.
He appears to have gone off on his own, in a way very typical of his whole life, for there was no one with him to defend him. The mule: one of those ridden by all the king’s sons. (13:29) But Yehudah’s blessing from Yaaqov (Gen. 49:11) related to donkeys, not mules, which are sterile and thus cannot bring fruitfulness. That Avshalom rides one is symbolic of the fact that his kingdom can get nowhere. The judges and their sons rode on donkeys. Between: the literal meaning is “distinct from”, and it is repeated before both of the items being described, so it is as if it is saying there was no place for him either in heaven or on the earth. He is the same picture as the image in Dani’el 2:35, for which no place was found when it was shattered. The Counterfeit Messiah certainly does not fit with YHWH’s heavenly pattern, and the “father of peace” is out of touch with the realities on earth, for too much peace lets evil grow and run wild like his hair. Nevukhadnetzar, who built the image, also had his hair grow long at one time, and the Sunday-school “Jesus” pictures always show him with long hair. Now what was Avshalom’s pride has come back to bite him. As David promised to the woman in chapter 14, not one hair of his head had fallen to the ground—but this was not exactly what he had in mind! Kept on going: literally, went across. Did it, too, desert him for David’s army?
10. And a certain man saw and reported [it] to Yo’av, and said, “Guess what? I saw Avshalom hung up in the terebinth!”
A certain man: literally, “one man” or “a unified man”. Keep this in mind.
11. And Yo’av said to the man who had told him, “Now look here! You ‘saw’—so why didn’t you strike him down to the ground right there? Then it [would have been] up to me to give you ten [pieces of] silver and one armor-belt!”
Armor-belt: apparently symbolizing a badge of honor. Up to me: literally, on me.
12. But the man said to Yo’av, “Even if I was weighing a thousand [pieces] of silver on the palm of my hand, I wouldn’t put out my hand toward the son of the king, because in our hearing, the king gave you and Avishai and Ithai orders, saying, ‘Be careful to avoid going against the young man, Avshalom!’
He would not be bribed.Be careful: This is similar to our hesitancy to slaughter the counterfeit Messiah “Jesus”, for, like the tares in the true Yahshua’s parable, uprooting “him” might cause some of the true wheat to be lost in the confusion. But he only said to leave it until the time of the harvest, and now is that time.
13. “Otherwise I would have done injury to my own life, because there isn’t any matter hidden from the king—and you yourself would have taken your stand in opposition to me.”
Done injury to my own life: or, acted falsely against my own soul. I.e., the king would have killed him for doing so. Taken your stand: i.e., in court or as his executioner.
14. So Yo’av said, “I won’t wait before your face in the same way!” And he took three shafts in his hand and thrust them through Avshalom’s heart while he was still alive in the heart of the terebinth [tree].
Yo’av may have just been taking revenge on Avshalom for burning his fields (14:30), or he may have realized that David was not acting as king when he gave these orders, for he had walked away from his position, even calling Avshalom the king. He was only speaking as David, and he had not carried out his Torah obligation to be the one to kill his own rebellious son. (Deut. 21:18ff) So Yo’av is actually carrying out YHWH’s will. And David never did actually say, “Do not kill Avshalom”; the man who reported had added his own interpretation. In Yo’av’s eyes, this probably was a very merciful way of killing him, as brutal as he usually was! Shafts: the same word used for branch, scepter, tribe, or rod. They may have come from the tree he was hanging in. Josephus says he shot him, so the “shafts” may have been arrows.
15. And ten of Yoav’s young armor-bearers surrounded Avshalom, and they attacked Avshalom and killed him.
Ten men is symbolic of an entire congregation, and “armor-bearers” in Hebrew simply means “those who take up vessels or implements”, a term also used for the articles used in Temple service. Yo’av, again, means “YHWH is a Father”, so the picture is that it takes “a unified man” (v. 10) and a whole congregation who take up the vessels belonging to YHWH the Father (not the “father of peace”), as well as the army of Efrayim (v. 6) to conquer the Counterfeit Messiah. The three may end up all being pictures of the same entity.
16. Then Yo’av gave a signal on the shofar and the people came back from chasing after Israel, because Yo’av spared the people.
Spared the people: or, held the people back. It is unclear which group is referred to in the latter case. But it appears to be emphasizing that his only real target was Avshalom.
17. Then they took Avshalom and threw him into the great hole in the forest, and they established a very big heap of stones over him. Then every man of Israel went quickly to his tent.
It is ironic that Hushai had told him David was probably hiding in such a hole. (17:9) Yaaqov had buried his family’s idols under a Terebinth tree (Gen. 35:4), and Avshalom was certainly an idol to David and all Israel.
18. Now while he was alive, Avshalom had taken and erected a [memorial] pillar—the one in the king’s valley—because he said, “I have no son to carry on the memory of my name.” So he called the [memorial] pillar by his own name, and it is called Avshalom’s Monument to this day.
Monument: literally, hand (Heb., yad). It is used in this way in, for example, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Yerushalayim. But yad is also sometimes used as an idiom for a phallus, and the term for “memorial pillar” here (matzevah) often refers to the phallic symbols placed around Asherah idols as the goddess’ consorts. So what is being said here is that they had actually built his memorial in the forest with this pile of stones (mainly because of his rank as the king’s son, not because they had great respect for him), while this steeple-like column that he intended as a monument to himself instead became a laughingstock. The monument known as “Absalom’s Pillar” in the Qidron Valley was built too late to be this same one. David’s eternal covenant could not continue through Avshalom if he had no son. Like his mule, it would be as if he were sterile. It is interesting that the question of whether “Jesus” had any children has come into the public spotlight so often recently (via the DaVinci Code, etc.) while it has usually been assumed (based on the silence of the text) that he never married. Seeing the direction that the institutional Church took this assumption, we cannot ignore Dani’el’s statement (11:37) that the one he elsewhere calls the “Prince who is to come” would have no regard for the love of women. Though Avshalom clearly did, symbolically, the end result would be the same. Yet we were told in 14:27 that Avshalom had three sons and a daughter, and Josephus says the latter would later marry Shlomo’s son Rehav’am and bear him Aviyah, his successor, but he would not be considered Avshalom’s heir. His sons may have died while he was still living, because Lev. 18:8, 20 name two sins Avshalom had committed when taking his father’s concubines, and verse 29 of that chapter says that anyone who did such disgusting things would be cut off from Israel. The rabbis have interpreted “cut off” to mean that if not directly killed for such a sin, the perpetrator would die without an heir. (His line would no longer remain a part of Israel.) Another possibility is that, as we see even among modern European royalty, only certain descendants can qualify as heirs to the throne, and he may have thought that (if they were already born) none of his sons would qualify as David’s heirs, but if he bore children by David’s wives, they would. A matzevah was used for fertility rites, so he had built it as a prayer to a pagan deity that his efforts to impregnate the concubines would be successful.
19. Then Akhima’atz the son of Tzadoq said, “Please let me run and carry the glad news to the king that YHWH has vindicated him from the hand of his enemies!”
Vindicated: a legal term meaning to rule on his behalf as in court.
20. But Yo’av said to him, “You are not a man of glad news today, though you can carry news on another day—but this day you cannot carry the news, because the king’s son is dead.”
I.e., “You are fit to carry glad tidings, but though that is what this really is, the king will take it as bad news—and might kill you for bringing it, as he did the man who brought the news of Sha’ul’s death. So, just in case, we will send a foreigner instead”:
21. But Yo’av said to the Kushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen.’ So the Kushite bowed to Yo’av and ran.
Now that Avshalom is dead, Yo’av calls David “the king” again.
22. Then Akhima’atz the son of Tzadoq said to Yo’av yet again, “However it turns out, let me run behind the Kushite too!” But Yo’av said, “Why is this, my son? You [want to] run when there is no glad news to be found?”
I.e., you will not be rewarded for it.
23. But he said, “Whatever takes place, let me run!” So he told him, “Run!” So Akhima’atz ran by a roundabout way and passed by the Kushite.
24. Now while David was sitting between the two gates, the watchman went to the roof of the gate [complex—all the way] to the wall, and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and there [indeed he saw] a man running alone!
He was clearly watching in that direction already and thought he saw something, and a better angle confirmed that he was right.
25. So the watchman called out and reported to the king, and the king said, “If [he is] alone, there is glad news in his mouth.” And he kept coming and got closer.
There is glad news: Why? Apparently if the whole army was not returning, or if it was safe for one many to come alone, unguarded, it appeared obvious that the threat had passed.
26. Then the watchman noticed another man running, and the watchman summoned the gatekeeper and said, “Look! A man running alone!” And the king said, “This one [must be] bring glad news as well.”
27. Then the watchman said, “It seems to me that the way the first one runs is like the way Akhima’atz the son of Tzadoq runs!” So the king said, “This is a decent man, so he will come with glad news.”
Akhima’atz must have had a very distinctive way of running, to be recognized from so far away. Having outrun the designated courier, he was clearly either very fast or an “eager beaver”. Considering how valuable he seems to have been to Yo’av (v. 20), he was probably a regular courier for the king.
28. Then Akhima’atz called out and said to the king, “Shalom!” And he bowed to the king [with] his nostrils to the ground, and said, “Blessed [be] YHWH, who has caused the men who lifted up their hand against my master the king to be closed in!”
29. And the king said, “Is it well with the young man, Avshalom?” And Akhima’atz said, “I saw the big uproar when Yo’av was sending the king’s servant, but I don’t know what [it was about].”
30. So the king said, “Come around and take your stand over here.” So he came around and stayed [there].
31. Then there came the Kushite, and the Kushite said, “Glad news has brought itself, my master the king! Because YHWH has vindicated you today from the hand of all those who [have been] rising up above you!”
32. And the king said to the Kushite, “Is it well with the young man, Avshalom?” And the Kushite said, “Let the enemies of my master the king be like the young man, as well as all who have risen up above you in order to do harm!”
He chose a very diplomatic way to break the news to him, with the focus in the right place, hoping to make David recognize what had really been at stake.
33. And the king started trembling, and went up to the roof-chamber above the gate, and began to weep. And this is what he said as he walked: “My son, Avshalom! My son! My son! Who could have permitted me to die instead of you, O Avshalom, my son, my son?”
Instead of: literally, beneath. The uprising is over, but his first thought is the loss of his offspring. He may have assumed that since he was YHWH’s chosen, anything that came from him should be preserved. In the same way, the Messiah has many offshoots, and indeed, nearly every movement or philosophy that has arisen in “Christendom” since his advent has been affected by him in some way, and probably ameliorated the civilization to some extent. Still, when measured against the true Messiah, none of the “spinoffs” meets the standard, and all will eventually have to be cut down, even “Jesus” as the Church has portrayed him—as opposed to Torah, a Sabbath breaker, a deity in himself rather than the restored image of YHWH, as calling us to tolerate anything for the sake of love and peace, or wanting to start a new religion rather than call us back to the original intent of the covenant that YHWH said was eternal. This person never existed, but is only an image based on Gentile assumptions being applied to a Hebrew Messiah, and thus is his “child” but one that has clearly “rebelled”. The rift is growing, to the point that some who do no more than call him by his real name, Yahshua, are thrown out of churches! At one time this was a forgiveable error, but now it has guards defending it, though the corrective is well-enough known. Again those leading the rebellion are convinced that they are the righteous ones. So as David had no choice but to stop having compassion on it, though it broke his heart, we too must oppose what is leading so many astray—not hate our natural families who are caught up in it as such, but recognize the reality that what was once our nurturer is the chief opponent of the Kingdom this time, and not offer it support or protection as long as it remains unrepentant.
CHAPTER 19
1. Then it was reported to Yo’av, “Look, the king is weeping and mourning over Avshalom!”
2. So the deliverance that day turned into mourning for all the people, because the people had heard it said that day, “The king is grieved over his son.”
3. So the people went away stealthily into the city, just as people who are ashamed as they flee in battle steal away.
The historian Josephus said they were afraid to have a victory parade like the conquerors that they were, but rather came in tears as if they had been beaten.
4. Now the king had covered his face, and the king was crying with a loud voice, “My son, Avshalom! O Avshalom, my son, my son!”
5. So Yo’av came to the king in the house and said, “Today you have made the faces of all your servants dry up—those who have let your life slip away to safety, along with the life of your sons and daughters, the life of your wives, and the life of your concubines--
Came: The term can sometimes mean “filled a void”; i.e., he stepped in and did the right thing, taking care of what David should have, while he was instead “hiding his head in the sand”. “Father” is part of his name, and he was taking this role toward the king, as risky as that must have been. David’s own father, who might otherwise have advised him, was probably dead by this time, as David, his youngest son, was almost certainly over 50 years old.
6. by loving those who hate you and hating those who love you! Because today you have allowed a report [to go out] that you have no commanders or servants! Because today I have realized that if Avshalom had only survived, and all [the rest of] us had died, [it would have been] all right in your eyes.
Hating: He was not accusing David of harboring malice toward anyone, but the outcome was the same, because he had made a choice between two entities, favoring one at the expense of the other. That is how the term “hate” is often used in Scripture, clarifying such passages as Luqa 14:26. He was simply ignoring them. I.e., “It is as if none of us mattered to you or even existed!” He was angry enough to remind David that what was important was the kingdom, not his personal feelings. He was not recognizing that sometimes a man’s enemies are those from his own household. (Mat. 10:36)
7. “So now, get up! Go out and speak to the heart of your servants, because I have sworn an oath by YHWH [that] if you do not go out, not a man would stay with you tonight, and this would have been worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you since your youth until now!”
I have sworn: Since David was already acting as if he had no subjects (v. 6), Yo’av himself would make sure he really had none left, for he was threatening to take control of the throne. Previously he had given David the honor of a victory he himself could have won (12:28), but to jar David to his senses he is now saying that of David does not change his tune, he himself will become king if he has to. And he was probably strong enough to be a real challenge for David to fight. Tonight: He did not even give David the option of thinking about it for a few days.
8. So the king got up and sat in the gate, and it was reported to all the people, saying, “Look there! The king is sitting in the gate!” So the people all came into the presence of the king, as each man of Israel had fled to his tents.
His strategy worked. Came as…[they] had fled: i.e., they rushed to greet him. It brought the people great joy to see justice being carried out by their again. (“Sitting in the gate” is an idiom for holding court along with the elders of the city.)
9. And what had taken place was that all the people in all the tribes of Israel were arguing among themselves, saying, “The king recovered us from the hand of our enemies, and let us slip out of the palm of the Filistines’ [hand]!” “Yet now he has hurried out of the Land on account of Avshalom!”
10. “But Avshalom, whom we had anointed over us, has died in the battle! So now, why are you mute about bringing the king back?”
Though some felt David had abandoned the throne and did not deserve to be king again, others remembered how beneficial his rule had been to them and did not want him to be angry with them for following what turned out to be false promises about Avshalom, so to make sure of it they decided to make a strong showing of support for him. They had no reason to remain aloof from him except the shame of having left him and being proven wrong.
11. So King David sent [word] to Tzadoq and Evyathar, the priests, to say, “Speak to the elders of Yehudah to say, ‘Why have you become the last to bring the king back home? Because the word of all Israel has come to the king at his palace!
Yehudah was both the first and last to recognize David’s kingship—first at the beginning of his reign (2:4), when in fact he was king only over Yehudah, and last at this point. This is a prophecy of how the pattern would be with Yahshua, who was proclaimed “king of the Jews” in the beginning, when all of his followers were Jewish, but because of misinformation, for centuries most have not been, while other tribes have recognized him. Note that to accept the true Messiah, they had to repudiate the “father of peace” and recognize the true Jewish king again, because the northern kingdom has given “Jesus” his power in contrast to the true Yahshua.
12. “‘You are my brothers! You are my bone and my flesh! So why are you the last to bring the king back?’
The other tribes had not yet actually carried out their intent, so David was trying to motivate Yehudah through healthy competition, saying, in effect, “Don’t let yourselves be the last, for that would be a disgrace!”
13. “And say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my bone and my flesh? May Elohim do the same to me and add more like it, if you will not become commander of my army for all the days [of my life] instead of Yo’av!’”
Yo’av was also from Yehudah and had been with him all along, except for the fact that he was really responsible for Avshalom’s rise to power. But now David offers to replace him with his cousin if the latter will just come back. He may have been upset with Yo’av for killing Avshalom against his will, or simply smarting from the recent rebuke and demoting him despite his courage in taking his life into his hands to demonstrate such loyalty to the king that he was willing to bring him the truth to him even when he did not want to hear it.
14. Thus he influenced the heart of the men of Yehudah like one man, and they sent [word] to the king, “Come back—you and all your servants!”
Amasa means “ a burden”, so the weight of this political move may have been what “tipped the scales” in his favor, for though Yo’av was clearly more capable of leading his army, Amasa was the closest thing the other tribes had to a king, and he thus made him part of his “team” so they would feel they had a stake in his rule.
15. So the king came back. When he arrived at the Yarden, Yehudah had come to Gilgal to go out to meet the king, to conduct the king across the Yarden.
16. Now Shim’i the son of Gera, the Binyamite who was from Bakhurim, had hurried and come down with the men of Yehudah to meet King David,
Meet: greet with a welcome.
17. and there were a thousand men with him from Binyamin, along with Tziva, the young [steward] of the household of Sha’ul and his fifteen sons and twenty servants with him, and they rushed [to] the Yarden before the king [got there],
David had not yet discovered Tziva’s lie, but he was still playing politics to curry favor with the king, who is now in a much better position to reward him yet again.
18. and the ferry boat crossed over to take the king’s household across and to do whatever was best in his eyes. And Shim’i the son of Gera fell down in front of the king as he was crossing the Yarden,
A ferry boat crossed over: or possibly, he crossed the ford. Josephus says he made a bridge of boats across the river so he could cross with ease!
19. and said to the king, “Don’t let my master count me guilty nor remember what your servant did wrongly on the day that my master left Yerushalayim, that the king should take it to heart,
Wrongly: twistedly, perversely.
20. “because your servant knows that I have erred—and look! Here I came today, the first of the House of Yoseyf to come down to meet my master the king!”
Shim’i’s repentance was elaborate and enthusiastic. Once he realized that David was again in a position to punish him for what he had done, he spared no pain to make David’s return the opposite of how he had made his departure.
21. But Avishai the son of Tz’ruyah responded by saying, “Shouldn’t Shim’i instead be put to death [for] this, since he treated YHWH’s anointed with such contempt?”
This was obvious even to Shim’i, but David apparently accepted his repentance as genuine, though later he seems to have had doubts. (1 Kings 2)
22. But David said, “What do I have to do with you, sons of Tz’ruyah, that you have come to serve as prosecuting attorneys today? Should anyone in Israel be put to death today? For don’t you know that today I am king over Israel?”
I.e., don’t forget who is in charge. What do I have to do: Josephus renders it, “Will you never leave off?” He probably did not want his first act as soon as the war was over to be remembered as harsh or reopen any wounds. Prosecuting attorneys: thus used in modern Hebrew; the term is singular here--satan, meaning any adversary who resists or opposes. This greatly clarifies passages like Mark 8:33, where, with a foreigner’s understanding of the language, it would otherwise appear that Yahshua was calling Keyfa the devil himself (as used in Luqa 4:8)!
23. Then the king said to Shim’i, “You will not die.” And the king made an oath to him.
He would keep the oath all his life, though he would regret it, but would find a loophole when on his deathbed! (1 Kings 2:8ff)
24. Then Mefibosheth the descendant of Sha’ul came down to welcome the king, and he had not prepared his feet, nor attended to his mustache, nor had he washed his garments from the day the king had gone [away] until the day that he came [back] safely.
No one had expressed his grief and preoccupation with David’s departure in a more vivid way than he. He entered into mourning rituals, and Yahshua’s statement that his students would fast when the bridegroom was no longer with them is strongly reminiscent of this. Attended to his mustache: Notice that it does not say, his beard, for apparently the command to not mar the extremities of the beard (Lev. 19:27) was commonly interpreted in the fullest way, i.e., the beard was not typically trimmed at all by Israelites, but only the mustache, to keep it out of the mouth if so desired but not to change the shape or “weightiness” of one’s face. This custom is preserved by many Orthodox Jews, and is again being adopted by many returning Efrayimites.
25. But it turned out that because he had come [to] Yerushalayim to meet the king, the king said to him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mefibosheth?”
26. So he said, “My master the king, my servant tricked me, because your servant said, ‘I will saddle the donkey and mount it and go with the king’—because your servant is lame.
27. “But he slandered your servant to my master the king, while my master the king is like an angel of YHWH—but do whatever is best in your eyes,
Tziva not only disregarded his master’s orders to prepare for his departure; he even made it sound to David like Mefibosheth did not want to come. Slandered: somewhat of a play on words, because, while Mefibosheth was lame (literally, skipping or limping), the root word of “slandered” is “foot”, and often means to go about spying on others—i.e., “He walked circles around me!”
28. “because no one in my father’s household would be anything but dead men before my master the king, yet you have set your servant among those who eat at your table, so what right do I have to even cry out for help to the king any more?”
Dead men: Very few descendants of a former king would be spared when a new dynasty began.
29. So the king said to him, “Why should you speak any further about your affairs? You and Tziva can split the field; I have spoken!”
It seems David distrusted his story somewhat, since he did not take all of the land back from Tziva; or it may be that since he had spoken so hastily without checking out the facts when he rashly gave it all to Tziva, he did not have the right to completely go back on his word.
30. And Mefibosheth said to the king, “He can even take the whole [thing], after my master the king has returned home safely!”
He was speaking with flamboyant honorifics toward the king, and probably did not actually intend Tziva to have it all, for he did have a son to whom he would need to leave an inheritance. (9:12) The king: This phrase is used so much more often than “David” to describe him in this chapter, that we must take him as a picture of Yahshua, for when all Israel sees that the master who went away has really come back after all, those who doubted (as they did with Moshe) and let their actions become slack, are all now trying to tighten up so he would not even consider destroying them. (Compare Luqa 12:42-48) But if even by Yahshua’s day people were not used to having a real king of their own around, how much more should we take to heart the responses they brought to him, even if they were not all the best-motivated?
31. Barzillai the Gil’adite had also gone down from Rogelim and crossed over the Yarden with the king, to give him a sendoff.
Rogelim means “launderers”—those who make garments white, a symbol of righteousness. (Rev. 3:4, 18) With the king: neither ahead of him nor behind. This is prophetic of the fact that righteousness will come to the Land at the same time Yahshua returns there. Crossed over: One is never too old to become a Hebrew!
32. Now Barzillai was very aged—eighty years old—and he had supported the king while he sojourned at Makhanayim, because he was a very great man.
Barzillai means “my iron”, reminding us of the fact that when the Messiah returns he will rule with a rod of iron (i.e., an unbending standard, Psalm 2:9; Rev. 2:27). Supported: nourished and sustained; i.e., he provided food for all of David’s entourage. Great: idiomatic for wealthy, and he proved to also be magnanimous.
33. So the king said to Barzillai, “You come across with me, and I will support you along with myself in Yerushalayim!”
34. But Barzillai said to the king, “How many days do I have [left] to live, that I should go up with the king [to] Yerushalayim?
Days: literally, days of years.
35. “I am eighty years old today; can I tell what is beneficial from what is harmful—as if your servant could [even] taste what I would eat or what I would drink, or as if I could still hear the voice of the men and women who sing! So why should your servant any longer be a burden to my master the king?
36. “As a small [token] your servant can cross the Yarden with the king, but why should the king repay me with such a reward?
37. “Please let your servant go back so I can die in my own city with the grave of my father and mother. But look! There’s your servant Khimham! He can go across with my master the king, and you do for him whatever is best in your eyes.”
Khimham means “their longing”, and may have been Barzillai’s son (Josephus thinks so) or one of his own servant, thinking he would be more useful to the king than he himself would. If this was his son, what more complete gift could he give him than his very continuation? David had been allowing circumstances to push him around, but Barzillai represents established strength, who gives him back the people’s longing for their king. The rod of iron leaves, but its influence remains after its job is done, for once the longing for the king is there, some will not need to be forced to obey, for they will love the King enough to want to serve him. Like Shim’i, David remembered Barzillai on his deathbed (1 Kings 2:7), but with the opposite result. In Yirmeyahu’s day, there was a lodging-place in David’s hometown of Beyth-Lekhem run by the family of one named Khimham. (Yirm. 41:17) It could be that since he upheld David, YHWH honored his descendants by having Yahshua born in the sukkah owned by the keeper of this inn. (Luqa 2:7)
38. So David said, “Khimham will go over with me, but I will do for him whatever is best in your eyes! And anything that you may decide in regard to me, I will do for you.”
39. Then all the people started crossing the Yarden, and when the king had crossed over, he kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own place.
A kiss of greeting was used in more contexts there at that time than it is today, as it still is in some parts of the Middle East.
40. And the king had crossed at Gilgal, and Khimham crossed over with him, as did all the people of Yehudah, and they were conducted the king across, along with half of the people of Israel.
Crossed at Gilgal: or, continued on to Gilgal. Half the people: possibly those from the tribes who lived on the eastern bank of the Yarden.
41. But, lo and behold, there were all the men of Israel coming toward the king! And they said to the king, “Why have our brothers, the men of Yehudah, stolen you away and brought the king and his household across the Yarden, and all of David’s men along with him?”
May this be prophetic of a day when Yahshua is so overwhelmingly welcomed by his Jewish brothers that it almost seems he is neglecting those who have recognized him as Messiah all along—almost the Prodigal Son story in reverse. What was meant to be a joyful occasion for the whole nation instead became a shouting match and a cause for contention! Josephus says they expected it to be a joint public ceremony, but they came to him privately.
42. So each the men of Yehudah responded in regard to the men of Israel, “Because he is close [kin] to me! But why is it that you are heated up over this matter? Have we eaten anything at all from the king[‘s expense]? Or has he bribed us?”
To me: each one claimed him as his own relative, personally, in addition to the communal one they had with him. This is more typical of Israel than Yehudah, which usually relates to anyone, even YHWH, as a whole group rather than talking about a “personal relationship”. This may reflect some of the balancing that will come about when Yahshua is crowned king by both groups. Yehudah needed to remember that while their first responsibility was to their immediate family, this was also a whole nation. Bribed us: literally, lifted up a gift/portion to us. I.e., he did not treat us as any more special just because we are more closely related, but only enjoyed the family reunion. Even Yoseyf especially longed to see Binyamin when his brothers came to him!
43. And the men of Israel answered by saying, “I have ten shares in the king, and also I have more [invested] in David than you! So why did you dishonor me, so that my manner was not the first, for me to bring back my king?” (Now the manner of the men of Yehudah was more severe than the manner of the men of Israel.)
They took too seriously the competition David had set up to try to bring out the best in all of them. He saw it as only a sport, but they took it as a call to another war! Shares: literally, hands. I.e., you are looking at it in too narrow a way; he is a kinsman to all of Israel, and there are ten of us, while there is only one of you! More invested in: or possibly, more right to. It is easy to imagine that Israel, which has been Christian and ostensibly sided with the Messiah for two thousand years should feel slighted when the Jews seem to be keeping him to themselves, but they are making up for lost time, and recognizing how much more they really do have in common with him even than we do, since we did not grow up Jewish as he did. Manner: literally, thing or word, and it might simply mean that the men of Yehudah were fiercer or harsher and out-argued the men of Israel. Yet the pattern has held true all through history that Yehudah’s way of doing things has always been stricter (more difficult, even less gentle) than the “Christian” way. Men: literally, man. Note that both groups are now speaking selfishly, as if it was a fight between each individual among Israel and each individual of Yehudah—or, both groups are so unified among themselves that each group is acting as “one man”, yet they are at an impasse with one another.
CHAPTER 20
1. Now by coincidence a worthless man was there, whose name was Sheva the son of Bikhri, a man of Binyamin. And he blew the shofar and said, “We do not have a share in David, nor is there an inheritance for us in the son of Yishai! Each man to his tents, O Israel!”
Worthless: literally, one who does not ascend. We ascend to the Temple to learn, and descend to teach. Sheva means “seven” or “oath”, and Bikhri means “youthful”. This is a man who has not learned, so he is worthless. (Compare Deut. 15:9; Psalm 145:8; Prov. 19:28.) If one does not learn from experience, of what value is he to others? Yet he is guiding other men who have not learned. By coincidence: He used the philosophy of Amaleq--chance and opportunism, always staying in the valley and never going up to see the view from the mountain, and dividing the nation when it was weakest. While the whole nation was distracted by this skirmish, Sheva took advantage of the confusion and pushed his own agenda. After the northern kingdom embraced the Messiah and Yehudah did so as well, a man from Binyamin (Paul) led the northern kingdom to rebel, though he probably did so inadvertently, simply by not being careful in what context he allowed his statements, designed for the very learned, to be read.
2. Then every man of Israel went from [following] after David, [going] after Sheva the son of Bikhri, but the men of Yehudah stuck with their king, from the Yarden all the way to Yerushalayim.
How fickle! Sheva must have been very persuasive—or possibly well known as a leader or warrior--to garner such a quick following. He is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture.
3. When David arrived at his house in Yerushalayim, the king took [the] ten women—[the] concubines—whom he had left to keep the house, and assigned them to a guarded house, and sustained them, but did not go in to them, and they were shut in until the day of their death, living [as if] widows.
Guarded house: or, place of confinement. Sustained: or, contained, held them in. The Torah does not allow women who were divorced and married to another to return to their former husbands afterward. (Deut. 24:3-4) Though this is not exactly what had taken place here (15:16; 16:21), David must have seen it as a parallel form of defilement.
4. Then the king said to Amasa, “Summon the men of Yehudah for me [in] three days, and you present yourself here.”
Present yourself here: i.e., you be back then as well.
5. So Amasa went to summon Yehudah, but he delayed longer than the appointed time that he had set.
6. And David said to Avishai, “Now Sheva the son of Bikhri will do us more harm than Avshalom. You take your master’s servants and chase after them, lest he reach fortified cities and snatch away our eyes.”
Your master: that is, Yo’av. Snatch away our eyes: possibly an idiom for escaping from their sight. If Amasa delayed any longer, Sheva would have time to gather a larger army, so they could not wait for Amasa to return.
7. So the men of Yo’av went out after them, along with the Krithites, the Plethites, and all the heroic [champions]—that is, they left Yerushalayim to pursue Sheva the son of Bikhri.
David did not tell Yo’av to go with his men; it appears that because of Yo’av’s threat in 19:7 had an effect on their relationship, and he had decided that in Amasa’s absence, Avishai should be the commander of his forces instead. Krithites (cutters-off) and Plethites (swift ones): Josephus said these special forces numbered 600 men.
8. They [were] with the large stone that [was] at Giv’on, and Amasa had gone [on] ahead of them. And the measured garment that Yo’av had put on was tied with a belt, and over it a belt was fastened [with] a sword in its sheath, and as he went out, it fell out.
9. Then Yo’av said to Amasa, “Are you doing well, my brother?” And Yo’av took hold of Amasa’s beard with [his] right hand, to give him a kiss [of greeting].
Judas may have gotten the idea for his signal in Gath-Shmaney from this event.
10. But Amasa was not on his guard against the sword that was in Yo’av’s hand, and he stuck him in the abdomen with it, and his soft [internal organs] spilled out to the ground, so he did not [stick] him a second time. When he was dead, Yo’av and his brother Avishai chased after Sheva the son of Bikhri.
Hand: that is, left hand. He had picked it up and not yet sheathed it. He did not notice it because a sword would normally be in one’s right hand if it was to be used, and showing one’s right hand normally indicated one was unarmed. But he kept his right hand occupied otherwise to deceive Amasa. (v. 9) Abdomen: literally, fifth; possibly the fifth rib. (Compare 2:22; 3:26; 4:5-6. Of the four times this phrase is used, Yo’av is involved with three.) It seems Yo’av intended him to have a slow, painful death, so he struck him where it would not directly affect any of his organs, and he would suffer. He did not strike him again to put him out of his misery.
11. But a man of the young [servants] of Yo’av stood over him, and said, “Whoever is pleased with Yo’av, and whoever is for David, [go] after Yo’av!”
Is for David: or, belongs to David.
12. While Amasa was rolling around in the blood right on the public road and the man saw that all the people remained [standing], he brought him around off the road into the field and threw a garment over him [to conceal him].
They were not going after Yo’av, as he had said to do. The men “got the wreckage off the road” so the “rubberneckers” would not slow traffic, but they did not kill him. They left him to die.
13. When he was pushed away from the highway, every man passed by and went after Yo’av to chase after Sheva the son of Bikhri.
They were only waiting for the road to be cleared of the mess that Amasa now was; they were interested in following Yo’av after all.
14. When he passed through all of the tribes of Israel into Avel, that is, Beyth-Maakhah, and all the Berites, they lightened up and followed right behind them!
Avel (Beyth-Maakhah) was the name of a city just across the headwaters of the Yarden River from the city of Dan near the northern limit of the Land of Israel, so he would have to pass all the tribes to get there. It was in an area ruled by Avshalom’s grandfather, which may be why Sheva would go there.. Berites: of uncertain identity, but apparently close to Avel. He does not appear to have been trying to escape the Land of Israel, but to gather his troops “from Dan to Be’er-sheva”—i.e., from the entire country.
15. When they arrived at Avel Beyth-Maakhah, they began to lay siege against it, and they poured out a siege-ramp toward the city. When it stood against the rampart, all the people who were with Yo’av [started] marring the wall to make it fall.
Poured: i.e., dumped out a lot of dirt or rubble to be able to get a battering-ram up to the wall, as is seen at Lakhish, and even more vividly at Matzada. Lay siege: literally, to cramp, confine, or close him in. Rampart: or, bulwark. Marring: some take it as battering as with a ram; others (including Josephus) as undermining—that is, “sappers”.
16. Then a skillful woman called out from the city, “Listen, [all of you], listen! Please say to Yo’av, ‘Come all the way over here--close by so I can speak to you!’”
17. So he approached in her direction, and the woman said, “Are you Yo’av?” And he said, “I [am].” So she said to him, “Listen to the words of your maid-servant.” And he said, “I myself am listening!”
She had heard of him, but did not know what he looked like, having never actually seen him before. If this was the northern location, it would have been about 90 miles north of his hometown, and he might never have been this way before. Part of her wisdom is that she says “Sh’ma” (the heart of the Torah) three times. This may be why he was willing to risk coming so close to the wall, where someone could easily pour boiling oil on him from atop it.
18. So she spoke up, to say, “In a former [time] they used to say, ‘You can certainly enquire at Avel’, and that was the end of [the matter].
The city apparently had a reputation for having an authoritative seer or an oracle. People living there would be expected to be wise. It also became somewhat of a tourist attraction. She is emphasizing to him how beneficial it has been for all of Israel. An alternate reading of v. 14 could be “Avel, at the house of Maakhah”. Avel (but at the house of one Y’hoshua) is a place where the ark of the covenant had stayed for a long time when the Filistines sent it back. (1 Shmu’el 6:18) That would explain why people would enquire there, but this would also place it in a very different location, near Beth-Shemesh in the territory of Yehudah, and they would not have to pass through any other tribes’ lands to reach it from Giv’on. But there was a Filistine king named Maakhah in the same generation as David (1 Kings 2:39), and this may complete the context.
19. “I am [one of] the restored and established of Israel; you are trying to exterminate a city! Why would you swallow up YHWH’s heritage?”
Restored and established: or, rewarded and confirmed.
20. And Yo’av responded by saying, “Let me be pierced, pierced, if I should engulf or cause to be ruined!
21. “Such is not the case, because a man from the mountains of Efrayim—Sheva the son of Bikhri [by] name—has lifted up his hand against the king—against David! Turn him alone over, and I will go away from [coming] against the city!” So the woman said to Yo’av, “Here! His head will be thrown out to you right up at the wall!”
He did not want to have to destroy the city; it was only one man he was looking for. By name: literally, is his name.
22. So the woman approached all the people with her skill, and they cut off Sheva the son of Bikhri’s head, and threw it out to Yo’av. So he sounded the shofar, and they retreated from upon the city, [each] man to his tents, and Yo’av went back to the king at Yerushalayim.
Skill: or wisdom, which is greater than knowledge or understanding, though it depends on both of them, because if one does not put his knowledge to use, one is as useless as if he had not learned—just like the man this town was harboring. That is why this woman did not participate in giving him asylum. And there does not seem to have been much debate! His worthiness of this end must have been obvious to them all, for the presence of an oracle of YHWH allowed them all to become wise. Retreated: literally, scattered or spread out; i.e., dispersed.
23. Thus Yo’av was over the whole army of Israel, and B’nayah the son of Y’hoyada was over the Krithites and the Plethites,
Over: literally, toward. His position was restored by default, since Amasa was now dead. Again, the Krithites and Plethites were foreign mercenaries.
24. and Adoram was over the forced labor, and Y’hoshafat the son of Akhilud was the recorder.
Recorder: literally, one who brings to remembrance—i.e., a historian. He may be the chronicler who compiled this very account.
25. And Sh’ya was the enumerator, and Tzadoq and Evyathar, the priests.
Enumerator: possibly a treasurer.
26. And Ira the Ya’irite was also a priest for David.
For David: apparently hired as a private priest and not in any official capacity in regard to the sanctuary itself. The term “priest” (cohen) can actually mean any sort of officiator. He may have been somewhat like a “secretary of state”. We are told all of this to show that the “courts” are being re-established and thus the kingdom is being restored—a precedent for our own day.
CHAPTER 21
1. Now in the days of David, there was a famine three years in a row, so David sought YHWH’s face, and YHWH said, “[It is due] to Sha’ul and to his household [which is guilty of shedding] blood, because he had the Giv’onites killed.”
By the third year it was pretty clear that this was not a fluke, but there was a reason YHWH was not providing rain, or was letting something devour the crops. Also, if the first year of the famine was a shmittah year (seventh year when the crops were to lie fallow), YHWH had promised to provide enough for three years the year before, so that this command could be obeyed (Lev. 25:21), so the effect of the famine might not have been felt until the third year.
2. So the king called for the Giv’onites, and spoke to them. (Now [as for] the Giv’onites, they were not from the sons of Israel, but rather from the remnant of the Emorites, but the descendants of Israel had been adjured to them. But Sha’ul had tried to strike them down in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Yehudah.)
Been adjured: Y’hoshua had promised to treat the Giv’onites well, and though he did not ask YHWH whether he should make a treaty with them, he stuck to his word even when he found out that they had tricked him (Y’hoshua 9). YHWH may have had a reason to favor them in contrast with the rest of the Kanaanites; the name of their people means “the dwellers on the very high hill”—the exact opposite meaning of Amaleq, the “valley-dwellers”—and thus this may have suited them to be an advantageous ally to Israel. In any case, Sha’ul had broken it the promise. The scribes who chronicled Sha’ul’s life did not see this event as significant enough to include, until this famine resulted. David might not have known about it until this time, as it may have taken place while he was fleeing from Sha’ul. That would have been at the very least 30 years prior to this time, and the promise had been made over 400 years earlier, but still remained incumbent because Israel had sworn in YHWH’s Name. He took it very seriously! He may have also known the sons of those killed were resentful of Israel, and that a rebellion would start brewing soon if He did not bring it to their attention.
3. And David said to the Giv’onites, “What can I do for you? And with what can I placate [you] so that you will bless the inheritance of YHWH?”
4. So the Giv’onites said to him, “I don’t have silver or gold; [it is] with Sha’ul and with his household, and we have no one in Israel to put to death.” And he said, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”
We have no one: or, it is not for us to put a man to death in Israel. I.e., they had no right to execute anyone. It seems Sha’ul might have killed their ancestors for money, or taxed them especially hard, since they were not of the same genetic stock as his tribe, the Binyamites, yet lived in the next town from Sha’ul—a common cause for rivalry, but Sha’ul may have taken it too seriously and since he had power, used it to enforce his prejudices, though these people had long since been considered a part of Israel, though they had the hardest labor assigned to them because of their deceit. Note that they, in polite cultural fashion of the day (like the one who sold to Avraham the cave where the patriarchs are buried), turned down his offer the first time, but when he insisted, they told him what they really wanted:
5. So they said to the king, “The man who was exterminating us and schemed [against] us [that] we should be annihilated from presenting ourselves in all the territory of Israel--
Or did some starve to death because Sha’ul did not allow them to leave their own city?
6. “let seven men of his descendants be turned over to us, and we will [hang them up to] let them [die] by exposure in Giv’ah of Sha’ul, the chosen of YHWH.” So the king said, “I will turn them over.”
The chosen of YHWH: or, whomever YHWH may choose. Seven actually also means “oath” in Hebrew, so it was a fitting number for the resolution of this injustice. Giv’ah was Sha’ul’s hometown.
7. But the king spared Mefibosheth, the son of Y’honathan, because of the oath [to] YHWH that was between them (David and Y’honathan the son of Sha’ul).
This oath was recorded in 1 Shmu’el 20:13-17.
8. Now the king took two sons of Ritzpah, the daughter of Ayah, whom she had borne to Sha’ul (Armoni and Mefibosheth) as well as five of the sons of Mikhal the daughter of Sha’ul, who, she bore to Adri’el the son of Barzillai the Mekholathite,
Mefibosheth must have been a common name in his family, for verse 7 makes it clear that these are two different men. Adri’el’s sons are left unnamed, but David probably chose them because his former wife (taken back from him by Sha’ul) had borne them to another man. It would be easier on David to not have to see this reminder of such an injustice; they would also be potentially interested in restoring Sha’ul’s throne as we saw Tziva accuse Mefibosheth of wanting to do in chapter 16. Yet 1 Shmu’el 18:19 says Adri’el was the husband of Mikhal’s sister Merav. It may be that Mikhal for some reason ended up raising them, or that she was the midwife at their birth; or this may be a scribal error that was never corrected. Mikhal was married off to one named Palti. (1 Shm. 25:44) Either way, these should have been David’s children and were not—though if they were still with Mikhal, it appears that David would have had to take them into his own household.
9. and handed them over to the Giv’onites, and they [hung them up to] let them [die] by exposure on the mountain before YHWH. And the seven fell together, and were put to death in the days of the harvest—in the first days of the chaff of the barley harvest.
Before YHWH: according to 1 Chron. 21:29, the Tabernacle was stationed at Giv’on at this time. This was at the beginning of the Counting of the Omer. The wheat harvest would therefore not have begun yet, so there was still hope that they could have some kind of grain crop that year. (Compare Ex. 9:32.)
10. Then Ritzpah the daughter of Ayah took the burlap and spread it out for herself on the rock from the opening of the harvest until water was poured out on them from the heavens, and did not allow [one] bird of the heavens to settle on them in the daytime or the beast of the field by night.
Burlap is the same as “sackcloth”, itself symbolic of mourning since it is so irritating to wear. On the rock: the place where the barley would have been threshed and winnowed. Water was poured: possibly the late rains that would bring the crops to final maturity. This was a very prolonged mourning.
11. And what Ritzpah, the daughter of Ayah, Sha’ul’s concubine, had done was reported to David.
The fact that she remained there the whole season might have touched David’s heart.
12. So David went and took the bones of Sha’ul and the bones of Y’honathan his son from the men of Yaveysh-Gil’ad, who had carried them away stealthily from the open plaza of Beyth-She’an, where the Filistines had hanged them on the day the Filistines had struck Sha’ul down at Gilboa.
13. And he brought the bones of Sha’ul and the bones of Y’honathan his son up from there when they gathered up the bones of those [who had been] hanged.
Though they had been given a decent burial (2:4), it was symbolic of the resurrection and regathering of all Israel for a dead person’s bones to be “gathered to his fathers” in the same tomb for a type of reunion, so this was the honorable thing to do.
14. And they buried the bones of Sha’ul and Y’honathan his son in the land of Binyamin, at Tzela in the tomb of his father Qish, and did all that the king commanded, and after this, Elohim accepted [his] pleadings on behalf of the Land.
Tzela means “a rib”, “limping”, “stumbling”, or “lame”. Apparently it was a sub-section or suburb of Giv’ah.
15. Then the Filistines again started a war with Israel, and David went down, his servants with him as well, and they fought with the Filistines. Then David began to fly away.
Fly away: some take it as a reference to becoming weary or faint.
16. And Yishbo-v’nov, who was of those born to the Rafah, the weight of whose spear was three hundred sheqels of bronze, and he was belted with a new [sword], and said to have David struck down.
Yishbo-v’nov means “His dwelling is at Nov”, a mountain town just north of Yerushalayim. Rafah means “he has healed” or “invigorated”, and refers here to the ancestor of a race of giants known as the Refa’im..
17. And Avishai the son of Tz’ruyah helped him by striking down the Filistine and killing him. At that [time], David’s men swore an oath to him, saying, “You should not go out with us to battle again, so you won’t extinguish the lamp of Israel.”
Lamp of Israel: a phrase previously only used of the Menorah in the Tabernacle. (Ex. 27:20) It appears that David was, in their opinion, getting too old for battle (compare v. 13), and they knew that if he died in battle, he could not choose his successor and Israel was likely to become subservient to another nation, in which case the Tabernacle service would probably not be allowed to continue. But if those closest to David saw him as so important that they called him the “lamp of Israel”—essentially the Torah fleshed out--we have a precedent in Israel for Yahshua’s being called the light by Yochanan, one of his closest followers, which thus delimits the parameters within which we must interpret his claims. Like Yahshua, David represented YHWH’s presence among men, because he was chosen as king when YHWH was already the King of Israel. We need to view claims about Yahshua in terms of such precedents rather than over-mystifying the hyperbolic statements made about him, which resulted in his being deified and thus becoming an idol and rival for YHWH.
18. But it turned out that after the same, war again broke out with the Filistines at Gov. Then Sibkhai struck down the Khushathite, that is, Saf, who was among those born to the Rafah.
Gov: the location is not known. Sibkhai means “a weaver”. Saf simply means “tall”—an understatement!
19. Then the battle with the Filistines started up again in Gov, and Elkhanan the son of Yaarey-Orgim the Beyth-Lekhemite struck down Golyath the Githite, the wooden [shaft] of whose javelin was like the beam in a weaver’s [loom].
Elkhanan means “Elohim has shown favor.” This appears to be another name for David. Yaarey-Orgim means “forests of weavers”, so he would be very familiar with the ize of a weaver’s beam! 1 Chron. 20:5-6 says that it was actually Lakhmi the brother (which can also mean any relative) of Golyath that Elkhanan killed—so a piece of the phrase is missing here. It could be that this “Rafah” mentioned several times here was none other than Golyath himself, and that these were his sons or nephews.
20. And war broke out again in Gath, and there was a man of measure, and he had six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet—24 in total—and he, too, had been born to the Rafah.
21. And he was taunting Israel, so Y’honathan the son of Shim’ai, David’s brother, struck him down.
Shim’ai: called Shammah in 1 Shmu’el 16:9. This is the same reason David had killed Golyath.
22. These four were born to the Rafah in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
He thus finished the job he had begun a generation before. As David got older, he saw more and more need to tie up loose ends like this (compare v. 13) and fixing what needed to be fixed partly recover his honor, especially after he had spent much of his “political capital” in the incident with Avshalom, and partly because it was the just thing to do.
CHAPTER 22
1. And David sang to YHWH the words of this song on the day YHWH snatched him out of the palm of [the hand of] all his enemies, [as He had] out of the hand of Sha’ul--
This is nearly identical to Psalm 18—the only sample we are given in the historical record. David seems to have added a preamble there before he submitted it to the Levitical choirs to be sung in the Tabernacle courts.
2. that is, he said, “YHWH is my cliff, my stronghold, and [the] one who brings me to safety--
Cliff: or crag, with the sense of being a secure place.
3. “the Elohim of my rock, to whom I can flee, my shield, and the horn of my deliverance, my inaccessibly high retreat, my refuge, my deliverer! You save me from violence!
Rock: somewhat interchangeable with the “cliff” in verse 2, because the rock that Moshe struck and was told to speak to the second time was called by both terms. (Ex. 17:6; Num. 20:8-11) But here he is comparing YHWH to an isolated mesa like Matzada, where he is out of his enemies’ reach. Horn: as in an animal horn, a symbol of strength.
4. “‘The One who is to be praised’ I will call YHWH, and I will be rescued from my enemies.
5. “When the breaking waves of death had encompassed me, the torrents of the worthless were suddenly overwhelming me,
The worthless: literally, those who do not ascend.
6. “the cords of the underworld were surrounding me, and the snares laid by death had forestalled me--
He paints a picture of tentacles trying to grab him and pull him down under the ground. Forestalled: anticipated my arrival and gotten in my way beforehand, preventing me from going any further.
7. “in what was dire straits for me I started calling out to YHWH, and cried out to my Elohim, and He heard my voice from His sanctuary; my cry for help [came] into His ears!
David was a great warrior, but he knew his limits and was well aware of the danger he faced at every turn. He recognizes YHWH’s hand in each circumstance that has turned out to his advantage. He does not allow anyone to believe that this was mere coincidence or even just his own prowess that has preserved his life. He gives credit where credit is due.
8. “Then the earth convulsed to and fro and trembled; the foundations of the sky were agitated and shook, because He was furious!
9. “Smoke rose up in His nostrils, and fire came out from His mouth to consume, and coals were kindled thereby!
He seems to be described a fire-breathing dragon that was suddenly aroused from slumber, shaking the rubble off itself! Such a sight was probably still occasionally seen in David’s day.
10. “He began to bend the sky, and came down, and there was thick darkness under His feet!
Bend the sky: as if forming a bridge from heaven to earth down which He could slide quickly to rescue David. There is also imagery here reminiscent of when YHWH gave the Torah at Mt. Sinai. He is aligning himself with who his fathers were, to bring his people clarity about who they were to be, and he goes all the way back to the source. He is identifying with his ancestors who were there, and seeing himself as having been there, as we must do as well, for they also obligated us to obey His commands at that time. (Deut. 29:10-15)
11. “He mounted a kh’ruv and flew, and was seen on the wings of the wind.
Kh’ruv: a six-winged class of angelic beings that guard YHWH’s throne. They were depicted on some of the curtains in the Tabernacle and Temple.
12. “While He was appointing darkness all around Him [as] sukkoth--accumulations of water and thick clouds of fine dust--
Sukkoth: booths or temporary dwellings, such as used at the feast by the same name. It obscured His face, upon which no one can look and remain alive. But David also knew that if we look for Him even in the darkest of places, we can find Him if we do not give up. He was sure YHWH heard him and was there to deliver him, and this kept him going.
13. “from the glowing that preceded Him, coals of fire were kindled!
That preceded: literally, across from, opposite, or in front of.
14. “YHWH started thundering from the heavens; that is, the Most High delivered His voice.
15. “He sent out arrows and caused them to scatter, flashes of lightning that confused them.
16. “The enclosures that restrain the sea became visible; the foundations of the habitable world were uncovered at YHWH’s rebuke, from the exhaling of breath from His nostrils!
It seems that the continental shelf or the local equivalent in smaller bodies of water was exposed by something that caused the water to retreat a considerable distance. This sounds like a description of one of the world-scale catastrophes that used to affect the land when Me’adim (Mars) used to cross earth’s orbit periodically prior to 701 B.C.E., causing massive tides not just in the waters but also in the very crust of the earth. He is also reiterating Israel’s history again, likening this to its “birth” through the waters at the Reed Sea as the “ancient spirit” blew them apart as well so all Israel could be delivered. Again he identifies with his ancestors’ experience, for he has gone through something similar.
17. “He sent [it] out from an elevated place; He snatched me up and drew me out of abundant waters.
18. “He let me be rescued from my fierce enemy, from those who hated me, because they were stronger than I!
Stronger: or more solid, stout, or firm—i.e., the giants spoken of in the previous chapter.
19. “They had pre-empted me on the day of my calamity, but YHWH was my support.
20. “He brought me out into a roomy place; He pulled me out because He was pleased with me.
Roomy: as opposed to the dire straits (tight spots, narrow places) he had been in just beforehand. (v. 7) From such a wide-open place he would have ample warning if his enemy was approaching.
21. “YHWH repaid me fully according to my righteous [acts]; He gave back to me to the extent that my hands were purified,
This is why YHWH paid such close attention to him. Like Cornelius, he had earned it. (Acts 10:1-4; compare Yochanan 10:17; 14:21.)
22. “since I have treasured up the ways of YHWH, and not wickedly [gone away] from my Elohim
This is exactly what the Torah told him to do, so he quotes in the perfect tense as a completed fact since he indeed did what it said.
23. “because all of His legal procedures [had been right] in front of me; I did not turn aside from them.
As king he was required to keep a copy of the Torah with him every day. (Deut. 17:18-19) He learned it well and kept it his focus, so he would not stray from it. (Compare Psalm 119.)
24. “So I will completely belong to Him, and will keep myself from my perversion.
We owe Him this, even if simply out of gratefulness.
25. “And YHWH will bring back to me according to my righteous [acts]—according to my cleanness in front of His eyes.
In all his years as a warrior, only once had he shed innocent blood. (Chapter 11)
26. “With the kind, You prove Yourself kind; with those of integrity, You prove Yourself to have integrity.
27. “With those who have purified themselves, You show Yourself as pure, but with the crooked, You prove Yourself [able to] twist.
Does this sound contradictory? No, it just means YHWH can outdo anyone’s trickery by forestalling them just as David’s enemies had tried to do to him. He can “tie them in knots” if they think they can elude His eyes by their fancy footwork. People tend to try to force YHWH into their own image, and if they seek to “pull one over on Him”, He will show that He can outdo them; He will leave them with only the twisted version of who He is, sending them a strong delusion that they might believe they have evidence for the lie that they prefer. (2 Thessalonians 2:11) He is open in His dealings with those who will not abuse the knowledge He provides, but keeps others in the dark about His plans.
28. While You will let the afflicted people be liberated, Your eyes are on the ‘high [and mighty]’; You will bring them to a lower place,
29. “because You are my lamp, O YHWH! And YHWH will illuminate what is obscure for me,
Obscure: or simply, dark. Those closest to David thought he was the lamp (21:17), but through this song he corrected their focus, as Yahshua also did. (Yochanan 5:30; 8:28)
30. “since through You I can [out]run a [whole] army division; through my Elohim I can leap over a wall!
Outrun an army division: or, run up against a band.
31. “[As for] the Elohim, His way is sound. The [spoken] word of YHWH is [tested and] proven; He is a shield to all who seek refuge in Him.
Sound: having integrity, unimpaired, completely in accord with the facts.
32. “Because who is an El other than YHWH? And who is a rock except our Elohim?
33. “The [one and only] Elohim is my capable protection, and He unties [those who are] blameless [in] His way,
Or, He causes those who are blameless [in] His way to spring up.
34. “making my feet like [the feet of] does, and He will make me stand on my high ridges,
Like the feet of does: sure-footed, and always climbing higher. A cloven hoof does not get stuck in the mud. High ridges: The most advantageous places militarily, and sadly the very strongholds modern Yehudah has allowed the Palestinians to control.
35. “training my hands for the battle, so that my arms can stretch a bow of bronze.
Training: includes the elements of exercise and prodding, not just instruction. A bronze bow is harder to stretch than a wooden one.
36. “You will also provide me with the shield of Your deliverance, and Your condescension will make me become great.
Condescension: literally, stooping low. I.e., when YHWH stoops to our level to pay us attention and help us, we can be raised higher.
37. “You enlarge my steps beneath me, so that my ankles have not slipped [out of joint].
Steps: or pace, stride. If the place we need to run on is not amply wide, the ankle may be dislodged more easily if one maintains the same pace of running. David is very specific in his thanks to YHWH, seeing His hand in every detail!
38. “I can pursue my enemies and devastate them, and not return until I finish them off.
39. “I can bring them to an end and wound them [so] severely that they cannot get up, but will fall beneath my feet.
40. “Indeed, You will equip me with ability to do battle; those who [persistently] rise up against me You will cause to crouch beneath me.
This does not sound like a “religious” motive, but it is part of being able to guard the Torah, which YHWH tells us over and over to do. David spent much of the time while he was waiting to be made king finishing the job Y’hoshua and his successors had been unable to or failed to do, in ridding the Land of the peoples that YHWH had said to utterly destroy. (1 Shmu’el 27:8-11) As his passion for YHWH increased, so did his desire to rid his people of these threats that still remained, and now he had finished the job.
41. “You have also given me the back of my enemies’ necks, so that I could put an end to those who hate me.
42. “They were looking around, but there was no deliverer—toward YHWH, but He did not respond to them.
If there is “personal salvation” anywhere in Scripture it is here, because YHWH chose between two different groups who were calling on Him, and recognized some as rightly-motivated and other not. So He was selective in whom He responds to, sometimes even having to sacrifice one for the sake of the other. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 43:3-4)
43. “So I will pulverize them like the dust of the earth; I will crush them like the muck [in] a street, and spread them out thinly.
Since YHWH gave them no reprieve or consideration, David knew he did not need to either. This is very “politically incorrect” today, but David is not ashamed of it, because He knows it does not offend YHWH, who calls Himself “YHWH [Master of] Armies” (i.e., the General) more than by any other title.
44. “You will also let me safely slip away from the disputes of my people. You will retain me as head of nations; a people I have not known will serve me.
Not only foreigners have oppressed him; many fools in his own nation had put him at a disadvantage also (Shim’i in 16:9 and Sheva in chapter 20, not to mention all who opposed him during Sha’ul’s reign), but YHWH did not let this remain the case. Head of nations: This is also a Messianic prophecy, for David is living out many of the experiences of his chosen descendant. Because he loves YHWH and is so faithful to carry out His orders, YHWH gives him a bonus gift of the rulership of the whole world as well. (Yeshayahu 49:6)
45. “The children of a foreigner will [cringe and] feign obedience to me; upon the hearing of the ear, they will have yielded to me.
I.e., no sooner will they be spoken to than they will at least pretend to obey, for they know that he has a rod of iron, and if they are caught, they, not the standard, will be broken.
46. “The sons of the foreigner will wither away, and [come] bound from their prisons.
Wither away: or fade, droop, sink down. Bound: or, belted; alt., trembling. Prisons: or, fastnesses, tightly-closed places, probably places they had hidden from David but were discovered and now have no choice but to surrender. Ithai the Githite (15:9) and many other foreigners had joined his army and now had much better lives than before.
47. “YHWH is alive! And may my Rock be blessed, and may the Elohim of the rock of my safety be raised up high--
48. “the El who provides vengeance for me, and who brings peoples down beneath me!
49. “Who brings me out from [among] my enemies, and You will lift me above those who rise up against me; You will snatch me away from the man of cruel injustices.
50. “Therefore I will thank you, O YHWH, among the nations, and I will sing [praises and play music] to Your Name!
51. “He is a tower of salvation [to] His king, who brings about kindness toward the one He anointed—to David and his seed until [and including] the age!”
Tower: In ancient Israel, they usually had a door on the first level that could be locked, and either an interior or exterior second floor from which one could watch his flocks, herds, or vineyards, to be on the lookout for enemies, robbers, or predators. In a way this is David’s “swan song” as he is approaching the last years of his life, so he summarizes his life in this song for all Israel to preserve, and includes YHWH’s promise of the continuance of his dynasty, which will be given its ultimate permanence through Yahshua.
CHAPTER 23
1. Now these are the very last words of David—the utterances of David the son of Yishai, that is, the declaration of the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the Elohim of Yaaqov, and the delightful instrumentalist of Israel:
The very last words: Yet the next chapter describes another incident in his life, so it is not in chronological order, unless the next chapter was appended later. Anointed: Heb., mashiakh. So we see many of the same claims being made for David as for Yahshua. These set the precedents and parameters for how the same claims about Yahshua should be understood. Delightful instrumentalist: or, sweet singer.
2. “The Spirit of YHWH has spoken through me, and His speech is on my tongue!
This in itself is an amazing privilege worthy of much pondering. But it highlights the fact that this quote is to be read in light of David’s role as prophet as well as king.
3. “The Elohim of Israel spoke; the Rock of Israel said to me, ‘The one among human beings who rules righteously governs [with the] fear of Elohim
4. “‘and is like the light of the morning [when] the sun breaks forth—a morning with no clouds. Due to the bright shining after a rain, new vegetation [comes] out of the earth!’
Contrast the other dynasties of the world and the darkness they so often create for their subjects. David is laying out the rules and standards for his successors, who are responsible to maintain the righteous throne he established. (See v. 5.) The fact that they let the ball drop at some points sets the stage for its re-establishment, described in Yeshayahu/Isaiah 16:5.
5. “For isn’t my house the same way with Elohim? Because He has appointed for me an eternal covenant, set in order in all things and protected, because of all my deliverance and all [that brings] delight, for won’t He make it [spring up and] grow?
House: Compare Luke 2:4.
6. “But the worthless—all of them will be chased away like thornbushes, since they cannot be picked up by hand,
7. “but the men who touch them must be complemented with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they will be completely burned up with fire at the place [where they sit].”
David would arrange, from his deathbed, for some of these worthless men to indeed be swept away. ((2 Kings 2:5-9) Compare Yahshua’s parable of the wheat and darnel in Mat. 13:24.
8. These are the names of the heroes who belonged to David: Yoshev Basheveth the Thakhmonite, head of the three; he was [called] Adino the Etzniu [“ornament of the strong spear”] on account of the eight hundred he mortally wounded on one occasion.
9. Then after him was El’azar the son of Dodho the son of Akhokhi, among the three heroes [who were] with David when they taunted the Filistines who were gathered there for battle, while the men of Israel were going up.
Taunted: as a decoy to distract the Filistines’ attention. This seems suicidal, but they were willing to do this so the rest of the army could sneak past to a better position—truly having the whole of Israel’s advantage in view.
10. He rose up and attacked the Filistines until his hand stuck to the sword because his hand was exhausted, and YHWH brought about a great victory on that day, and the people only went back after him to strip [the slain].
Because: or possible, though. The former possibility suggests that his hand became so bloodied that this is what made it stick to the sword. One must wonder if he even had use of it after that, since “exhausted” can also mean “used up”. If not, he was a hero because he made such a sacrifice.
11. And after him was Shammah the son of Agé Harari. When the Filistine beast was gathered where there was a portion of a field full of lentils, the people fled from the presence of the Filistines,
Shammah means “Astonishing”. Agé means “I will increase”. Harari means “mountain-dweller”. Beast: literally, living thing, but often used when describing people as “animals”. This is reminiscent of the animals that get out of their pen and eat from a neighbor’s field. (Ex. 22:5) Here, they are sent back to their Master in a different way!
12. but he stood his ground in the middle of the parcel [of land] and recovered it and struck down the Filistines, and YHWH brought about a great victory.
Notice that YHWH gets the credit for the victories, but the heroic men initiate them.
13. Then three of the thirty head [men] went down and came to David toward the [time of] harvest at the Cave of Adullam, and the Filistine beast was encamping in the Valley of R’fa’im.
Adullam means “justice of the people”. This was immediately after David feigned madness before King Akhish of the Filistines, and was the place where his “motley crew” of debtors and social outcasts began to join him (1 Shmu’el 22), and many of the heroes listed here were probably among them, for the 30 captains are mentioned already at this time in 1 Chron. 11:15. This cave appears again in prophecies about David’s heir, the “glory of Israel”. (Mikha 1:15) The place may again be exalted just because David once hid there.
14. Now at that time David was in the stronghold, and the Filistine garrison was at Beyth Lechem.
It was at this time that David’s family all vacated the city and came out to join him. (1 Shmu’el 22:1)
15. And David had a craving and began to say, “Who could get me a drink of water from the well that is by the gate of Beyth-Lechem?”
16. So the three heroes made a breach in the Filistine camp and drew water from the well that is by the gate of Beyth-Lechem, and pulled it up and brought it to David. But he was unwilling to drink it, but poured it out [as a libation] to YHWH,
To him this was just a nostalgic longing—“Oh, if only I could drink from that well again!”—but they took him seriously and risked their lives just to please him (and he was not even a woman!)
17. and said, “It would be a desecration for me to do this, O YHWH; isn’t it the [life]blood of the men who [risked] their lives to go?” So he was not willing to drink it. These are [the things] the three heroes accomplished.
18. Also, Avishai, the brother of Yo’av the son of Tz’ruyah, he was the head of the three, and he brandished his spear against three hundred, mortally wounding [them], and he had a reputation among the three.
The three: apparently he was the “supervisor” of the above three. (Verse 19 explains the relationship.) Or this is a second group of three. Brandished: or, incited, awakened, aroused.
19. From among the three, wasn’t he the most honorable? And he came to serve as a leader to them, but he did not attain to as much as the [first] three.
20. Then Benayahu the son of Yehoyada from Qabtze’el, son of a lively man of great accomplishments: he struck down two lion-[like] judges of Moav, then he went down and struck down the lion inside a well on a snowy day!
Accomplishments: or, acquisitions. As if it was not enough to kill the men who had the reputation as being lions, he decided to kill a real lion just so the claim could be true in every sense! He was apparently showing off just to prove how brave he was.
21. He also attacked a phenomenal Egyptian man who had a spear in his hand, and he went down to him with a club, and tore the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with his own spear!
Phenomenal: literally, a man of appearance, a spectacle of a man.
22. These are [the things] Benayahu the son of Yehoyada did, and he had a reputation as [respected] among the three heroes.
23. He was honored more [highly] than the thirty, but he did not come close to the three. And David appointed him to his bodyguard.
All their accomplishments were military—not a popular thing today, especially since the wars were religiously-motivated. But that is just the point. They, like David, were simply finishing the job YHWH had given Y’hoshua: to rid the holy Land of pagan terrorizers who only wanted to steal it from those YHWH had deeded it to.
24. Asah’el [Elohim has accomplished] the brother of Yo’av was among the thirty; [also] Elkhanan [El has shown favor] the son of Dodho of Beyth Lechem,
These men, today, would be tried for “war crimes” by the World Court or by armchair analysts! Yet in Scripture the real heroes are those who are allowed to see people as enemies and actually get the job done for the nation. The only major group who understands this today are Muslims, whom others try to deny are enemies, despite so much clear evidence to the contrary.
25. Shammah [the Harodite, Eliqa [my Elohim rejects] the Harodite,
Eyn Harod (on the border between the territories of Menashe and Yissakhar) was the spring where Gid’on narrowed his army down to 300 men. (Judges 7)
26. Kheletz [he has equipped] the Paltite, Ira [watchful of a city] the son of Iqesh [twisted] the T’qoite,
Kheletz was apparently from Beyth-Palet, in Binyamin. The prophet Amos was also a T’qoite.
27. Aviezer [my father helps] the Anathothite, M’vunai [established] the Khushathite,
Anathoth was a Binyamite city 3 miles from Yerushalayim, appointed to the priests, and the birthplace of the prophet Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah).
28. Tzalmon [shady] the Akhokhite, Maharai [impetuous] the Netofathite,
29. Khelev [choicest] the son of Baanah [in poverty] the Netofathite, Ithai [with me] the son of Rivai [pleader with YHWH] from Giv’ah of the sons of Binyamin,
Netofah was a town in Yehudah. Ithai was from King Sha’ul’s hometown.
30. Benayahu [YHWH has built] the Pirathonite, Hiddai [for the rejoicing of YHWH] from the river-valleys of Gaash,
Above on the mountain of Gaash (in the land of Efrayim), Y’hoshua was buried. Growing up with this reminder of him constantly in sight may have been what inspired Hiddai to such exploits.
31. Avi-Albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth [strong as death] the Barkhumite.
Avi-Albon was apparently from Beyth-Aravah, in either Yehudah or Binyamin. Barkhumite: possibly transposed from the town of Bakhurim, which was in Binyamin close to what is known today as the Wadi Qelt (between Yerushalayim and Y’rikho).
32. Elyakhba [my Elohim hides Himself] the Shaalbonite [of the] sons of Yashen [sleeping], Y’honathan [YHWH has provided],
A Shaalbonite may have been from Shaalbim in the land of Dan (near modern Tel Aviv), which was then occupied by the Emorites. Thus Elyakhba himself might have been an Emorite mercenary. Here we see many of the foreigners who joined David, possibly because they knew that if they fought along with him, they would be remembered and die with honor. They all seem to have been with him from the earliest days, when he was a “warlord”, before he was king. So they were in it with him for the long haul, and were loyal from the very start of his military career. Their reward is great. Not only are they listed in the “Book of Life”; their descendants were probably well cared for by David’s.
33. Shammah the Hararite, Akhi’am [brother of my mother] the son of Sharar the Ararite,
Hararite: someone from the mountains.
34. Elifelet [my Elohim delivers] the son of Ahasbai [brother of those who encompass me], the son of the Maakhathite, Eli-Am [Elohim of the people] the son of Akhithofel [my brother is unseasoned] the Gilonite,
Maakhathite: probably from the same people as Avshalom’s father-in-law, who dwelt in what is now the Golan Heights. Though Akhithofel himself deserted David, his son apparently made up for this by his own loyalty. Eli-Am was the father of David’s wife, Bath-sheva. (11:3) Gilo is in Yehudah, between Yerushalayim and Beyth-Lekhem.
35. Khetzrai [enclosed] the Karmelite, Paarai [wide open] the Arbite,
Arbite: probably from Kiryath-Arba, that is, Hevron.
36. Yig’al [he redeems] the son of Nathan from Tzovah, Bani [built] the Gadite,
It seems most modern Israeli archaeologists are named after Yig’al! Tzovah is part of Aram, or Syria—so he is yet another foreigner.
37. Tzeleq [split or fissure] the Ammonite, Nakharai the Be’erothite, the armor-bearer [for] Yo’av the son of Tz’ruyah,
An Ammonite was a descendant of Lot’s son/grandson—again, not born an Israelite, but who chose to become one.
38. Ira the Yithrite, Garev [itchy] the Yithrite,
These seem to have been descendants of Yithro, Moshe’s father-in-law--Midyanites.
39. [and] Uriyah the Hittite—37 in all.
A foreigner again, though we know how loyal he was to David from chapter 11. A great name (reputation) is greater than wealth (Prov. 22:1), and all of these men had just that. The bravest are at the top of the list. They are still remembered thousands of years later because they were not afraid to define who their enemies were and to do something about it. Many of the same people were in charge of the guards who served the king a month at a time throughout the course of the year. (1 Chron. 27) Only 36 are actually listed here, unless we are to include David himself, or Yo’av, who is only mentioned indirectly as related to two of the others, but though he fell out of favor with David, we know he was one of his greatest warriors.
CHAPTER 24
1. Once again YHWH’s anger was kindled against Israel, and He provoked David against them, saying, “Go, take a count of Israel and Yehudah.”
1 Chronicles 21 gives many more details about this account, though there seem to be many discrepancies about details. 1 Chron. 27:23-24 speaks of another census that David decided not to take, and that Yo’av decided to carry out, but which was cut short by YHWH. This could explain the “once again” here, but that account also says that tally was not included in the chronicles. So these are probably two accounts of the same event, and either one of them was more firsthand and the other was passed down orally and lost some accuracy, or they are described from two different perspectives including different ways of counting, which will be brought out where pertinent. Against Israel: There is no mention of Yehudah here as there is later in the verse, so the northern kingdom is apparently the main target. 1 Chronicles says haSatan (the adversary or accuser) motivated this; we must thus deduce that he was YHWH’s tool to get David to put the “last straw” on the camel’s back so the cup of wrath would be full.
2. So David said to Yo’av, the captain of the army, who was with him, “Please go around through all the tribes of Israel, all the way from Dan to Be’er-sheva, and review the people so that I can know the [total] number of the people.”
David apparently felt that something was amiss, and, being a warrior, assumed that this premonition was of some threat from outside. So he dealt with it in the way he usually had done—by preparing his troops for battle, making sure the war machine was in place. YHWH had commanded a census before Y’hoshua brought all Israel into the Land, but now they are already securely in the Land and YHWH has given David rest from his enemies; there was really no reason for this. Dan to Be’er-sheva: an idiom for the whole country, since they are at the extreme north and south of the Land. Review: visit, tap, register, or muster.
3. But Yo’av said to the king, “But may YHWH your Elohim add more like them a hundred times over while my king’s eyes [can still] see! So my master, why does the king find pleasure in this thing?”
Yo’av was not mentioned in David’s list of top brass in chapter 23, yet he is clearly still in charge. senses that there is something wrong wit this decision, and says in essence, “Are you sure?” since there were no signs of a military buildup or mutiny brewing anywhere. 1 Chron. 21:3 specifically says he knew it would be a “cause for trespass” for the whole nation.
4. Yet the king’s word was firm toward Yo’av, and over the officers of the army, so Yo’av and the officers of the army went out [from] the king’s presence to visit the people, that is, Israel.
David was used to using the sword as solution, so he insisted, leaning on the knowledge of how many troops he had. What he fails to do is ask YHWH.
5. They also crossed the Yarden and camped at Aroer, to the right side of the city, which is in the River-Valley belonging to Gad, as well as to Yaazer.
Right side: That is, southward from.
6. Then they came into Gil’ad and the land of the lowest moon, then they came into Dan-Yaan, and circled around toward Tzidon.
Land of the lowest moon: or, land beneath the moon, or “land that replaces renewal”. Dan-Yaan means “judgment because of it”. This could be taken both as a place name and as part of the story, as we will see. Tzidon is on the coast in what is now Levanon.
7. Then they came to the fortified city of Tzur, and all the cities of the Hiwites and Kanaanites, then went out to the Negev of Yehudah at Be’er Sheva,
These places went far beyond the command to number from Dan to Be’ersheva, indicating that there must have been enough Israelites either garrisoned or living among the Gentiles, where there was much greater likelihood of intermarriage or other forms of being influenced by the pagans around them.
8. and when they had gone to and fro throughout the whole Land, they came to Yerushalayim at the end of nine months and twenty days.
It took this long to visit all the troops, but by this time it should have been clear to David that the threat was not external, but came from within Israel. There are a number of reasons YHWH would be displeased with them. They had twice shown great disloyalty to their king and rebelled by going after Avshalom, then Sheva. This had nothing to do with the number of troops he might need. David also had, since Avshalom first revolted, distanced himself from the people, and feeling that he had already shed enough blood, become slack about ruling them, giving a blank-check forgiveness to people who did not merit it, and was not disciplining where he should. The smoothed-over “peace” between the two kingdoms was somewhat of an illusion, for underneath they clearly remained ready to be at each other’s throats in an instant when given any reason. When we have such unrest in our spirits, we should never assume it is not ourselves YHWH might be displeased about, or even use an outside event as an excuse to turn all our attention there. We should examine our own hearts first, not look for a scapegoat.
9. Then David gave the king the [total] sum of the mustering of the people, and Israel came to 800,000 soldiers who [could] draw the sword, and the men of Yehudah [numbered] 500,000 men.
Mustering, for he was counting specifically to know how many men of fighting age (twenty through fifty) there were, so he could compare his army to others around him. Note that he still distinguishes between Yehudah and Israel, even when the kingdom was united, yet still today most people equate the two and forget the Northern Kingdom completely. 1 Chronicles 21 lists 1,100,000 for Israel and 470,000 for Yehudah, possibly explained by his not counting mercenary soldiers in this list, and including them in the other.
10. But David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people, and David said to YHWH, “I have really missed the target [in] what I have done, but now, O YHWH, please let Your servant’s guilt be taken away, because I have acted very foolishly.”
Taken away: literally, made to cross over.
11. When David got up in the morning, the word of YHWH came to Gad the prophet, David’s seer, saying,
12. “Go, and tell David: ‘This is what YHWH says: “I am setting three [things] upon you; choose one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.”
This was not exactly “three wishes”, but YHWH respected David enough to give him a choice of punishment and to warn him of what was coming:
13. So Gad approached David and told him, “Shall seven years of famine in your Land come to you? Or [would you rather] flee before your oppressor while he pursues you? Or should there be three days of pestilence in your Land? Now consider, and see what word I should take back to the One who sent me.”
No matter which he chose, his actions would now affect many people.
14. So David said to Gad, “[This is] a great distress for me! Please let me fall into the hand of YHWH, because His compassions are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of a human.”
If there were a famine, he would be at the mercy of other nations’ generosity, which he did not count on, and if there was an enemy pursuing him, they might actually capture him, especially at his age. So, inclined to Torah as he was, he wisely chose the punishment YHWH had already prescribed for such an act in the Torah. (Exodus 30:12) He had not assessed the ½-sheqel payment from each of those counted, which would remind them each that they were incomplete as individuals. In the last chapter, he listed numerous mighty men and their war stories and exploits. They were impressive individuals, but that is precisely the problem. The people were praising the men’s skill, not YHWH. He was focused on the warriors, not the army, as if individuals could do the job by themselves. Many of them were not even Israelites, but everyone was wallowing in their greatness, so David decided to number all who could fight, since he assumed there must be more like them. David had taught the people the wrong thing, for when we are counted as one, we need to give back half because we are only half. We need the strengths of the rest of Israel to be able to be our best for YHWH. Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis echoed this concept by answering people’s questions about whether her suffering in the Holocaust weakened her faith in Elohim with the fact that it instead made her realize it was humanity she could not trust. But David himself brings about the balance to this by noting that it was a hasty conclusion of his that all men were deceitful (Psalm 116:11). He did end on a note of hope and willingness to worship YHWH publicly in the midst of His people rather than becoming a hermit once he saw how fickle human nature is. As He told Eliyahu, YHWH always has some kind of remnant.
15. So YHWH appointed a pestilence in Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and of the people, 70,000 men died from Dan to Be’er-Sheva.
Pestilence: or plague, especially as found among cattle, but not limited to this. 70,000: This is one of the few things this account and 1 Chronicles agree on. Just when David had his total, his numbers were reduced. This may have been the price that had to be paid for the cleansing of a place where all 70 nations listed in Gen. 10 could come and pray. Appointed time: The same term used for one of YHWH’s festivals. Since the terms for plague and pestilence are the same ones used of the ten plagues in Egypt, this appears to be a repetition of the Passover event, wit the “death angel” and all, though this time the brunt of his activity affects Israel, not Egypt. Were all those who died firstborns of their families?
16. When the messenger sent out his hand to destroy Yerushalayim, YHWH began to be moved to pity in regard to the calamity, and said to the messenger that was ruining the nation, “Now it is [too] much! Withdraw your hand!” when the messenger had come within the threshing-floor of Awarnah the Y’vusite.
YHWH had said three days, but it seemed the plague was going to on beyond that. We know tat the response of people to His prophecies can change the outcome, as seen with Yonah, and apparently Israel had not learned her lesson yet, for though David had bravely said he would take the punishment, the plague was not about punishment, but about discipline which solves the problem from inside by correcting us in the process. He may have recognized that David needed to be pushed to inquire of Him. Though the prophesied period of the Northern Kingdom’s punishment is up, it does not mean we are ready to return to the Land. Messenger: not necessarily an angel, but possibly a natural force of some sort that YHWH was using to bring destruction on a massive scale in such a short time. It may have even been one of the many planetary-scale catastrophes such as YHWH used to destroy the armies that came against Y’hoshua and against Hizqiyahu, as well as what brought the intensity of plagues in Egypt and even the deluge in Noach’s day. If so, YHWH knew it was coming and that it would affect Israel in some way, so early on (v. 1) He set the process rolling that would give Him a valid reason to allow it. From verse 13 we can see that He still could have shifted the other heavenly body sufficiently that the outcome would be very different depending on what David chose. In His mercy, YHWH put David’s focus back on this major piece of unfinished business. While he had made other preparations for the Temple to be built by Shlomo, he did not even possess the site yet!
17. Now when he saw the messenger that was striking down [many] among the people, David spoke to YHWH and said, “Here I am! I have sinned! And I myself have acted in a crooked manner! But these—the flock—what have they done? Please let Your hand come to be [only] on me and on my father’s household!”
18. And Gad came to David that day and told him, “Go up, set up an altar to YHWH on the threshingfloor of Aranyah the Y’vusite.”
The difference in the spelling of Arwanah’s name is in the Hebrew text. This threshing-floor was on bedrock on a hill that sat higher than the one the city was on, so the wind could easily blow across it to sort out the wheat from the chaff when winnowing, which would have been done at the same place the threshing was done. Threshing would be easiest on bedrock, as none of the kernels would have gotten lost in any cracks or fall in among loose soil. The term Y’vusites literally means “those who tread out the grain”, so they were actually defined by this very threshing-floor. That is why they have not left, though David had conquered the city. Where else could they carry out their calling? But as valid as that may have been, it had to come to an end, for the place where Avraham had offered Yitzhaqand Yaaqov had had his vision was still in the hands of foreigners. They had to be ousted, for this simply did not do the place justice. But because of the character of such people as Araunah, it would not have been right to just take it by force.
19. So David went up according to Gad’s word, as YHWH had commanded.
20. When Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants on their way up to him, Araunah went out and did homage to the king with his nostrils to the earth.
This is a third spelling of this man’s name in the Hebrew text of the chapter, and it is spelled yet a fourth way in 1 Chronicles 21, which has him out threshing his grain when he sees the messenger coming with his sword drawn, and runs for cover with his four sons before he sees David coming.
21. Then Araunah said, “Why has my master the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshingfloor from you to build an altar to YHWH so the plague may be restrained from [being] upon the people.”
This is where the greater altar would be built by his son.
22. But Araunah said to David, “Let my master the king take and offer up whatever is right in his eyes; look, [here are] the oxen to offer up and the threshing-sledge or the oxen’s equipment for the [kindling] sticks!
The urgency and duress that is better described in 1 Chronicles shows up here in that he offers the materials closest at hand, rather than the best things for the job, since he recognizes that haste is of essence, since something must be done quickly to stave off the destroyer.
23. “O king, Araunah donates all [of these] to the king!” And Araunah said to the king, “May YHWH your Elohim be pleased with you!”
24. But the king said to Araunah, “No, because I will certainly acquire it from you for a price, nor will I offer up to YHWH my Elohim ascending-offerings that cost me nothing!” So David bought the threshing-floor, and the oxen with fifty sheqels of silver.
This alone should nip in the bud the “easy-believism” of modern Christianity. It highlights the fact that what costs us nothing seems of little value to us. Of course there are times when we need from Him far more than we could possibly ever pay, and YHWH understands that, but David was in a position to pay, so he might be tempted to later think there was “nothing to it” since the plague would have ended so easily. Ascending is never so easy. Our ancestors in the wilderness were given plunder by Egypt, but it was not exactly free, since they had been slaves to them for so long. Now that it seemed they had finally gotten what they deserved, they were asked to give it for the Tabernacle. While in His role as Father, YHWH might accept less than best from His children who make Him a gift from whatever they have on hand, as a King, He could not, as Malakhi 1:8 shows. David understands this well; after all, he, too, is a king! Of course, for David to pay, he had to deny Araunah the blessing of giving. There may be several reasons for this. For Araunah, this piece of property was probably his most valued possession, and David assumed it would definitely have caused him hardship for him to give it away. While Araunah is loyal to the one he recognizes as his king—an honorable thing in itself—he does not appear to own YHWH as his Elohim as well (v. 23), so his generosity is only toward David, not YHWH, and YHWH could not accept such an important thing from an unbeliever as a gift. Like Avraham, he did not want to say anyone else but YHWH had made him rich. There is another important benefit in David having purchased this field, for this site would later become the Temple Mount, which is the most hotly-disputed part of Yerushalayim since the Muslims now occupy it. But just like Sh’khem and the Cave of Makhpelah in Hevron, which the patriarchs bought, there should be no question who owns it, because the title deed goes to David’s descendants who inherited the throne after him. If it had been a gift, they might have been able to argue that it had been rescinded. So it will one day be Yahshua’s property. 1 Chron. 21:25 says he paid 600 sheqels for it—a much worthier price for what it would become. So the 50 sheqels noted here might have been over and above that—i.e., it was only what was paid for the oxen and implements.
25. And David built an altar there to YHWH and offered up ascending and completion [offerings], and YHWH was [effectively] pleaded with on behalf of the Land, and the plague was restrained.
Pleaded with: i.e., He was satisfied with this offering—probably all the more so after David voiced his philosophy of giving to YHWH. This was truly a man after His heart indeed! A completion (or peace) offering was one in which David would share by eating of it. 1 chronicles 21 also says David had brought the elders up with him to witness the purchase, so they too would have shared in this covenant meal just as the 70 elders did with Moshe and Aharon on a different “mountain of Elohim” when another covenant was being cut. As in Hizqiyahu’s day and in the 6-Day War of 1967, though much of the Land was ravaged, the holiest city was spared destruction.
INTRODUCTION: This book begins where I Shmu’el leaves off—when David is told of King Sha’ul’s death, very close to 1000 B.C.E. Why is the book named after Shmu’el when Shmu’el has already died before it begins? Shouldn’t it be called the Book of David instead? That is whom it is mainly about. But Shmu’el was responsible for putting David in his position, as he had been for Sha’ul. The division of the book of Shmu’el into two parts originated with the Greek Septuagint (LXX) in the second century B.C.E. It was not until the 15th century C.E. (A.D.) that it was divided into two parts in the Hebrew scriptures.
THE SECOND BOOK OF
Shmu'el
the prophet
Chapter 22 is a special haftarah (companion passage) for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
