Joab. — The books of Samuel have brought out clearly the career and character of Joab, as being (in some degree like Abner) a professed soldier, raised to a formidable and half-independent power by the incessant wars of Saul and David. He stands out in consistent portraiture throughout, as a bold, hard, and unscrupulous man; in his relations to the king often imperious and disobedient; but nevertheless an absolutely loyal servant, to whom, in great degree, the establishment of David’s throne was due, and who, moreover (as is shown by his remonstrance against the numbering of the people, recorded in 2 Samuel 24:3; 1 Chronicles 21:3; 1 Chronicles 21:6), was not without some right instincts of policy and of duty to God.
Abiathar the priest. — Of Abiathar we also know that he had been the companion of all David’s adversity, and of his reign at Hebron (1 Samuel 22:20; 1 Samuel 23:6; 1 Samuel 23:9; 1 Samuel 30:7; 2 Samuel 2:1-4); that he was in-installed (with Zadok) as high priest at Jerusalem, and remained faithful to David in the rebellion of Absalom (2 Samuel 8:17; 2 Samuel 15:24-29).
The adhesion of these two faithful servants of David, as also of “the king’s sons,” and “the men of Judah, the king’s servants,” to the rash usurpation of Adonijah, seems strange at first sight. Probably Joab had never recovered his position in the king’s favour since the death of Absalom; and it is possible that the evident growth of despotic power and state in David’s latter years may have alienated from him the trusty friends of earlier and simpler days. But the true explanation would seem to be, that the attempt of Adonijah was not viewed as an actual rebellion. Solomon was young; David’s designation of him for the succession might be represented as the favouritism of dotage; and the assumption of the crown by the eldest son, a man in the prime of life and of popular qualities, might seem not only justifiable, but even right and expedient.