CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES.—
2 Samuel 16:5. “Bahurim.” (See note on 2 Samuel 3:16).
2 Samuel 16:6. “On his right hand,” etc. i.e., “On the right and left of the king.” (Keil).
2 Samuel 16:7. “Come out,” etc., or “Away, away” “Thou bloody man.” “He may possibly have attributed to David the murder of Ishbosheth and Abner.” (Keil.) “Other, less probably, think also of Saul and Jonathan, and even of Uriah.” (Erdmann.)
2 Samuel 16:8. “The Lord,” etc. “Shimei is so far devout and religious that he ascribes the present state of things wholly to Jehovah, but he ignores Samuel’s sentence of rejection (1 Samuel 15) and otherwise shows a bad spirit.” (Translator of Lange’s Commentary). “Taken in thy mischief,” rather “thou art in thy misfortune.”
2 Samuel 16:10. “What have I?” etc. Lit., “What to me and you?” i.e., what feelings and desires have we in common. It is evident that Joab also desired to put Shimei to death. “The Lord hath said,” etc. “By allowing him to do so. Since nothing happens against, or without the will of Him.” (Wordsworth.) In the East they make use of bold figures, much less common among us, although not altogether unknown. They speak of the mediate cause without saying it is the mediate cause, and use the very expression which denotes the immediate cause. We should regard Shimei as an instrument in the hands of Providence. In the East they go a far greater length. There God has done and commanded all that men do contrary to His commandments.” (Jamieson.)
2 Samuel 16:12. “Affliction.” Some translate this word into “eye,” and understand David to refer to his tears; but the correct translation appears to be “iniquity,” on which Erdmann remarks, “God’s looking upon his iniquity” can then only be a gracious and merciful looking.
2 Samuel 16:14. “Weary.” Ayephim. Most scholars regard this as the name of a place since, if it is rendered weary, there is no mention of the place referred to by the word there. Jamieson, however, remarks that the absence of the particle of motion favours the English version. There is no other mention of a place of this name but that, as Kiel remarks, applies to many other places whose existence is never called in question.
2 Samuel 16:15. “Men of Israel.” “Very significant: The old malcontents, 2 Samuel 2:8-9. (Thenius).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 2 Samuel 16:5-19
SHIMEI CURSING DAVID
I. The day of adversity is the day when we may look for insult from the mean-spirited. We hear nothing of Shimei in the day of David’s prosperity, although the deeds for which he upbraided him had been done long before. A truly noble man will reprove another from a sense of duty, and will do it without considering what the consequences to himself may be. There are also many men who, although they will not risk their own safety by rebuking the real or supposed faults of those who have power to punish them for so doing, have too much humanity in them to do so when their respective positions are reversed. But, alas for our human nature! there are those also who, like the cur, which only barks when he thinks the object of his dislike has no means of defence, gladly avail themselves of another’s misfortune to charge him with all manner of iniquity. Although David, as it appears from the narrative, had even now the means of avenging himself, it is quite evident from what took place afterwards that Shimei would not have acted as he did if he had not felt tolerably secure.
II. The manner and circumstances in which an accusation is made, and the spirit in which it is borne, will often help us to decide as to its truth or falsehood. If we knew nothing of David before this event, as we know nothing of Shimei, we should conclude that he did not deserve the character here given to him. Great as his fall had been on the one great transgression of his life, the charges brought against him by Shimei were false—he was not a blood-thirsty tyrant who had risen to power by injustice and cruelty. But where there is manifest cowardice, we may safely conclude—without any other proof—that there is falsehood. The more meekly, too, an accusation is borne, the less likely is it to be true, Such a spirit as David here displays never goes hand in hand with such selfish ambition as Shimei here lays to his charge, and the accuser here is as surely condemned out of his own mouth, and by his own conduct, as the accused man justifies himself by his humble words and by his patient forbearance.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
2 Samuel 16:5. There is no small cruelty in the picking out of a time for mischief; that word would scarce gall at one season, which at another killeth. The same shaft flying with the wind pierces deep, which against it can hardly find strength to stick upright. The valour and justice of children condemn it for injuriously cowardly, to strike their adversary when he is once down. It is the murder of the tongue to insult upon those whom God hath bumbled, and to draw blood of that back which is yet blue from the hand of the Almighty.—Bp. Hall.
Was not David rightly punished by Shimei’s railing, for his hearkening so readily to Ziba’s flattering? Was not he justly spoiled of his honours, who had so unjustly spoiled Mephibosheth of his good?—Trapp.
2 Samuel 16:11. Even while David laments the rebellion of his son, he gains by it, and makes that the argument of his patience, which was the exercise of it; “Behold my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life; how much more now may this Benjamite do it?” The wickedness of an Absalom may rob his father of comfort, but shall help to add to his father’s goodness. It is the advantage of great crosses, that they swallow up the less. One man’s sin cannot be excused by another’s, the lesser by the greater. If Absalom be a traitor, Shimei may not curse and rebel; but the passion conceived from the indignity of a stranger, may be abated by the harder measure of our own; if we can therefore suffer, because we have suffered, we have profited by our affliction. A weak heart faints with every addition of succeeding trouble; the strong recollects itself, and is grown so skilful, that it bears off one mischief with another.—Bp. Hall.
2 Samuel 16:12. According to His usual dealing with His poor afflicted. Howsoever, if He bring not down His will to theirs, He will bring up their will to His, which will make infinite amends for all their patience.—Trapp.
We may here learn how falsely and wickedly men sometimes wrest the providence of God, to justify their unjust surmises, and gratify their malevolent passions. Many who are themselves living without God in the world, have, at the same time, no scruple in speaking of the calamities which befal others, as Divine judgments … Job’s friends condemned him on this false principle, and our Lord censures a similar rash judgment which some in His day had formed of certain others, in consequence of their extraordinary sufferings.—Lindsay.