And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera: he came forth, and cursed still as he came.
When king David came to Bahurim - a city of Benjamin (2 Samuel 3:16; 2 Samuel 19:16). It is, however, only the confines of the district that is here meant.
Thence came out a man. The place where this incident is supposed to have occurred is a low ridge of chalk hills, beyond which is a long narrow wady (Ruwaby) running toward the Nahr el-Kelt-the ancient Bahurim-along which David and his party of fugitive royalists took their journey, while Shimei was on the opposite bank (Barclay's 'City of the Great King,' p. 563; 'Tent and Khan,' p. 368).
Shimei the son of Gera The misfortune of Saul's family and the occupation by David of what they Shimei, the son of Gera. The misfortune of Saul's family, and the occupation by David of what they considered their rightful possessions, afforded a natural, if not a justifiable cause for this ebullition of rude insults and violence by Shimei. He upbraided David as an ambitious usurper, and charged him, as one whose misdeeds had recoiled upon his own head, to surrender a throne to which he was not entitled. His language was that of a man incensed by the wrongs that he conceived had been done to his house. A Jewish tradition, preserved by Jerome ('Quaest. Hebraicae,' in loco), is, that Shimei of Gera was another name of Nebat, father of Jeroboam. David was guiltless of the crime of which Shimei accused him; but his conscience reminded him of other flagrant iniquities, and he therefore regarded the cursing of this man as a chastisement from heaven. His answer to Abishai's proposal evinced the spirit of deep and humble resignation-the spirit of a man who watched the course of Providence, and acknowledged Shimei as the instrument of God's chastening hand. One thing is remarkable, that he acted more independently of the sons of Zeruiah in this season of great distress than he could often muster courage to do in the days of his prosperity and power.