PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Samuel
Blaikie, William Garden · 120,492 words · 163 reading sections
_The Restoration._
The next incident at Gilgal was the cringing entreaty of Shimei, the Benjamite, to be pardoned the insult which he had offered the king when he left Jerusalem. The conduct of Shimei had been such an outrage on all decency that we wonder how he could have dared to present himself at all before David; even though, as a s…
656 wordsSECTION 122_The Restoration._
We cannot greatly admire one who would depreciate his family to such a degree because he desired to obtain David's favour. And for some reason David was somewhat sharp to him. No man is perfect, and we cannot but wonder that the king who was so gentle to Shimei should have been so sharp to Mephibosheth. "Why speakest t…
883 wordsSECTION 123_David And Barzillai._
2 SAMUEL xix. 31-40. It is very refreshing to fall in with a man like Barzillai in a record which is so full of wickedness, and without many features of a redeeming character. He is a sample of humanity at its best--one of those men who diffuse radiance and happiness wherever their influence extends. Long before St. P…
745 wordsSECTION 124_David And Barzillai._
3. His loyalty was not less thorough than his generosity. When he heard of the king's troubles, he seems never to have hesitated one instant as to throwing in his lot with him. It mattered not that the king was in great trouble, and apparently in a desperate case. Neighbours, or even members of his own family, might ha…
807 wordsSECTION 125_David And Barzillai._
4. Barzillai was evidently a man of attractive personal qualities. The king was so attracted by him, that he wished him to come with him to Jerusalem, and promised to sustain him at court. The heart of King David was not too old to form new attachments. And towards Barzillai he was evidently drawn. We can hardly suppos…
829 wordsSECTION 126_David And Barzillai._
There are few more jarring scenes in English history than the last days of Queen Elizabeth. As life was passing away, a historian of England says, "she clung to it with a fierce tenacity. She hunted, she danced, she jested with her young favourites, she coquetted, and frolicked, and scolded at sixty-seven as she had do…
781 wordsSECTION 127_David And Barzillai._
Plans for life were speedily formed in those countries; and as Rebekah wished no delay in accompanying Abraham's servant to be the wife of Isaac, nor Ruth in going forth with Naomi to the land of Judah, so Chimham at once went with the king. The interview between David and Barzillai was ended in the way that in those c…
685 wordsSECTION 128_The Insurrection Of Sheba._
2 SAMUEL xix. 41-43; xx. David was now virtually restored to his kingdom; but he had not even left Gilgal when fresh troubles began. The jealousy between Judah and Israel broke out in spite of him. The cause of complaint was on the part of the ten tribes; they were offended at not having been waited for to take part i…
1,106 wordsSECTION 129_The Insurrection Of Sheba._
But let us return to King David and his people. The author of the insurrection was "a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba." He is called "the son of Bichri, a Benjamite." Benjamin had a son whose name was Becher, and the adjective formed from that would be Bichrite; some have thought that Bichri denotes not his father,…
874 wordsSECTION 130_The Insurrection Of Sheba._
They had not gone farther from Jerusalem than the Pool of Gibeon when they were overtaken by Amasa, followed doubtless by his troops. When Joab and Amasa met, Joab, actuated by jealousy towards him as having superseded him in the command of the army, treacherously slew him, leaving his dead body on the ground, and, alo…
707 wordsSECTION 131_The Insurrection Of Sheba._
Thus, once again, the land had rest from war. At the close of the chapter we have a list of the chief officers of the kingdom, similar to that given in ch. viii. at the close of David's foreign wars. It would appear that, peace being again restored, pains were taken by the king to improve and perfect the arrangements f…
804 wordsSECTION 132_The Famine._
2 SAMUEL xxi. 1-14. We now enter on the concluding part of the reign of David. Some of the matters in which he was most occupied during this period are recorded only in Chronicles. Among these, the chief was his preparations for the building of the temple, which great work was to be undertaken by his son. In the concl…
877 wordsSECTION 133_The Famine._
2. The cause of the calamity was made known when David inquired of the Lord--"It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites." The history of the crime for which this famine was sent can be gathered only from incidental notices. It appears from the narrative before us that Saul "consumed the Gibeo…
940 wordsSECTION 134_The Famine._
Such was the demand of the Gibeonites; and David deemed it right to comply with it, stipulating only that the descendants of Jonathan should not be surrendered. The sons or descendants of Saul that were given up for this execution were the two sons of Rizpah, Saul's concubine, and along with them five sons of Michal, o…
726 wordsSECTION 135_The Famine._
The grimness of the mode of punishment was softened by an incident of great moral beauty, which cannot but touch the heart of every man of sensibility. Rizpah, the concubine of Saul, and mother of two of the victims, combining the tenderness of a mother and the courage of a hero, took her position beside the gibbet; an…
727 wordsSECTION 136_The Famine._
To all right minds it is painful to punish, and when punishment has to be inflicted it is felt that it ought to be done with great solemnity and gravity, and with an entire absence of passion and excitement. In a sinful world God too must inflict punishment. And the future punishment of the wicked is the darkest thing …
275 wordsSECTION 137_Last Battles And The Mighty Men._
[4] Lectures on the Old Testament. Lecture V.: "Visitation of Sins of Fathers on Children." 2 SAMUEL xxi. 15-22; xxiii. 8-39. In entering on the consideration of these two portions of the history of David, we must first observe that the events recorded do not appear to belong to the concluding portion of his reign. I…
849 wordsSECTION 138_Last Battles And The Mighty Men._
During the rest of that campaign the vow seems to have been respected, for the other three giants were not slain by David personally, but by others. As to other campaigns, David usually took his old place as leader of the army, until the battle against Absalom, when his people prevailed on him to remain in the city. T…
800 wordsSECTION 139_Last Battles And The Mighty Men._
We pass to the twenty-third chapter, which tells us of David's mighty men. The narrative, at some points, is not very clear; but we gather from it that David had an order of thirty men distinguished for their valour; that besides these there were three of supereminent merit, and another three, who were also eminent, bu…
711 wordsSECTION 140_Last Battles And The Mighty Men._
With regard to the kind of exploits ascribed to some of these men, a remark is necessary. There is an appearance of exaggeration in statements that ascribe to a single warrior the routing and killing of hundreds through his single sword or spear. In the eyes of some such statements give the narrative an unreliable look…
753 wordsSECTION 141_Last Battles And The Mighty Men._
But in all this military career and influence of David, may we not trace a type of character which was realised in a far higher sphere, and to far grander purpose, in the career of Jesus, David's Son? David on an earthly level is Jesus on a higher. Every noble quality of David, his courage, his activity, his affection,…
529 wordsSECTION 142_The Song Of Thanksgiving._
2 SAMUEL xxii. Some of David's actions are very characteristic of himself; there are other actions quite out of harmony with his character. This psalm of thanksgiving belongs to the former order. It is quite like David, at the conclusion of his military enterprises, to cast his eye gratefully over the whole, and ackno…
711 wordsSECTION 143_The Song Of Thanksgiving._
The feeling that recognised God as the Author of all his deliverances was intensely strong, for every expression that can denote it is heaped together: "My rock, my portion, my deliverer; the God of my rock, my shield; the horn of my salvation, my high tower, my refuge, my Saviour." He takes no credit to himself; he gi…
730 wordsSECTION 144_The Song Of Thanksgiving._
II. We pass on to the part of the song where the Psalmist describes his trials and God's deliverances in his times of danger (vv. 5-20). The description is eminently poetical. First, there is a vivid picture of his troubles. "The waves of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; the sorrows of…
1,151 wordsSECTION 145_The Song Of Thanksgiving._
Even with this explanation, some of the expressions may seem too strong. How could he speak of the cleanness of his hands, and of his not having wickedly departed from his God? Granting that the song was written before his sin in the case of Uriah, yet remembering how he had lied at Nob and equivocated at Gath, might h…
750 wordsSECTION 146_The Song Of Thanksgiving._
In the closing verses of the Psalm, the views of the Psalmist seem to sweep beyond the limits of an earthly kingdom. His eye seems to embrace the wide-spreading dominion of Messiah; at all events, he dwells on those features of his own kingdom that were typical of the all-embracing kingdom of the Gospel: "Thou hast mad…
337 wordsSECTION 147_The Last Words Of David._
2 SAMUEL xxiii. 1-7. (_See Revised Version and margin._) Of these "the last words of David," we need not understand that they were the last words he ever spoke, but his last song or psalm, his latest vision, and therefore the subject that was most in his mind in the last period of his life. The Psalm recorded in the p…
740 wordsSECTION 148_The Last Words Of David._
The second part of the introduction stamps the prophecy with a fourfold mark of inspiration. 1. "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me." For "the prophecy came not of old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2. "His word was in my tongue." For in high visions like this,…
835 wordsSECTION 149_The Last Words Of David._
It is the grand characteristic of Christ's salvation in theory that it is through righteousness; it is not less its effect in practice to promote righteousness. To any who would dream, under colour of free grace, of breaking down the law of righteousness, the words of "the Holy One and the Just" stand out as an eternal…
672 wordsSECTION 150_The Last Words Of David._
But in the margin of the Revised Version we have another translation, which reverses all this:-- "For is not my house so with God? For He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things and sure: For all my salvation and all my desire, Will He not make it to grow?" Corresponding as this does with…
808 wordsSECTION 151_The Last Words Of David._
IV. The last part of the prophecy, in the way of contrast to the leading vision, is a prediction of the doom of the ungodly. The revised translation is much the clearer:-- "But the ungodly shall be all of them as thorns to be thrust away, For they cannot be taken with the hand, But the man that toucheth them Must …
639 wordsSECTION 152_The Numbering Of Israel._
2 SAMUEL xxiv. Though David's life was now drawing to its close, neither his sins nor his chastisements were yet exhausted. One of his chief offences was committed when he was old and grey-headed. There can be little doubt that what is recorded in this chapter took place toward the close of his life; the word "again" …
719 wordsSECTION 153_The Numbering Of Israel._
But what constituted David's great offence in numbering the people? Every civilised State is now accustomed to number its people periodically, and for many good purposes it is a most useful step. Josephus represents that David omitted to levy the atonement money which was to be raised, according to Exod. xxx. 12, etc.,…
769 wordsSECTION 154_The Numbering Of Israel._
Just as in the case of his sin in the matter of Uriah, David was long of coming to a sense of it. How his view came to change we are not told, but when the change did occur, it seems, as in the other case, to have come with extraordinary force. "David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David s…
794 wordsSECTION 155_The Numbering Of Israel._
No one but must admire the spirit of David when the angel appeared on Mount Moriah. Owning frankly his own great sin, and especially his sin as a shepherd, he bared his own bosom to the sword, and entreated God to let the punishment fall on him and on his father's house. Why should the sheep suffer for the sin of the s…
748 wordsSECTION 156_The Numbering Of Israel._
There were other circumstances, however, not without significance, connected with the purchase of the temple site. The man to whom the ground had belonged, and whose oxen had been slain as the burnt-offering, was a Jebusite; and from the way in which he designated David's Lord, "the Lord _thy_ God," it is not certain w…
752 wordsSECTION 157_The Two Books Of Samuel._
Having now surveyed the events of the history of Israel, one by one, during the whole of that memorable period which is embraced in the books of Samuel, it will be profitable, before we close, to cast a glance over the way by which we have traveled, and endeavour to gather up the leading lessons and impressions of the …
676 wordsSECTION 158_The Two Books Of Samuel._
Even good men become comparatively useless under such a system. The very high-priest is a kind of nonentity. If Eli had asserted God's claims with any vigour, Hophni and Phinehas would not have dared to live as they did. It is a mournful state of things when good men get reconciled to the evil that prevails, or content…
688 wordsSECTION 159_The Two Books Of Samuel._
Now there were two things about God that Samuel was most earnest in pressing. The one was His holiness, the other His spirituality. The righteous Lord loved righteousness. No amount of ritual service could compensate the want of moral obedience. "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of …
698 wordsSECTION 160_The Two Books Of Samuel._
But for all that, Saul was the active, inveterate, and bitter persecutor of what we may call God's interest in the kingdom. There was no real sympathy between him and Samuel; but as Samuel did not cross his path, he left him comparatively alone. It was very different in the case of David. In Saul's relation to David we…
741 wordsSECTION 161_The Two Books Of Samuel._
Beautiful and most promising was the state of the nation at one period of his life. Unbounded prosperity had flowed into the country. Every enemy had been subdued. There was no division in the kingdom, and no one likely to cause any. The king was greatly honoured by his people, and highly popular. The arrangements whic…
764 wordsSECTION 162_The Two Books Of Samuel._
And if the gain be less decided and less full than once it promised, and if Amalek gains upon Israel, and recovers part of the ground he had lost, let us mark well the lesson which God designs to teach us. In the first place, let us learn the lesson of vigilance. Let us watch against the decline of spiritual strength, …
323 wordsSECTION 163*** End Of The Project Gutenberg Ebook The Expositor'S Bible: The Second Book Of Samuel ***
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180 wordsSource & rights
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.