Joab shakes David out of his mourning — the army that saved his life is slinking home ashamed — and the king goes down to the gate. Then the long, awkward business of getting him back to Jerusalem: Judah and Israel quarrelling over who has the right to bring him, mercy for Shimei, a rushed and unfair ruling on Mephibosheth’s estate, a gracious farewell to old Barzillai. And before the dust settles, a Benjamite named Sheba blows a trumpet: we have no part in David.
A study in 2 Samuel 19-20 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
Thou Hast Shamed This Day The Faces Of All Thy Servants
“And Joab came into the house to the king, and said, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, which this day have saved thy life… In that thou lovest thine enemies, and hatest thy friends… Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak comfortably unto thy servants: for I swear by the LORD, if thou go not forth, there will not tarry one with thee this night.”
2 Samuel 19:5-7
Joab is brutal and he is right. David’s private grief, indulged in public, is telling twenty thousand men who died for him that their lives meant less than one traitor’s. A leader has to be able to hear a hard true word from a blunt subordinate — and David, to his credit, does.
“Harsh and even cruel as was the reproof to the heart-stricken king, David did not resent it. Seeing that his general was right, he went down to the gate, and with words of courage and commendation greeted his brave soldiers as they marched past him.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 745
Shall There Any Man Be Put To Death This Day In Israel
“And David said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye should this day be adversaries unto me? shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? for do not I know that I am this day king over Israel? Therefore the king said unto Shimei, Thou shalt not die. And the king sware unto him.”
2 Samuel 19:22-23
Shimei, who had cursed and thrown stones, is the first over the Jordan to grovel. Abishai wants him dead. David refuses — “shall there any man be put to death this day?” The day of the king’s restoration should be a day of amnesty, not score-settling. Here, at least, mercy governs.
How Long Have I To Live
“And the king said unto Barzillai, Come thou over with me, and I will feed thee with me in Jerusalem. And Barzillai said unto the king, How long have I to live, that I should go up with the king unto Jerusalem? I am this day fourscore years old… wherefore then should thy servant be yet a burden unto my lord the king?”
2 Samuel 19:33-35
Barzillai the Gileadite had fed David’s whole army in exile at his own expense. Offered a place at court, the eighty-year-old declines with grace: his senses are dulling, the singing means nothing to him now, let a younger man take the reward. It is a small, clear-eyed portrait of aging well — content to have done the service, not needing the honour.
We Have No Part In David
“And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel. So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem.”
2 Samuel 20:1-2
The wound Absalom opened has not healed; a single opportunist with a trumpet can still split the kingdom. Joab murders Amasa — the rival general — with the same beard-grasping kiss he once used on Abner, then hunts Sheba to a walled town, where a “wise woman” saves her city by pitching Sheba’s head over the wall. The revolt collapses. But “we have no part in David” is a sentence Israel will say again, for real, at the division of the kingdom. David’s house is secured and still fractured.
“The overthrow of Absalom did not at once bring peace to the kingdom. So large a part of the nation had joined in revolt that David would not return to his capital and resume his authority without an invitation from the tribes.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 746
