supplied David with provisions on his flight from Absalom (2Sa 17:27., 2Sa 19:32.). שׁלחנך בּאכלי והיוּ, “let them be among those eating of thy table;” i.e., not, “let them draw their food from the royal table,” - for there was no particular distinction in this, as all the royal attendants at the court received their food from the royal kitchen, as an equivalent for the pay that was owing - but, “let them join in the meals at the royal table.” The fact that in 2Sa 9:10-11, 2Sa 9:13, we have על־שׁלחן אכל to express this, makes no material difference. According to 2Sa 19:38, Barzillai had, it is true, allowed only one son to follow the king to his court. “For so they drew near to me,” i.e., they showed the kindness to me of supplying me with food; compare 2Sa 17:27, where Barzillai alone is named, though, as he was a man of eighty years old, he was certainly supported by his sons.
Verses 8-9
On the other hand, Shimei the Benjamite had shown great hostility to David (cf. 2Sa 16:5-8). He had cursed him with a vehement curse as he fled from Absalom (נמרצת, vehement, violent, not ill, heillos, from the primary meaning to be sick or ill, as Thenius supposes, since it cannot be shown that מרץ has any such meaning); and when David returned to Jerusalem and Shimei fell at his feet, he had promised to spare his life, because he did not want to mar the joy at his reinstatement in his kingdom by an act of punishment (2Sa 19:19-24), and therefore had personally forgiven him. But the insult which Shimei had offered in his person to the anointed of the Lord, as king and representative of the rights of God, he could not forgive. The instruction given to his successor (אל־תּנקּהוּ, let him not be guiltless) did not spring from personal revenge, but was the duty of the king as judge and administrator of the divine right.[1]
It follows from the expression עמּך, with thee, i.e., in thy neighbourhood, that Shimei was living at that time in Jerusalem (cf. 1Ki 2:36).
Verses 10-11
After these instructions David died, and was buried in the
- ↑ “Shimei is and remains rather a proof of David's magnanimity than of vengeance. It was not a little thing to tolerate the miscreant in his immediate neighbourhood for his whole life long (not even banishment being thought of). And if under the following reign also he had been allowed to end his days in peace (which had never been promised him), this would have been a kindness which would have furnished an example of unpunished crimes that might easily have been abused.” This is the verdict of J. J. Hess in his Geschichte Davids, ii. p. 221.
