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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: September 28
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2Sa_19:16-40
A great surprise met David as soon as he had crossed the Jordan on his return. Who shall be the first to meet him—to proffer his allegiance and devotion—but that very Shimei who had so bitterly insulted him on his mournful retreat from Jerusalem! He fell at the king’s feet, confessed his error, and pleaded for pardon on the ground of his contrition, and of his being the first of the tribe of Benjamin to come forward on this happy occasion. This was important; for he came at the head of a thousand men of the same tribe, all probably, like himself, warm partisans of the house of Saul, and whom he seems to have induced to take part with him in this decided act of adhesion. An appeal thus made could not be resisted; and besides David was, both from policy and inclination, in a forgiving temper, and felt that it would ill become him at such a time to avenge or remember former wrongs. He therefore rebuked the vengeful suggestion of Abishai, and pledged himself by oath to Shimei that he should not die. It is to be regretted that our knowledge of later circumstances prevents us from ranking this forbearance with acts of christian forgiveness.
The good old blind chief Barzillai went to the Jordan with the king, and took leave of him when he was about to cross the river. David pressed him to proceed with him to Jerusalem, and remain there with him, that he might have the opportunity of manifesting his gratitude for the great and costly services he had rendered. But the prospect of a life at court had no charms for this great pastoral chief. There is something very touching in his words. “I am this day fourscore years old: and can I discern between good and evil? can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? wherefore, then, should thy servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?” He would, he said, go a little way beyond the Jordan with the king; but he added, “Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and my mother.” This touch is affecting, and true to universal nature—but particularly to oriental nature. The tendency of our civilization is to put us above—or perhaps below—these things; and in so far as it does so, it makes us less wise than we think. We do not say,
“Perish the lore that deadens young desire,”
but we do say there is much in this modern atmosphere of ours which narrows life by deadening—or rather, by concentrating in the present—that imagination which, in younger and more vernal times, extended the vitality of existence into the future also, if not into the past.
Among the first to meet the king at the Jordan was Ziba, “the servant of the house of Saul,” with his fifteen sons and twenty servants. This person had good cause to come. On David’s retreat from Jerusalem, he had met him with an acceptable supply of bread, wine, and summer fruits; and when the king inquired what had become of his master Mephibosheth, he said that he had remained at Jerusalem in the expectation that the turn of events might lift him up as the heir of the house of Saul. On hearing this David, stung by such ingratitude, told Ziba he might have for himself the estate he had hitherto farmed for Mephibosheth. This was a hasty step; and one cannot but feel that a little delay and inquiry would have become David in regard to the son of Jonathan. At Jerusalem, Mephibosheth soon presented himself before the king, who asked him sternly why he had not gone with him. In reply, he touchingly alluded to his lameness. He had ordered an ass to be saddled, on which to follow the king, but Ziba had interfered, and had gone and slandered him to David. Although he did not himself mention it, his haggard and forlorn appearance bore witness to the fact that during the king’s absence he had passed his time as a mourner, and had not dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes. But, while vindicating his character, and knowing how the king had disposed of his property, he intimated his indifference to that part of the matter—“Do what is good in thine eyes … What right have I yet to cry any more unto the king?” Reluctant to think that he had been too hasty—having a royal aversion to admit that he could err, and had been duped—and being, in his present humor of overlooking and pardoning everything, indisposed to the task of calling to account a man of such influence as Ziba, who had been forward in his cause, when many tried friends forsook him, the king’s answer was something less than generous, and much less than kind to the son of Jonathan—“Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, thou and Ziba divide the land.” The injustice of this is obvious. If he disbelieved Mephibosheth, it was unjust to Ziba to deprive him of the land, which had been the reward of his fidelity when his master forsook what seemed to be a failing cause: whereas, if he believed Mephibosheth, escape from punishment had been sufficient grace for Ziba. The matter is not, however, perhaps so bad as it looks. The king reverts to what he had said, which carries the mind back to his first arrangement, which was that Mephibosheth should be proprietor, and Ziba his tenant, dividing the produce of the land with him. It may therefore be, that the king meant to be understood as restoring this arrangement—thus depriving Ziba of the advantage which his treachery acquired, without ejecting him from his tenancy under Mephibosheth. Even this would be hard enough for the son of Jonathan, to be thus still connected with a steward who had betrayed him. But the student of history knows that at a restoration the rules of right and wrong are seldom strictly carried out, and the king having two parties to satisfy, feels obliged to act upon compromises, which give to all something less than their due. Nothing can however excuse the tart manner of David in answering Mephibosheth. If he was not then at leisure to attend to his representation, why decide the matter—and that to his disadvantage—until he had time to inquire fully into the case? The tone of the afflicted man’s reply to this sharp answer, gives us reason to fear that the worst interpretation of David’s decision may be the right one—“Yea, let him take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house.” Oh noble heart! Let us fain hope that David was touched by this, and could once more say, “I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan.”