2 Samuel 19 · WEB
David Mourns; Joab Rebukes Him; Return to Jerusalem; Shimei Pardoned
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It was told Joab, "Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Absalom."
2The victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people; for the people heard it said that day, "The king grieves for his son."
3The people sneaked into the city that day as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.
4The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, "My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!"
5Joab came into the house to the king and said, "You have shamed today the faces of all your servants, who have saved your life today, and the lives of your sons and your daughters, and the lives of your wives and the lives of your concubines;
6in that you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. For you have declared today that officers and servants are nothing to you; for today I perceive that if Absalom had lived and all we had died today, then it would have pleased you well.
7Now therefore arise, go out and speak comfortably to your servants; for I swear by Yahweh, if you don't go out, not a man will stay with you tonight; and that will be worse to you than all the evil that has come on you from your youth until now."
8Then the king arose and sat in the gate. They told all the people, saying, "Behold, the king is sitting in the gate." All the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled, every man to his tent.
9All the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, "The king saved us out of the hand of our enemies, and he delivered us out of the hand of the Philistines; and now he has fled out of the land from Absalom.
10Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?"
11King David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, "Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, 'Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? For the word of all Israel has come to the king, even to his house.
12You are my brothers. You are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring back the king?'
13Say to Amasa, 'Aren't you my bone and my flesh? God do so to me and more also, if you aren't captain of the army before me continually in the place of Joab.'"
14He bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as the heart of one man; so that they sent to the king saying, "Return, you and all your servants."
15So the king returned and came to the Jordan. Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Jordan.
16Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, who was of Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet king David.
17There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went over the Jordan in front of the king.
18They crossed the ford to bring over the king's household and to do what he thought good. Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king when he had come over the Jordan.
19He said to the king, "Don't let my lord impute iniquity to me, nor remember that which your servant did perversely on the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem; don't let the king take it to heart.
20For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore behold, I have come today the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king."
21But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, "Shall Shimei not be put to death for this, because he cursed Yahweh's anointed?"
22David said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should be adversaries to me today? Shall any man be put to death in Israel today? For don't I know that I am today king over Israel?"
23The king said to Shimei, "You shall not die." The king swore an oath to him.
24Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.
25When he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, "Why didn't you go with me, Mephibosheth?"
26He answered, "My lord the king, my servant deceived me; for your servant said to him, 'Saddle the donkey for me, so that I may ride on it and go with the king;' because your servant is lame.
27He has slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God. Do therefore what is good in your eyes.
28For all my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right therefore do I have to cry any more to the king?"
29The king said to him, "Why do you speak any more of your matters? I say, 'You and Ziba divide the land.'"
30Mephibosheth said to the king, "Yes, let him take all, because my lord the king has come in peace to his own house."
31Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim, and went over the Jordan with the king, to conduct him over the Jordan.
32Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old; and he had provided the king with sustenance while he stayed at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man.
33The king said to Barzillai, "Come over with me, and I will sustain you in Jerusalem with me."
34Barzillai said to the king, "How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?
35I am today eighty years old. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?
36Your servant would but just go over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king recompense me with such a reward?
37Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold, your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to you."
38The king answered, "Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to you; and whatever you shall require of me, that will I do for you."
39All the people went over the Jordan, and then the king went over; and the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him; and he returned to his own place.
40So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went over with him. All the people of Judah brought the king over, and also half of the people of Israel.
41Behold, all the men of Israel came to the king and said to the king, "Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away and brought the king and his household over the Jordan, and all David's men with him?"
42All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, "Because the king is near of kin to us. Why are you angry about this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king's cost? Or has he given us any gift?"
43The men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, "We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more claim to David than you. Why then did you despise us, that our advice was not first given to bring back our king?" The words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.
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Summary
David's public grief over Absalom paralyzes the army and shames his men, prompting Joab to deliver a blunt rebuke: get up and acknowledge your soldiers or lose everything. David obeys, takes his seat at the gate, and begins the complicated political work of returning to Jerusalem. Three encounters mark the journey back across the Jordan: Shimei comes seeking pardon and receives it; Mephibosheth finally gets to tell his side of the Ziba affair; and aged Barzillai generously declines the king's reward, sending his servant Chimham instead. The chapter ends ominously with tribal jealousy flaring between Judah and Israel over who gets credit for the king's restoration — the seeds of Sheba's rebellion already sprouting.
Themes
- Leadership requires public presence even in personal grief
- Grace extended to former enemies on the day of victory
- Loyalty honored and rewarded — Barzillai's selfless generosity
- Tribal rivalry as a persistent threat to national unity
Key verses
- 2 Sam 19:22-23 — “Shall any man be put to death in Israel today? For don't I know that I am today king over Israel?... You shall not die.”
- 2 Sam 19:34-35 — “How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am today eighty years old.”
- 2 Sam 19:5-7 — “You have shamed today the faces of all your servants... Now therefore arise, go out and speak comfortably to your servants.”
Context & background
The Jordan River crossing (v. 15-18) took place near Gilgal (modern Tell es-Sultan, near Jericho, West Bank) — the ancient site of Israel's first crossing under Joshua. The symbolic weight of crossing the Jordan at Gilgal was significant. Bahurim (where Shimei was from) was a village on the northeastern slope of the Mount of Olives (modern West Bank, near Jerusalem). Rogelim in Gilead (Barzillai's home) was in modern northern Jordan. Mahanaim — identified with Tell edh-Dhahab el-Gharbi in the Jabbok River valley (northern Jordan) — had been David's refuge during the rebellion. The tribal dispute at the end of the chapter (v. 40-43) is not a minor squabble: the ten northern tribes' sense of being sidelined will directly produce Sheba's rebellion in chapter 20 and ultimately the permanent division of the kingdom under Rehoboam (1 Kings 12).
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 12:16-20 — The tribal division that began here explodes into permanent schism under Rehoboam
- 1 Kings 2:8-9 — David on his deathbed tells Solomon not to let Shimei go unpunished — he remembered
- 2 Sam 16:1-4 — Ziba's accusation against Mephibosheth, now rebutted
- 2 Sam 16:5-13 — Shimei's original cursing of David during the flight
- 2 Sam 17:27-29 — Barzillai's earlier provision for David at Mahanaim