Even as David resumes his throne, there is yet more strife, instability and rebellion. Further, though the Philistines were beaten repeatedly, they rose from time to time in a futile attempt to regain their ascendancy.
2 Samuel 20:1-2 -- During the confrontation between the leaders of Judah and those of Ephraim, a particularly obnoxious Benjamite named Sheba declared a revolt. Using an old phrase from the nomadic days under Moses, he encourages the Northern Tribes to cease following David and "return to your tents." It conjures the image of demobilizing and returning to the farm. Since the nation had long since traded their tents for regular homes, this was no more than political rhetoric. However, it proved effective for the moment, for we are told most of the Northern Tribes took his advice and dropped out of the parade. The folks from the Southern Tribes remained in the escort.
20:3 -- In a brief footnote of sorts, we see that David did not mistreat the ten concubines disgraced by Absalom. Rather, he declared them widows and provided them an appropriate retirement. Joining the king's harem offered grand luxury, but high risks. Most kings of that day would have killed the women, sold them off as slaves, or at least simply tossed them out on the street.
20:4-13 -- While everyone was settling back into a normal routine, David gave his first commission to Amasa, the new commander of troops. He was to muster the troops of Judah in three days, and report back for further instructions. Amasa would have to contend with folks not knowing he had replaced Joab, or who wouldn't accept that. There was also the completely unsettled political situation, with many elders still not fully convinced David should be king. Along with all the other mass confusion, things must have fallen apart in Amasa's hands, because he missed the deadline.
Sensing that this business with Sheba could get out of hand quickly, David ordered Abishai to take whatever troops were available in Jerusalem and pursue the rebels. Note that he by-passed Joab altogether by speaking with his brother. Once en route though, Joab would hardly consent to a secondary role. Leading the Royal Guard, the Messenger Corps, Joab's own troops and the battle cadre who normally took charge of the conscript formations, they set out northwards.
Following the path taken by Sheba and his gang, Joab led the little army past the landmark stone near Gibeon. From a side road, Amasa approached to meet them. Joab was wearing his full battle gear, including a sword hanging in a sheath at his left side. It would have hung at an angle with the handle pointing somewhat forward for grasping with the right hand. Joab bumped into something probably, and the sword was tipped out of its sheath. Recall most swords were only about 12 inches (30cm) long. Joab caught it in his left hand, then simply held onto the sword as he walked up to his cousin, Amasa.
In a greeting still seen to day, he grabbed Amasa's beard in his right hand and pulled close for the standard Middle Eastern greeting of a kiss on the sides of the face. Amasa would have place his hands on the upper arms of Joab. While thus distracted, Amasa never noticed the sword in Joab's left hand. Joab stabbed Amasa in the stomach just once. Certainly fatal, it also guaranteed a slow and painful death. Joab didn't understand anything but his own ruthless ambition.
Joab and Abishai immediately returned to the task of chasing down Sheba and the rebels. One of Joab's lieutenants stood in front of Amasa as he died noisily and shouted to encourage the men to keep up with Joab, as an expression of their loyalty to David. However, the grisly sight was just a bit too much for some of the men, who simply stopped and stared at the writhing figure of Amasa. So the lieutenant drug the body off into the field, out of hearing range from the road, and covered him with a cloak. This broke the spell, and the troops continued their mission.
20:14-15 -- It probably took at least a week for Sheba and his gang to travel the length of Northern Israel, ending up in the rich valley north of Lake Huleh, in the vicinity of Dan. Along the way, he managed to gather some more troops, but apparently the whole revolt began to wither. They rebel forces holed up in the city of Abel, an old capital of the Kingdom of Maacah. While this this small nation was a tributary of David's, their allegiance was no doubt weakened a bit by their support of Absalom, whose mother was from the royal house there, and where Absalom had been exiled after murdering his elder brother.
This Abel-beth-Maacah had long been a chief city, with several dependent villages in the surrounding area. It had also at times a place famous for its reputation as an arbitration city. Many wars had been averted by going there, under the city elders' wise guidance, settling disputes both great and small. This probably explains why there were no troops in the valley when Dan attacked to gain a place during the Period of Judges.
Having chased Sheba and the rebels to Abel, Joab ordered his troops to begin piling rocks and soil up to form a ramp up the side of the city wall. Sheba may have taken refuge deceptively, claiming their protection from unjust persecution. Thus, Joab had not bothered to follow the Law's requirements in Deuteronomy 20:10ff by giving the city residents a chance to parley. When the ramp was as high as possible, given the materials, it would have still been somewhat short of the top of the average city wall. However, the difference could be made up by battering with logs to knock loose the closely packed stones. In an age before cement was discovered, stone walls were carefully fitted together in a time-consuming process, and sometimes coated with mud or similar materials. The result was certainly sturdy, but could be eventually knocked loose with a battering ram.
Throughout the Old Testament we note that women often lead the way in trying to settle problems without bloodshed. Thus, a very wise woman, no doubt on the arbitration council, called out to Joab and asked him to hold off a minute so she could talk to him. Joab agreed, and got an earful. The woman enlightened him to the city's heritage of peacemaking. She described herself as fully loyal to King David, implying the city as a whole was too, and noted that this was one of the administrative centers for the area, responsible for funneling a great deal of taxes to the throne. Finally, it would be an incalculable loss as one of the oldest cities in the kingdom.
Joab replied that he really wasn't interested in destroying anything. He only wanted to arrest Sheba for challenging David's authority. If the city handed him over, Joab and his army would go away. The woman told Joab to be ready to play catch, because Sheba's head was on the way. Then she spoke to the city leadership, who promptly agreed to the wisdom of sacrificing one refugee for the good of all. They quickly behead Sheba and tossed his head over the wall. Joab signaled to all the troops arranged around the city to stand down. They reassembled into formation and marched away with their prize.
20:23-25 -- These last few verses close the Temple Journal regarding David's reign. The chief officers are identified. David never managed to replace Joab, because Joab kept murdering his replacements. Adoram's position as Revenue Chief actually was mostly about the forced labor started by David, a taxation-in-kind where men were drafted for royal building projects. The Recorder was a records custodian, keeping track of the details necessary to run the Kingdom. The Royal Scribe was a different position, since the ability to write was quite rare, and far more complicated and time-consuming than today. The Prime Minister we note is from Jair, which helps to indicate just how strong the support for David was in that part of Gilead. The final chapters in 2 Samuel were clearly added later by a different writer on the Temple staff. They appear to cover incidents during his declining years.
21:1-6 -- Sometime during this chaotic reign of David, the nation was hit with a drought that continued three years. This guaranteed a famine. When David inquired of God, he learned that Saul had broken the covenant Joshua had made with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9). We recall that the two captains who murdered Ishbaal (2 Samuel 4:1-3) had come from the City of Beeroth, which Saul had stolen from the Gibeonites. The refugees from that attack had fled to Gath (probably the northern Gath) in Philistine territory. Given that the Tabernacle had been erected on the high place near Gibeon sometime during David's reign, we can surmise the Hivites of Gibeon had begun pressing their complaint directly to God. The result was the drought and famine.
David summoned the Gibeonite leaders and asked what it would take to break the curse, since they were the aggrieved party. They didn't want any monetary settlement from Saul's estate, and didn't want David to execute anyone in the nation. Relieved, David said whatever else they wanted, he agreed up-front to provide. Then they lowered the boom: They wanted seven descendants from Saul's household. Their promise to "hang them before the Lord" is really not that specific in the Hebrew language. The phrase implies merely some form of execution. However, they would do it in the shadow the Tabernacle.
21:7-9 -- Keeping his covenant with Jonathan's household, David passed over Meribaal in favor of better symbolic choices, from his point of view. He arrested the two sons Saul born to his concubine Rizpah. He also grabbed the five sons of Merab, the other daughter of Saul that had been promised first to him (1 Samuel 18:19ff). Some texts have the name "Michal" here, but that's not possible; she died childless (2 Samuel 6:23). These seven men were turned over to the Gibeonites. They were executed on the same hill where the Tabernacle then stood, at about the beginning of the time of barley harvest.
21:10-14 -- The timing is noteworthy, for it puts their execution around the first of April. At this time, the bereaved Rizpah went up to the flat space of rock where the bodies had been ceremonially exposed to be picked clean by vultures and other scavengers. This represented the severe shame of covenant-breaking. It didn't matter if the creatures never got their meal; the ceremonial execution and placement of the bodies was the point. The woman essentially spread a tent over their bodies, and guarded them, to prevent the birds from lighting on the bodies, and the carrion eaters of the night. She stayed until the second rainy season, late in December.
Two significant points arise. First, the bodies would have rotted, then dried, then the fleshy parts would wither and fall away, leaving only bones. Second, this second rain was sufficient notice from God the curse was past. David took advantage of the opportunity to tie up some lose ends. He exhumed the bones of Saul and his sons buried in Jabesh-gilead, and collected with them the bones from Rizpah's 6-month vigil, and buried them all honorably in the same grave with Kish, Saul's father. The drought was over.
21:15-22 -- The rest of the chapter notes that Goliath had four relatives still around to cause trouble. The material is paralleled in 1 Chronicles 20:4-8. The generic phrase "son(s) of the giant" in Hebrew is actually a generic term, referring to any surviving member of the Anakites. During one incident, the giant Ishbi-benob ("His Dwelling is in Nob") was leading the Philistines and charged David when the latter had gotten weak, most likely aging a bit. Abishai just managed to kill the giant. The captains got together and insisted David wasn't going out to fight any more, as the risk of his death was too great.
During a later incident in Gezer near the famous Valley of Aijalon, the Philistines had brought out Saph ("Like a Basin" wide, perhaps tubby) who was killed by a hero named Sibbechai. At the same site, a later battle saw Lachmi ("Big Eater"), a brother of the former Goliath, killed by one of David's cousins from Bethlehem. Yet another battle took place in Gath itself, and some unnamed giant with six digits on each limb was killed by David's nephew by his brother Shimea, named Jonathan. Thus, we note the Philistines rose up in revolt from time to time, and the Sons of Anak were still a problem.
Readers are reminded that minor discrepancies in the Hebrew text between Temple records of Samuel-Kings and the court records of Chronicles are seldom unresolvable. Given that we have no copies from the time close to original publication, we should expect a few scribal mistakes to creep in over the centuries. We do well to remember the numerous copies and manuscripts in various languages, spread over a wide geographic area, have given us a text more certain than the works of Shakespeare coming far later, and in our tongue.
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Ed Hurst
25 September 2004
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