2 Samuel 16:5-14--Shimei Curses David

2 Samuel 16:5-14
English Standard Version

Shimei Curses David
5 When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came he cursed continually. 6 And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. 7 And Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! 8 The LORD has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the LORD has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.”

9 Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” 10 But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the LORD has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” 11 And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to. 12 It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that the LORD will repay me with good for his cursing today.” 13 So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. 14 And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself.

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We saw last time that Ziba, a servant of the house of Saul, gave gifts to David while his master Mephibosheth stayed in Jerusalem, hoping that this would be the time that the throne would be returned to King Saul's family (making Mephibosheth to theoretically be the next king).  Even after all that David had done for Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth turned against David.  David have given many good things to Mephibosheth, including all that had belonged to Saul and Jonathan, and David transferred all that wealth which had been Mephibosheth's to Ziba.

Now we see another descendant of King Saul come out to say something to David.  This time though, it is to hurl insults and rocks and dirt at David and to speak words of prophecy over him that it would have been easy for David to take to heart, and it also would have been easy for David to attack the messenger because he did not like the message, but he stayed the hand of those that wished to do harm to Shimei, the son of Gera.

What exactly was Shemei's message for David?  “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! The LORD has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the LORD has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.”  Let's examine what he was saying to see if it possibly was a message from the LORD, for if the LORD can use even a donkey as His messenger in the book of Numbers, then He can certainly open the mouth of of a man who seems to be the enemy of the king and kingdom He has set up to prophecy to that king.

First, Shemei tells David that he is to "get out."  Shemei doesn't say how far he is to "get out" though.  Did Shemei mean only that David was to leave Jerusalem or did he want him to leave all of Israel or was this a desire for David to altogether leave this life and to die?  It's not certain, but we do know that David already felt lead to abandon the city of Jerusalem and he could not go back to his people in Judah at Hebron, because Absalom had already been crowned king there, so he was forced out into the wilderness once again.  Next, Shemei calls David "a man of blood."  Well, we know that's true because the LORD Himself has made the same judgment about David and said that this is why David would not be able to build the Temple for Him.  So, that's not news to David's ears, but Shemei is not talking about David's murder of Uriah the Hittite here, as we'll see in just a minute.

Next, Shemei calls David a "worthless man."  I would say that this goes too far and that it proves to me that this is not a message from the LORD.  The LORD has already made an eternal covenant with David and his house and has a great purpose for David that the Messiah would come from him--the one called the Son of David.  I call that far from worthless.  However, if David evaluated himself in true humility and said that he had nothing of value to make the LORD choose him, he would be correct.  That is how we all individually feel when we evaluate ourselves, but it is dangerous for us to call any other man, woman or child "worthless."  Only God Himself is able to make the judgment (and sometimes does in Scripture).

Shemei then clarifies what he means by calling David a "man of blood."  Shemei still thinks that Saul was right to try to keep the throne after the LORD had told him that he was no longer the king, and that somehow David was to blame in what happened to Saul, even though Saul committed suicide and his sons were killed in a battle against the Philistines.  David had nothing to do with it, but it was just easier to make David out to be the enemy.  David in fact sought out members of the household of Saul to be king to as one of his first acts as king, but that meant nothing to Shemei..  Shemei sees all this happening to David as payback for what happened to Saul and lays all that at the feet of David, and jumps to the conclusion that is why the LORD has given the throne to Absalom.  Shemei has gotten some of the facts wrong, but he is correct in that this is part of the LORD's judgment on David, and it does have to do with him being a "man of blood."  It also has to do with David allowing the sin of Amnon to go unpunished even after it affected his own daughter, Tamar, and he continued to choose Amnon over Absalom even after Absalom reached out his hand to kill Amnon in what he would probably have called a public execution for his crimes (it wasn't done properly, but Absalom couldn't stand to see Amnon go unpunished).

David knows all these things that I've mentioned that Shemei doesn't know, which is probably part of the reason why he stays the hand of Abishai.  David said that it only makes sense that the Benjaminites would come out after him if David's own son had turned against him (along with much of Israel), and David truly believed that even though Shemei got the facts wrong, the message for him to "curse David" was from the LORD.  There was a message that the LORD wanted David to hear that he heard clearly that David was reaping what he had sown.  David then leaves it in the hands of the LORD to judge between Shemei and David and says that perhaps he may even be rewarded in the end (in front of all his enemies) for how he handled this situation by not repaying evil for evil.  This time, he would choose to not be a "man of blood" and would leave room for the LORD to have his vengeance.

So the king and his company kept going along the road with Shemei continuing to throw rocks and dirt at them as he hurled insults at them.  By the time they came to the Jordan River, they were exhausted and they rested and refreshed themselves there.

Next time, we'll look at what is going on in Jerusalem as Absalom is entering there.  I'm sure he expected some kind of battle or resistance, but he finds none.