Context & Key Themes
2 Samuel 16 is a chapter of encounters on the road of exile. David is walking away from Jerusalem and two men stop him — one who brings provisions and one who curses him. Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, comes with food and a claim that Mephibosheth has stayed in Jerusalem hoping to get his grandfather’s kingdom back. Shimei, of the house of Saul, walks alongside David pelting him with stones and cursing: get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man. Abishai wants to take his head. David stops him. Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Absalom takes his father’s concubines on the roof in the sight of all Israel — the fulfillment of Nathan’s word, the thing done in secret now done before the sun.
Key Verse
“Let him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. 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.”
— 2 Samuel 16:11–12
Summary
Ziba meets David with donkeys loaded with bread, summer fruit, raisins, and wine. David asks where Mephibosheth is. Ziba says: he has remained in Jerusalem, thinking that today the house of Israel will give him back his grandfather’s kingdom. David says: all that belonged to Mephibosheth is yours. Shimei, of the clan of Saul, comes out and curses David and throws stones at him. He calls him a man of blood and says the Lord has avenged on him all the blood of the house of Saul. Abishai says: let me go over and take off his head. David says no: if he is cursing because the Lord has said curse David, who can ask why? Perhaps the Lord will see my affliction and repay me good for this cursing today. David and his men walk on and Shimei curses alongside them.
In Jerusalem, Hushai the Archite comes to Absalom and says: long live the king. Absalom is suspicious but Hushai explains himself plausibly: am I not the servant of him whom the Lord and this people have chosen? As I served your father so I will serve you. Absalom consults Ahithophel. He advises Absalom to go in to his father’s concubines, to make himself a stench to his father, to strengthen the hands of all who are with him. Absalom goes in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
Reflection
David’s response to Shimei is one of the most theologically mature moments in all his years as king, and it comes at his lowest point. He is stripped of his throne, walking in the dust, being pelted with stones and cursed by a man he has done nothing to. And he says: let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. He is not performing patience. He is reading the moment theologically: if God has allowed this, there is something in it for me to receive. It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and the Lord will repay me good for this cursing today. That is a man who still trusts the God who disciplines, who has not confused divine discipline with divine abandonment.
The fulfillment of Nathan’s prophecy on the rooftop is worth naming plainly. What David did to Uriah and Bathsheba in secret — using the house of the king for the gratification of appetite while people were dying in his service — is now mirrored in what Absalom does in public, on the rooftop, before all Israel and before the sun. The Lord said so through Nathan. The Lord is faithful, even to his words of consequence. The same God who promises does not flinch at his own judgments.