{"commentary":{"id":"keil-delitzsch","name":"Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary","website":"https://worthy.bible/commentaries/keil-delitzsch-commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"bb5cc0f9cfe0a93b3c903bb6972c6bc8c4e9f2bd3be6c2a6d276737cf9c5edce","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":39,"totalNumberOfChapters":909,"totalNumberOfVerses":6516,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"2SA","commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","name":"2 Samuel","commonName":"2 Samuel","introduction":"The Book of 2 Samuel\n\nIntroduction to 2 Samuel\n\n(For more see the Introduction to 1 Samuel.)\n\nThis book contains the history of David's reign, arranged according to its leading features: viz., (1) the commencement of his reign as king of Judah at Hebron, whereas the other tribes of Israel adhered to the house of Saul (2 Samuel 1-4); (2) his promotion to be king over all Israel, and the victorious extension of his sway (2 Samuel 5-9); (3) the decline of his power in consequence of his adultery (2 Samuel 10-20); (4) the close of his reign (2 Samuel 21-24). Parallels and supplements to this history, in which the reign of David is described chiefly in its connection with the development of the kingdom of God under the Old Testament, are given in 1 Chron 11-28, where we have an elaborate description of the things done by David, both for the elevation and organization of the public worship of God, and also for the consolidation and establishment of the whole kingdom, and the general administration of government.\n\nI. David King Over Judah; and Ishbosheth King Over Israel\n\nWhen David received the tidings at Ziklag of the defeat of Israel and the death of Saul, he mourned deeply and sincerely for the fallen king and his noble son Jonathan (2 Samuel 1). He then returned by the permission of God into the land of Judah, namely to Hebron, and was anointed king of Judah by the elders of that tribe; whereas Abner, the cousin and chief general of Saul, took Ishbosheth, the only remaining son of the fallen monarch, and made him king over the other tribes of Israel at Mahanaim (Sa2 2:1-11). This occasioned a civil war. Abner marched to Gibeon against David with the forces of Ishbosheth, but was defeated by Joab, David's commander-in-chief, and pursued to Mahanaim, in which pursuit Abner slew Asahel the brother of Joab, who was eagerly following him (2 Samuel 2:12-32). Nevertheless, the conflict between the house of David and the house of Saul continued for some time longer, but with the former steadily advancing and the latter declining, until at length Abner quarrelled with Ishbosheth, and persuaded the tribes that had hitherto adhered to him to acknowledge David as king over all Israel. After the negotiations with David for effecting this, he was assassinated by Joab on his return from Hebron-an act at which David not only expressed his abhorrence by a solemn mourning for Abner, but declared it still more openly by cursing Joab's crime (2 Samuel 3). Shortly afterwards, Ishbosheth was assassinated in his own house by two Benjaminites; but this murder was also avenged by David, who ordered the murderers to be put to death, and the head of Ishbosheth, that had been delivered up to him, to be buried in Abner's tomb (Sa2 4:1-12). Thus the civil war and the threatened split in the kingdom were brought to an end, though without any complicity on the part of David, but rather against his will, viz., through the death of Abner, the author of the split, and of Ishbosheth, whom he had placed upon the throne, both of whom fell by treacherous hands, and received the reward of their rebellion against the ordinance of God. David himself, in his long school of affliction under Saul, had learned to put all his hope in the Lord his God; and therefore, when Saul was dead, he took no steps to grasp by force the kingdom which God had promised him, or to remove his rival out of the way by crime.","order":10,"numberOfChapters":24,"sha256":"2e083da87c519c55d4c78cb1cfa209856bf2a41b66bb0071b5db5fc97a2b5de1","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/2SA/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","book":"2SA","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":24,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/2SA/24.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","book":"2SA","chapter":24},"totalNumberOfVerses":198},"chapter":{"number":9,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":1,"content":["Sa2 9:1-4\nWhen David inquired whether there was any one left of the house of Saul to whom he could show favour for Jonathan's sake (ישׁ־עוד הכי: is it so that there is any one? = there is certainly some one left), a servant of Saul named Ziba was summoned, who told the king that there was a son of Jonathan living in the house of Machir at Lodebar, and that he was lame in his feet. אישׁ עוד האפס, \"is there no one at all besides?\" The ל before בּית is a roundabout way of expressing the genitive, as in Sa1 16:18, etc., and is obviously not to be altered into מבּית, as Thenius proposes. \"The kindness of God\" is love and kindness shown in God, and for God's sake (Luk 6:36). Machir the son of Ammiel was a rich man, judging from Sa2 17:27, who, after the death of Saul and Jonathan, had received the lame son of the latter into his house. Lodebar (לודבר, written לאדבר in Sa2 17:27, but erroneously divided by the Masoretes into two words in both passages) was a town on the east of Mahanaim, towards Rabbath Amman, probably the same place as Lidbir (Jos 13:26); but it is not further known.\nSa2 9:5-7\nDavid sent for this son of Jonathan (Mephibosheth: cf. Sa2 4:4), and not only restored his father's possessions in land, but took him to his own royal table for the rest of his life. \"Fear not,\" said David to Mephibosheth, when he came before him with the deepest obeisance, to take away any anxiety lest the king should intend to slay the descendants of the fallen king, according to the custom of eastern usurpers. It is evident from the words, \"I will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father,\" that the landed property belonging to Saul had either fallen to David as crown lands, or had been taken possession of by distant relations after the death of Saul. \"Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually,\" i.e., eat at my table all thy life long, or receive thy food from my table.\nSa2 9:8\nMephibosheth expressed his thanks for this manifestation of favour with the deepest obeisance, and a confession of his unworthiness of any such favour. On his comparison of himself to a \"dead dog,\" see at Sa1 24:15. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["David then summoned Ziba the servant of Saul, told him of the restoration of Saul's possessions to his son Mephibosheth, and ordered him, with his sons and servants, to cultivate the land for the son of his lord. The words, \"that thy master's son may have food to eat,\" are not at variance with the next clause, \"Mephibosheth shall eat bread alway at my table,\" as bread is a general expression, including all the necessaries of life. Although Mephibosheth himself ate daily as a guest at the king's table, he had to make provision as a royal prince for the maintenance of his own family and servants, as he had children according to Sa2 9:12 and Ch1 8:34. Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants (Sa2 9:10), with whom he had probably been living in Gibeah, Saul's native place, and may perhaps have hitherto farmed Saul's land. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Ziba promised to obey the king's command. The last clause of this verse is a circumstantial clause in form, with which the writer passes over to the conclusion of his account. But the words שׁלחני על שׁלחן, \"at my table,\" do not tally with this, as they require that the words should be taken as David's own. This is precluded, however, not only by the omission of any intimation that David spoke again after Ziba, and repeated what he had said once already, and that without any occasion whatever, but also by the form of the sentence, more especially the participle אכל. There is no other course left, therefore, than to regard שׁלחני (my table) as written by mistake for דּוד שׁלחן: \"but Mephibosheth ate at David's table as one of the king's sons.\" The further notices in Sa2 9:12 and Sa2 9:13 follow this in a very simple manner. בּית מושׁב כּל, \"all the dwelling,\" i.e., all the inhabitants of Ziba's house, namely his sons and servants, were servants of Mephibosheth, i.e., worked for him and cultivated his land, whilst he himself took up his abode at Jerusalem, to eat daily at the king's table, although he was lamed in both his feet. \n"]}],"introduction":"David's Kindness towards Mephibosheth - Sa2 9:1-13\nWhen David was exalted to be king over all Israel, he sought to show compassion to the house of the fallen king, and to repay the love which his noble-minded friend Jonathan had once sworn to him before the Lord (Sa1 20:13.; comp. Sa2 23:17-18). The account of this forms the conclusion of, or rather an appendix to, the first section of the history of his reign, and was intended to show how David was mindful of the duty of gratitude and loving fidelity, even when he reached the highest point of his regal authority and glory. The date when this occurred was about the middle of David's reign, as we may see from the fact, that Mephibosheth, who was five years old when Saul died (Sa2 4:4), had a young son at the time (Sa2 9:12). \n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/2SA/9.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","book":"2SA","chapter":9},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/2SA/10.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","book":"2SA","chapter":10},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/keil-delitzsch/2SA/8.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"keil-delitzsch","book":"2SA","chapter":8},"numberOfVerses":3}