2 Samuel 20

2 Samuel 20

MacArthur notes that "Sheba's declaration (ED: BUT SEE WIERSBE'S COMMENT ABOVE) that the northern tribes had no part in David's realm was similar to words later used in 1Ki 12:16 when Israel seceded from the united kingdom under Jeroboam. (Borrow The MacArthur Study Bible) Don Anderson - Here the king was coming back, and everything should have been going well. But jealousy throws a monkey wrench into the whole works. That is what happens in our own churches. People get so caught up in their own petty jealousies and arguments they don’t see what damage they do to the church as a whole. Christ gets pushed into the background and people just square off for rebellion and battle. And believe me, there is always a Sheba around to start the ball rolling. When tempers run high, people act without thinking. Sheba, a Benjamite, evidently nursed the tribal grudge against David....Remember God’s judgment on David: “The sword will not depart from the house of David,” But we never hear any complaint from David....(Sheba a Benjaminite) makes you wonder how Shimei and the 1,000 Benjamites who came down to meet the king and Shimei especially having experienced this gracious forgiveness, handled this present uprising." Life application study Bible (borrow) - Although Israel was a united kingdom, it was still made up of 12 separate tribes. These tribes often had difficulty agreeing on the goals of the nation as a whole. Tribal jealousies had originally kept Israel from completely conquering the Promised Land (read the book of Joshua), and now tribal jealousies were threatening the stability of David's reign by giving Sheba an opportunity to rebel (2Sa 20:1ff). Walton on Sheba’s declaration. The troops of all the tribes but Israel, feeling like outcasts in the re-installation process, do not initiate military action against Judah or David but simply abandon David under the leadership of Sheba (he sends them “to their tents” rather than mustering them for battle). Sheba’s declaration effectively announces withdrawal of support of David’s kingship, but it does not indicate support for another king. Since Sheba is a Benjaminite, it is possible that there is still some linkage to the house of Saul and that a Saulide would be sought, but the text does not reveal that element. (See page 349 IVP Bible Background Commentary) The Complete Biblical Library – Samuel. - Much flammable material being thus provided, a casual spark speedily set it on fire. Sheba, an artful Benjamite, raised the standard of revolt against David, and the excited ten tribes, smarting with the fierce words of the men of Judah, flocked to his standard. It was a most miserable proceeding! The quarrel had begun about a mere point of etiquette, and now they cast off God’s anointed king, and that, too, after the most signal token of God’s anger had fallen on Absalom and his rebellious crew. There are many wretched enough slaveries in this world, but the slavery of pride is perhaps the most mischievous and humiliating of all. Worthless (wicked, Belial)(01100) beliyyaal from belî + yaʿal: "not, without" and "to be of use, worth, or profit.") A worthless person, good for nothing to himself or others, and capable of nothing but mischief. Some feel that the word Belial can be traced to the false god Baal, and is also a term for yoke (they cast off the yoke of decency), and a term for entangling or injuring. The LXX renders it according to the context by the terms paranomos, anomia, and aphrōn, i.e. "lawless, lawlessness, witless." By the NT time, Belial had become synonymous with Satan (cf. 2 Cor. 6:15+). There is one use we would all do well to ponder and in the power of the Spirit affirm or declare (or pray) to be true in our life from time to time... I will set no worthless (beliyyaal) thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not fasten (dabaq) its grip on me. (Psalm 101:3+) (MARK IT DOWN - WORTHLESS IMAGES CAN BE VERY "STICKY" IN YOUR MIND'S EYE! I AM SPEAKING ESPECIALLY TO YOU MEN AS YOU KNOW TO WHAT I AM REFERRING!) Beliyyaal - 26v - base(1), destruction(1), rascally(1), scoundrels*(1), ungodliness(1), wicked(3), worthless(18), worthless one(1). Deut. 13:13; Deut. 15:9; Jdg. 19:22; Jdg. 20:13; 1 Sam. 1:16; 1 Sam. 2:12; 1 Sam. 10:27; 1 Sam. 25:17; 1 Sam. 25:25; 1 Sam. 30:22; 2 Sam. 16:7; 2 Sam. 20:1; 2 Sam. 22:5; 2 Sam. 23:6; 1 Ki. 21:10; 1 Ki. 21:13; 2 Chr. 13:7; Job 34:18; Ps. 18:4; Ps. 41:8; Ps. 101:3; Prov. 6:12; Prov. 16:27; Prov. 19:28; Nah. 1:11; Nah. 1:15 ISBE - Sheba - Heb. id. A "son of Bichri," of the family of Becher, the son of Benjamin, and thus of the stem from which Saul was descended (2 Sam. 20:1-22). When David was returning to Jerusalem after the defeat of Absalom, a strife arose between the ten tribes and the tribe of Judah, because the latter took the lead in bringing back the king. Sheba took advantage of this state of things, and raised the standard of revolt, proclaiming, "We have no part in David." With his followers he proceeded northward. David seeing it necessary to check this revolt, ordered Abishai to take the gibborim, "mighty men," and the body-guard and such troops as he could gather, and pursue Sheba. Joab joined the expedition, and having treacherously put Amasa to death, assumed the command of the army. Sheba took refuge in Abel-Bethmaachah, a fortified town some miles north of Lake Merom. While Joab was engaged in laying siege to this city, Sheba's head was, at the instigation of a "wise woman" who had held a parley with him from the city walls, thrown over the wall to the besiegers, and thus the revolt came to an end. Josephus Antiquities 7 (chapter 11.6) - While these rulers were thus disputing one with another, a certain wicked man, who took a pleasure in seditious practices, his name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, of the tribe of Benjamin, stood up in the midst of the multitude; and cried aloud, and spake thus to them: “We have no parts in David; nor inheritance in the son of Jesse.” And when he had used those words, he blew with a trumpet, and declared war against the King. And they all left David, and followed him: the tribe of Judah alone staid with him, and settled him in his royal palace at Jerusalem. But as for his concubines, with whom Absalom his son had accompanied, truly he removed them to another house; and ordered those that had the care of them to make a plentiful provision for them: but he came not near them any more. He also appointed Amasa for the captain of his forces: and gave him the same high office which Joab before had: and commanded him to gather together, out of the tribe of Judah, as great an army as he could; and come to him within three days: that he might deliver to him his entire army; and might send him to fight against [Sheba] the son of Bichri. Now while Amasa was gone out, and made some delay in gathering the army together, and so was not yet returned, on the third day the King said to Joab,24 “It is not fit we should make any delay in this affair of Sheba; lest he get a numerous army about him, and be the occasion of greater mischief, and hurt our affairs more than did Absalom himself. Do not thou therefore wait any longer, but take such forces as thou hast at hand, and that [old] body of six hundred men,25 and thy brother Abishai with thee; and pursue after our enemy, and endeavour to fight him wheresoever thou canst overtake him. Make haste to prevent him; lest he seize upon some fenced cities, and cause us great labour and pains before we take him.” (NOTE: JOSEPHUS SEES DAVID AS GIVING THE COMMAND BACK TO JOAB, BUT THE TEXT INDICATES HE GAVE IT TO ABISHAI JOAB'S BROTHER). G Campbell Morgan (borrow Life applications from every chapter of the Bible) -We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.-2 Sam. 20.1. This was the cry raised by an evil man who sought to divide the kingdom and tocreate a position for himself. It was extremely clever, in that it was of the nature of a protest against a certainly unjustifiable action on the part of the men of Judah. The roots of the trouble are found in the preceding chapter. The tribes of Israel had been the first to propose the restoration of the king after the defeat of Absalom (19.D, io). The men of Judah had not invited them to take part in the great gathering at Gilgal. This had raised their anger. Occasion invariably finds a man for evil, as well as for good. This chapter opens with the words: "And there happened to be there a base fellow." He it was who sought personal aggrandisement, and made this hour of tension his occasion. The movement was quickly defeated, as Joab, with relentless anger, quelled the insurrection. The story should teach us that popular and plausible catchwords ought to be received and acted upon with great caution. There may often be an element of truth in complaints which are made; but when they are made, careful attention should be paid to the character of the men who voice them. Too often evil men are thus allowed to make a just cause the occasion of seeking, not its rectification, but the bringing about of some evil design subversive of all that is highest in the interests of the people who complain. That Judah blunders, is no reason why the kingdom should be disrupted. Injustice is never corrected by a yet deeper wrong. 2 Samuel 20:2 So all the men of Israel withdrew from following David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah remained steadfast to their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem. All the men of Israel: 2Sa 19:41 Ps 62:9 118:8-10 Pr 17:14 the men of Judah: Joh 6:66-68 Ac 11:23 from the Jordan even to Jerusalem: 2Sa 19:15,40,41 2Ch 10:17 2 Samuel 20 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: 2 Samuel 19:41 And behold, all the men of Israel came to the king and said to the king, “Why had our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king and his household and all David’s men with him over the Jordan?” Samuel 19:15 The king then returned and came as far as the Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal in order to go to meet the king, to bring the king across the Jordan. MEN OF ISRAEL REBEL AND FOLLOW SHEBA So - For this reason. What reason? All the men of Israel withdrew from following David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri - All of Israel (primarily the northern tribes) would indicate that men from other tribes threw in their lot with Sheba the Benjaminite. but - Marks an important contrast. The men of Judah remained steadfast to their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem - The tribe of Judah remained loyal to King David. The verb steadfast is dabaq (Lxx = kollao) which pictures these men as "sticking like glue" (cf Ge 2:24+) to King David! In short, it was only the troops from Judah who would be left to escort David back to Jerusalem. Steadfast (1692) dabaq means to stick to, adhere to, cling to, join with, stay with, stay in close proximity to and which yields the noun form for "glue". Dabaq describes something that sticks or clings to something else (Ezek 29:4 and Ezekiel’s tongue to roof of his mouth Ezek. 3:26). Dabaq often refers to physical things sticking to each other, especially parts of the body as described vividly by Job who said "My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth" (Job 19:20, cf one's tongue "stuck to their palate" Job 29:10). Dabaq also conveys the ideas of loyalty and devotion as in the first use of dabaq where "a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh" (Ge 2:24+) which also emphasizes the basic meaning of being intimately joined to another and of being identified with one another, even as Ruth was now committing to be "identified" no longer with the Moabites but primarily with Naomi, her people and her God. F B