Bible Commentaries

And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name [was] Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.

And there happened to be there. — As all places are full of such beautefeaus and Belialists: so is hell too. God permitted, and the devil instigated this fellow to stir up this rebellion for a further correction to David; and, as some think, for his late unjust dealing with Mephibosheth.

A man of Belial. — Iniquus et nebulo, flagellum Reip, et flabellum seditionis; such as amongst us were Jack Cade or Wat Tyler, who dared to say that all the laws of England should come out of his mouth.

A Benjamite. — Of the house of Saul likely; and, as some think, one of Absalom’s captains against David, even the next to Amasa. A Lapide.

And he blew a trumpet. — Himself being Tuba rebellionis, blew a trumpet, that he might thereby assemble, and get audience among the discontented multitude, that shallow brained but great and many headed beast.

We have no part in David, — viz., As the men of Judah say, - thus he maketh use of the late unhappy contention to advance his ambitious design of setting up himself or some other of his tribe, - let us therefore relinquish him as a stranger, and make a new choice of one that will care more for us. It vexed the ten tribes, perhaps, that David sent Zadok and Abiathar to the men of Judah, to persuade with them to fetch back the king, and not unto them, and that he seemed to incline rather to them than to the rest. A prince had need to carry an even hand over his subjects, of various nations especially; or else there will be somewhat to do with them; as was lately here with the English and Scots in King James’s reign. Charles V is famous for this virtue, Ut qui singulis se parem immo patrem exhibebat.

In the son of Jesse. — This expression savoureth of Saul, and of the old enmity.

Every man to his tents, O Israel. — Look you to your business, and let him look to his.

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So every man of Israel went up from after David, [and] followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem.

So every man of Israel. — So fickle and inconstant is that neutrum modo, mas modo, vulgus, the common people. Our Saviour found it so, when their "Hosanna" was so soon changed into "Crucify him, crucify him." All this was for David’s good, that he might trust more in God, and less in the creature.

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And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women [his] concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.

And David came to his house at Jerusalem. — Which had been in his absence basely defiled, and was therefore by him newly dedicated. Psalms 30:1 , title

And put them in ward. — He committed them to perpetual, yet liberal imprisonment: because they had not rather died, as they ought to have done, than yielded to Absalom’s lust, in so public a manner especially. Pellican here observeth that David was to blame for not punishing such others, now in his power, as were either causers or consenters to that disgrace; such as was Amasa, a chief man, then about Absalom. Of one Ode Severus, Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 934, we read that he excommunicated King Edwin’s concubines; and caused one of them, whom the king doted unreasonably upon, to be fetched out of the court by violence, burnt her in the forehead with a hot iron, and banished her into Ireland. Godw., Catal., 62. Absalom had no such zealots about him; but what should David have done?

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Then said the king to Amasa, Assemble me the men of Judah within three days, and be thou here present.

Within three days. — This task was long; the time short; but the necessity was pressing. Semper nocuit differre.

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So Amasa went to assemble [the men of] Judah: but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him.

But he tarried longer. — Either through his own remissness, or the people’s unwillingness to be commanded by this new general.

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And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than [did] Absalom: take thou thy lord’s servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fenced cities, and escape us.

Do us more harm than did Absalom. — David’s endless troubles kept his body still in action, his mind in passions, and his prowess in use, as one speaketh of our King John. Speed. Affliction, saith another, so held in the Saxon kings in the Danish wars, that, having little outlets and leisure for ease and luxury, they were made the more pious, just, and careful in their government. Daniel.

Take thou thy lord’s servants. — That is, My guard, and those other that are in readiness, as 2 Samuel 20:7 .

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And there went out after him Joab’s men, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men: and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.

Joab’s men. — Those that had lately been commanded by him: but he was now Officiperda, which yet held not long, for he would not be ousted.

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When they [were] at the great stone which [is] in Gibeon, Amasa went before them. And Joab’s garment that he had put on was girded unto him, and upon it a girdle [with] a sword fastened upon his loins in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth it fell out.

And as he went forth, it fell out. — He had taught it, as it were, at a certain motion or posture of his body, to fall out of the scabbard, that taking it up in his hand again, he might inter salutandum smite Amasa, suspecting no harm.

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