Be thou also mindful of the
transgressions of Joab, (26) the
captain of the host, who hath slain two generals out of envy, and those
righteous and good men, Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether;
whose death do thou avenge as shall seem good to thee, since Joab hath been too
hard for me, and more potent than myself, and so hath escaped punishment
hitherto. I also commit to thee the son of Barzillai the Gileadite, whom, in
order to gratify me, thou shalt have in great honor, and take great care of;
for we have not done good to him first, but we only repay that debt which we
owe to his father for what he did to me in my flight. There is also Shimei the
son of Gera, of the tribe of Benjamin, who, after he had cast many reproaches
upon me, when, in my flight, I was going to Mahanaim, met me at Jordan, and
received assurances that he should then suffer nothing. Do thou now seek out
for some just occasion, and punish him." 2. When David had given
these admonitions to his son about public affairs, and about his friends, and
about those whom he knew to deserve punishment, he died, having lived seventy
years, and reigned seven years and six months in Hebron over the tribe of
Judah, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem over all the country. This man was
of an excellent character, and was endowed with all virtues that were desirable
in a king, and in one that had the preservation of so many tribes committed to
him; for he was a man of valor in a very extraordinary degree, and went readily
and first of all into dangers, when he was to fight for his subjects, as
exciting the soldiers to action by his own labors, and fighting for them, and
not by commanding them in a despotic way. He was also of very great abilities
in understanding, and apprehension of present and future circumstances, when he
was to manage any affairs. He was prudent and moderate, and kind to such as
were under any calamities; he was righteous and humane, which are good
qualities, peculiarly fit for kings; nor was he guilty of any offense in the
exercise of so great an authority, but in the business of the wife of Uriah. He
also left behind him greater wealth than any other king, either of the Hebrews
or, of other nations, ever did.
3. He was buried by his
son Solomon, in Jerusalem, with great magnificence, and with all the other
funeral pomp which kings used to be buried with; moreover, he had great and
immense wealth buried with him, the vastness of which may be easily conjectured
at by what I shall now say; for a thousand and three hundred years afterward
Hyrcanus the high priest, when he was besieged by Antiochus, that was called
the Pious, the son of Demetrius, and was desirous of giving him money to get
him to raise the siege and draw off his army, and having no other method of
compassing the money, opened one room of David's sepulcher, and took out three
thousand talents, and gave part of that sum to Antiochus; and by this means
caused the siege to be raised, as we have informed the reader elsewhere. Nay,
after him, and that many years, Herod the king opened another room, and took
away a great deal of money, and yet neither of them came at the coffins of the
kings themselves, for their bodies were buried under the earth so artfully,
that they did not appear to even those that entered into their monuments. But
so much shall suffice us to have said concerning these matters.
Footnotes
(26) David is here greatly blamed by some for recommending
Joab and Shimei to be punished by Solomon, if he could find a proper occasion,
after he had borne with the first a long while, and seemed to have pardoned the
other entirely, which Solomon executed accordingly; yet I cannot discern any
fault either in David or Solomon in these cases. Joab's murder of Abner and
Amasa were very barbarous, and could not properly be forgiven either by David
or Solomon; for a dispensing power in kings for the crime of willful murder is
warranted by no law of God, nay, is directly against it every where; nor is it,
for certain, in the power of men to grant such a prerogative to any of their
kings; though Joab was so nearly related to David, and so potent in the army
under a warlike administration, that David durst not himself put him to death,
2 Samuel 3:39; 19:7. Shimei's cursing the Lord's anointed, and this without any
just cause, was the highest act of treason against God and his anointed king,
and justly deserved death; and though David could forgive treason against
himself, yet had he done no more in the case of Shimei than promised him that
he would not then, on the day of his return and reinauguration, or upon that
occasion, himself put him to death, 2 Samuel 19:22; and he swore to him no
further, ver. 23, as the words are in Josephus, than that he would not then put
him to death, which he performed; nor was Solomon under any obligation to spare
such a traitor.
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