Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 1-3.

Some people think the account given of Saul’s death here contradicts the one given at the end of 1  Samuel.  While this is true, they miss the fact that the account of his death given here is not told as what happened.  Rather, it is told as what the messenger who brought the news to David said happened.  The writer makes no comment in this passage as to whether or not the messenger is telling the truth.  Even David’s response does not necessarily tell us that David believed the messenger.  It is worth noting that the messenger was an Amalekite and that David had recently returned from chasing down a group of Amalekites who had destroyed his home and taken the women and children of his men, and himself, captive.  So, David was predisposed to think poorly of Amalekites.  The messenger did confess to killing the king, something David had refrained from doing at least twice.

I have often wondered at the hostility which David expresses towards Joab and his brother Abishai.  I think today reading this passage I finally understand it.  It is not made completely clear, but when Abner offered to come over to David, David asked for Saul’s daughter Michal to be returned to him as his wife.  Ish-Bosheth, Saul’s surviving son whom Abner had previously supported as king over Israel, ordered her taken from the man to whom King Saul had given her after David fled from Saul’s attempts to kill him.  This suggests that not only was Abner going to swear fealty to David as king, but that Ish-Bosheth would do so as well.  So, Joab killing Abner ended to opportunity to end the conflict between David and Saul’s house without further bloodshed.  After the death of Abner, Ish-Bosheth was afraid that someone among David’s men would kill him as well.  We see from David’s psalm of mourning in today’s passage that he had no enmity towards Saul’s family.  In any case, while David had stopped Abishai from killing Saul on the occasion when the two of them had snuck into Saul’s camp, he only starts complaining about how bloodthirsty Abishai and Joab were after the incident with Abner.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.