2 Samuel 19 Footnotes

19:20 Shimei is identified as a member of the tribe of Benjamin (v. 16), yet here he comes to David as the “first one of the entire house of Joseph.” This is not a contradiction of his earlier tribal identification. Especially after the division of the nation following Solomon’s death, it was not unusual to refer to all the Israelite tribes north of Judah, collectively, as the “house of Joseph” (1Kg 11:28; Ezk 37:16; Am 5:6; Ob 18; Zch 10:6). Shimei was the first person from Israel, outside of David’s own tribe of Judah, to welcome his return to the land west of the Jordan.

19:23 David swore that Shimei would not die, despite his malicious treatment of the king (16:5-13). But later, as he was about to die, David ordered Shimei’s death. According to 1Kg 2:8-9, David promised Shimei only that he—David—would not put him to death. His deathbed instruction to Solomon was to mete out the justice Shimei deserved, which Solomon did after Shimei himself provided a pretext (1Kg 2:39-46).

19:43 Why did the Israelites speak of only “ten shares” in the king, since there were twelve tribes in all (thirteen, counting Ephraim and Manasseh separately)? Warfare had torn Israel into two major factions, north and south. There are two ways to understand the number of tribes involved, both excluding Levi which had no territorial holdings of its own (Dt 10:9; 18:1). (1) The north had ten tribes, counting Ephraim and Manasseh, the Joseph tribes, as one. (2) The north had ten tribes, counting Ephraim and Manasseh separately, if Benjamin was reckoned with Judah. Jerusalem, David’s capital, was located within the territory of Benjamin, and would remain the capital of the separate kingdom of Judah after the reign of Solomon.