Chapter 26 - Shaul in David's Hands a Second Time (2)
The
Book of Shmuel
Lecture
51: Chapter 26
Shaul
in David's Hands a second Time (Part II)
Rav
Amnon Bazak
IV. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DAVID AND AVISHAI
We saw in the previous lecture that the second incident in which Shaul
fell into the hands of David repaired what happened the first time that he fell
into David's hands in chapter 24, where David's hesitation was evident and the
step that he took (cutting off the skirt of Shaul's robe) involved a certain
humiliation of Shaul. In this lecture, we will continue to deal with additional
aspects of the story.
Let us begin with David's descent to Shaul's camp:
(6)
Then answered David and said to Achimelekh the Chittite and to Avishai the son
of Tzeruya,[1]
brother to Yoav, saying, "Who will go down with me to Shaul to the camp?" And
Avishai said, "I will go down with you."
In the previous lecture, we dealt with the figure of Achimelekh, who did
not go down with David. This time we will discuss the one who volunteered to go
down with David: Avishai the son of Tzeruya. There is a certain problem with
this verse: Presenting Avishai the son of Tzeruya as "brother to Yoav" is a bit
puzzling, for Yoav has not yet been mentioned in Scripture.[2]
Scripture appears to have had a reason for mentioning Yoav here, the nature of
which we shall discuss below.
When David and Avishai arrive in Shaul's camp and see Shaul and all the
people sleeping, an argument develops between them:
(8)
Then said Avishai to David, "God has delivered up your enemy into your hand this
day; now therefore let me smite him, I pray you, with the spear to the earth[3]
at one stroke, and I will not smite him the second time." (9) And David said to
Avishai, "Destroy him not; for who can put forth his hand against the Lord's
anointed, and be guiltless?"
As mentioned in the previous lecture, this argument brings to mind the
argument between David and his men in chapter 24. Nevertheless, attention should
be paid to a striking difference between the words of Avishai here and the words
of David's men in chapter 24. There, David's men suggested to David:
"And
you shall do to him as it shall seem good unto you"
(24:4), whereas here Avishai offers on his own initiative: "Now
therefore let me smite him, I pray you, with the spear to the earth at one
stroke, and I will not smite him a second time."
On the one hand, this proposal attests to Avishai's courage and bravery, but on
the other hand, and more significantly, it attests to his hot and violent
temperament.
We shall encounter this temperament at later stages as well. When David
flees
Then
said Avishai the son of Tzeruya to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my
lord the king? Let me go over, I pray you, and take off his head." (II Shmuel
16:9)
There, David also responds sharply to Avishai's proposal, and rejects it
for religious reasons:
And
the king said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Tzeruya? So let him
curse, because the Lord has said to him, 'Curse David,' who shall then say, 'Why
have you done so?'" And David said to Avishai and to all his servants, "Behold,
my son, who came out of my body, seeks my life; how much more now may this
Binyaminite do it? Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord has bidden
him. It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction, and that the Lord will
requite me good for his cursing this day." (ibid. 10-12)
David accepts Shimi the son of
Without
a doubt, Yoav's violent personality is even more striking than that of Avishai.
It is Yoav who kills Avner the son of Ner, Shaul's commander who went over to
David's camp (see II Shmuel 3);[5]
it is he who kills Avshalom the son of David (ibid. 18); and it is he who kills
Amasa the son of Yeter, whom David had appointed to replace Yoav at the end of
Avshalom's rebellion (ibid. 20).[6]
David is familiar with the might and courage of Yoav and Avishai, which reach
their climax in their ability to decide the war "before and behind" against
In the continuation of the story of Shim'i the son of
And
Shim'i the son of Gera fell down before the king, as he came over the Jordan;
and he said to the king, "Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither
remember that which your servant did perversely that day that my lord the king
went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart. For your
servant knows that I have sinned: therefore, behold, I am come the first this
day of all the house of Yosef to do down to meet my lord the king." (II
Shmuel 19:19-21)
Avishai the son of Tzeruya is not impressed by Shim'i's act, and advises
David not to forgive him for what he had done:
But
Avishai the son of Tzeruya answered and said, "Shall not Shim'i be put to death
for this, because he cursed the Lord's anointed?" (ibid. v.
22)
It seems that it is not by chance that Avishai uses the expression, "the
Lord's anointed," which sends the reader back to our chapter. It is as if
Avishai were saying to David: When I suggested that you strike at Shaul when he
was chasing after you, you prevented me from doing so by arguing that Shaul is
the "the Lord's anointed;" now, when Shim'i the son of
And
David said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Tzeruya, that you should
this day be a hindrance to me? Shall there be any man be put to death this day
in
David rejects Avishai's proposal even though he agrees that Shim'i
deserves to be punished, as is evident from the instructions that he gives
Shlomo on his deathbed, where he tells him to find a way to strike at Shim'i.
David's vision is broader than Avishai's, and he justifiably assumes that
killing Shim'i on this special day would interfere with his objective of uniting
the kingdom; he therefore must overcome his narrow personal interest. This point
the ability to rise above his natural impulse to react aggressively ties
together all of David's confrontations with the sons of
Tzeruya.
In
our chapter, in any event, David manages to stop Avishai, but it would appear
that Avishai did not accept David's approach in a good
spirit:
(11)
"The
Lord forbid it to me, that I should put forth my hand against the Lord's
anointed; but now take, I pray you, the spear that is at his head, and the cruse
of water and let us go." (12) So David took the spear and the cruse of water
from Shaul's head; and they got them away
David asks Avishai to take Shaul's spear and cruse of water, but in
actuality, it is David himself who takes them. Why is this? The Radak explains:
"After he said to Avishai, 'Take, I pray you,' he regretted it, and he did not
want Avishai to come close to him, lest he be unable to control his passion and
smite him." It might be added that it is possible that Avishai was not prepared
to accept anything less than killing Shaul and that he refused the order, so
that David had to carry it out himself. In any event, from now on, there is no
further mention of Avishai until the end of the story.
V. "FOR THEY HAVE DRIVEN ME OUT THIS DAY"
After taking his spear and the cruse of water, David turns to Avner and
speaks to him, perhaps seriously, perhaps mockingly:
(14)
And David cried to the people and to Avner the son of Ner saying, "Answer you
not, Avner?" Then Avner answered and said, "Who are you that cry to the king?"[8]
(15) And David said to Avner, "Are you not a valiant man? And who is like you in
Shaul hears David's voice and addresses him directly, and David repeats
the arguments that he had put forward in chapter 24:
(18)
And he said, "Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done?
Or what evil is in my hand? (19) Now therefore, I pray you, let my lord the king
hear the words of his servant. If it be the Lord that has incited you against
me, let Him accept an offering;[10]
but if it be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord; for they have
driven me out this day that I should not cleave unto the inheritance of the
Lord, saying, 'Go, serve other gods.'"
Conceptually, David expresses an interesting position that someone who is
driven from God's inheritance[11]
is regarded as if he had been asked to serve other gods. This is not the only
place in Scripture that this idea appears, although here it finds far-reaching
expression.
The tribes of Reuven, Gad, and Menashe expressed a similar concern when
they explained the reason for the great altar that they had constructed on the
east bank of the Jordan: "Or if we have not rather done this out of anxiety,
saying, In time to come your children might speak to our children, saying, 'What
have you to do with the Lord God of Israel? For the Lord has made the
This
conception is familiar to us from the world of idol-worship, where each god is
assigned a certain domain of its own, so that someone who left his homeland
would accept the commandments of the god of his new country.[12]
Of course, Scripture rejects the assumption that God's dominion is limited to
the Land of Israel, but nevertheless it is clear that the Land of Israel has
special standing in that it is "a land which the Lord your God cares for; the
eyes of Lord your God are always upon it" (Devarim
11:12).
Moreover, even if, from God's perspective, leaving the
Our
Rabbis taught: A person should always live in the
Our chapter concludes in the same manner as chapter
24:
(25)
Then Shaul said to David, "Blessed be you, my son David; you shall both do
mightily, and shall surely prevail." So David went his way, and Shaul returned
to his place.
And like the previous time, this time it is also clear to both sides that
the story is not finished. In any event, this is the last meeting between David
and Shaul. Shaul's end is approaching, and with it David's kingdom as
well.
(Translated
by David Strauss)
[1] According to I Divrei Ha-yamim 2:16, Tzeruya was David's sister
(as was Avigayil, as opposed to Avigayil the wife of Naval, who eventually
became David's wife). Other than there, this family connection finds no
expression anywhere else in Scripture. On the contrary, another verse in
Shmuel implies otherwise: "And Avshalom placed Amasa in charge of the
army in place of Yoav; and Amasa was the son of a man named Yitra the Yisraelite
who had taken to himself Avigayil the daughter of Nachash, sister of Tzeruya,
the mother of Yoav" (II Shmuel 17:25). The implication is that Tzeruya
and Avigayil were the children of Nachash, and not the children of Yishai! The
commentators toiled to resolve the contradiction between the verses in II
Shmuel and Divrei Ha-yamim (see Rashi, Radak and Metzudat
David, ad loc.). It can be argued that the book of Shmuel tries to
hide the family connection between David and the sons of Tzeruya for the reasons
to be given below.
[2] Other than in our verse, Yoav is first mentioned in II Shmuel
2:13. There, he is also not given any title, and it would seem from the
verse that the reader is supposed to understand on his own that we are
discussing an important person.
[3] a) This formulation of Avishai's proposal alludes that David's
opposition to killing Shaul stands in total contrast to what Shaul had tried to
do to David: "I will smite David even to the wall"
(18:11).
b) Killing a person with his own weapon is a familiar phenomenon, which
gives special expression to the debasement of the killed party. Compare: "And
David ran, and stood over the Pelishti, and took his sword, and drew it out of
the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith" (17:51); "And
Benayahu the son of Yehoyada, the son of a valiant man
and he slew an Egyptian,
a fine looking man, and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down
to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the hand of the Egyptian, and
slew him with his own spear" (II Shmuel
23:20-21).
c) Regarding the theme of Shaul's spear, see above, chapter 17 (lecture
no. 17).
[4] This recognition appears to be part of David's process of repentance for
what happened with Bat-Sheva.
[5] There, too, David expressed himself in general terms: "And I am this day
weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Tzeruya are too hard for
me: the Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness" (II
Shmuel 3:39).
[6] The way that Yoav killed Amasa "But Amasa took no heed of the sword
that was in Yoav's hand; so he smote him with it in the belly, and shed out his
bowels to the ground, and he struck him not a second time; and he died"
(II Shmuel 20:10) is reminiscent of Avishai's aggressive proposal: "Let
me smite him, I pray you, with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I
will not smite him the second time."
[7] We discussed the connection between a festive occasion and pardoning
people who deserve to die in chapters 11 and 14 (lecture no. 20, note 1, lecture
no. 26).
[8] These words are difficult, for David called out to Avner and not to the
king (in the Septuagint, version b) these words are missing). The Radak
explains: "As if it says 'al ha-melekh,' near the king. That is to say,
you were not afraid to call out in a place where the king is sleeping; you were
not concerned that you would wake him up from his sleep by calling out loud."
According to the plain sense of the verse, the argument seems to be that calling
out to Avner is regarded as a challenge to the king himself. It might also be
suggested that Avner utters two cries: "Who are you that cry" is directed at
David; "To the king," is directed at Avner's men, on the understanding that the
king's life is in danger.
[9] This word, "et," is also difficult. The Metzudat David
understands it in the sense of "with," as in the verse: "And David said unto
Shaul, 'Your servant kept his father's sheep; and when there came a lion with
(ve-et) a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock'" (17:34). Rashi
(Sanhedrin 49a, s.v. bor), however, writes: "When David said to
them: You deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, for I
could have killed him already. And now, see, where the king's spear is, and
where is (ve-ayeh) the cruse of water that was at his head." It is
possible that his text read "ei chanit
." This is also the implication of
Targum Yonatan (Keter version).
[10] These words of David raise questions, for they seem to express scorn for
God. Chazal already noted the difficulty with this expression: "Rabbi
Eliezer said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to David: You say I incited him?
I will cause you to stumble over something that even school children know. For
it is written: 'When you take the sum of the children of
Chazal
and the commentators did not see the words, "let Him accept an offering," as
problematic in themselves. They explain: "That is to say, I shall offer a
sacrifice before Him which He will accept to atone for my sin and to remove your
hate from me" (Radak). It seems, however, that this expression is problematic,
inasmuch as David is suggesting that the problem can be "solved" by bringing a
sacrifice. It is reasonable to assume that these words reflect the psychological
pressure to which David was subject at this time. They require further study.
[11] He seems to mean that he feels as if he is forced to leave Eretz
Yisrael and go to the Pelishtim, as he did already in chapter 21 and as he
will do again in the next chapter.
[12] As it is related, for example, about the Cutheans, whom the king of
Ashur exiled to Eretz Yisrael: "Then they spoke to the king of Ashur,
saying, 'The nations which you have removed, and placed in the cities of
Shomeron, know not the law of the God of the land; therefore, He has sent lions
among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the law of the
God of the land'" (II Melakhim 17:26).
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