II Samuel 20-24 - David's Offering

Well, that was quick. As soon as David has the twelve tribes reunited, Sheba the Benjaminite (Saul’s tribe) incites a rebellion and takes the northern tribes with him. In the ensuing chaos, Joab takes the opportunity to murder Amasa and resumes his role as commander of David’s army. A “wise woman” from Abel then negotiates with Joab and gives up Sheba so that her city might be spared.

If the sword does not depart from David’s house (12:10), it certainly doesn’t depart from Saul’s either. David hands over seven of Saul’s sons and grandsons to be murdered by the Gibeonites – supposedly for a wrong Saul had done them before (one that is never mentioned directly in the text). When Rizpah, the mother of two of Saul’s sons, goes to great lengths to protect their corpses, David finally arranges to have the bones of Saul and all his sons properly buried in their ancestral home. Once again, a woman reminds David of his humanity. Rizpah joins a long line – Abigail, the wise woman of Tekoa, etc. We’re told: “After that, God heeded supplications for the land” (21:14).

In between accounts of battles with giants and a list of David’s warriors, we get two poems – one very similar to Psalm 18 and David’s official last words in oracle form (although he also speaks quite clearly in I Kings 1-2). The psalm seems oddly placed, given that much of the book reveals David’s lack of “cleanness” (22:21, 25). If anything, God’s deliverance is in spite of David’s faults rather than a reward for his purity. Is it true what this poem says of the LORD: “with the pure you show yourself pure, and with the crooked you show yourself perverse” (22:27)? One could argue that’s exactly what happens in chapter 24; the LORD responds with perverseness to the crookedness David has exhibited throughout the book. A less jaded eye might say that David’s character before the LORD is best preserved in the poetry attributed to him and in the responsibility he takes for his actions. Perhaps we should judge him in that light too – and not just by his mistakes and maneuvering.

The last episode in II Samuel deals with David’s punishment for taking a military census. After all his legitimate crimes against his fellow humans, why does the LORD get so upset over what “the anger of the LORD” incites David to do in the first place? Is David relying too much on military might and a healthy tax base and not enough on the LORD? (According to I Chronicles 21:1, it is Satan who persuades David to count the people.) Regardless, the king’s actions have a devastating ripple effect.

The prophet Gad offers David three alternatives, and the king chooses pestilence over famine or foreign pursuit – saying “let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into human hands” (24:14). According to the text, thousands upon thousands die as a result. David responds: “I alone have sinned, and I alone have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house” (24:17). He does his best to take responsibility for what he has done. Gad directs David to build an altar and offer burnt offerings on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (which eventually becomes the altar site for the Temple in Jerusalem), for which he insists on paying in full: “I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing” (24:24). At last, the plague ends – and the stage is set for the building of the Temple under Solomon in I Kings.

What do you make of all this bloodshed and loss? How does David’s story end? Keep reading! In the meantime, click on “comments” and add your reflections…