2 Samuel 21:17

_BUT ABISHAI THE SON OF ZERUIAH SUCCOURED HIM, AND SMOTE THE PHILISTINE, AND KILLED HIM. THEN THE MEN OF DAVID SWARE UNTO HIM, SAYING, THOU SHALT GO NO MORE OUT WITH US TO BATTLE, THAT THOU QUENCH NOT THE LIGHT OF ISRAEL._ Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel. They show the importance attached to the preservation of the king's life by this beautiful and expressive image (cf. 1 Kings 11:36; Psalms 132:17)....

15-22 These events seem to have taken place towards the end of David's reign. David fainted, but he did not flee, and God sent help in the time of need. In spiritual conflicts, even strong saints sometimes wax faint; then Satan attacks them furiously; but those who stand their ground and resist him, shall be relieved and made more than conquerors. Death is a Christian's last enemy, and a son of Anak; but through Him that triumphed for us, believers shall be more than conquerors at last, even over that enemy....

Verse 2 Samuel 21:17. _THAT THOU QUENCH NOT THE LIGHT OF ISRAEL._] David is here considered as the _lamp_ by which all Israel was guided, and without whom all the nation must be involved in darkness. The lamp is the emblem of _direction_ and _support_. Light is used in this sense by Homer: - Ουδε τι Πατροκλῳ γενομην φαος, αυδ ' ἑταροισιπ Τοις αλλοις, οἱ δη πολεες δαμεν Ἑκτορι διῳ. _Iliad_, lib. xviii. ver. 102. "I have neither been a LIGHT to Patroclus nor to his companions, who have been slain by the noble Hector....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 21:1 THERE WAS A FAMINE IN THE DAYS OF DAVID; Hebrew, _and there was. _There is an entire absence of any mark of time to show in what part of David's reign this famine took place. It does not even follow, from the mention of Mephibosheth's name, that it must have happened at a time subsequent to the sending for that prince from Machir's house; for it may have been the search after the descendants of Saul which made David remember the son of his old friend. The burial, however, of the bones of Saul and Jonathan as an act of respect to the slaughtered king makes it probable that the narrative belongs to the early part of David's reign, as also does the apparent fact that the seven victims were all young and unmarried. Mephibosheth, we read, had a young son when David sent for him. Now, he was five years old whe

BUT ABISHAI THE SON OF ZERUIAH SUCCOURED HIM,.... Observing him in danger, made haste to his relief: AND SMOTE THE PHILISTINE, AND KILLED HIM; it seems as if Abishai engaged with the Philistine, and killed him; but inasmuch as it will bear to be interpreted of David, and since the four giants here and hereafter mentioned are said to fall by the hand of David and his servants, 2 Samuel 21:22, it may be thought that this man fell by his hand; seeing it is clear that all the rest fell by the hands of his servants: THEN THE MEN OF DAVID SWARE UNTO HIM; after they had observed the danger he was exposed unto, and how narrowly he escaped with his life: SAYING, THOU SHALT GO NO MORE WITH US TO BATTLE; they had persuaded him not to go to the battle with Absalom; they had suffered him to go with them now, he being, no doubt, forward and p

IV. THE APPENDIX TO THE HISTORY OF DAVID 1. The Famines and the Wars with the Philistines CHAPTER 21 _ 1. The Famine and the Gibeonites (2 Samuel 21:1)_ 2. The Wars with the Philistines (2 Samuel 21:15) The fourth section of the second book of Samuel is an appendix to the history of David. When the great famine happened in the days of David we do not know. After the famine had returned year after year, for three years, David inquired of the Lord. Why did he not inquire in the first year? It is an evidence of the low spiritual state which prevailed at that time. The answer which David received revealed the cause of the judgment which rested upon the land. It was Saul and the blood-guilt in having slain the Gibeonites. The story of the Gibeonites is recorded in...

DAVID'S HEROES (first section). _Cf._ above. (J). These verses are probably from the same source as 2 Samuel 23:8 ff., and the source is no doubt ancient. The events in 2 Samuel 21:15 ff. and 2 Samuel 23:8 ff. belong to various periods in the life of David. 2 SAMUEL 21:15. ABISHAI RESCUES DAVID. The text of 2 Samuel 21:16 is corrupt; the general sense seems to have been: At Gob, some place otherwise unknown, David was in danger from a giant whose name has been lost through corruption of the text....

LIGHT. lamp. Compare Genesis 15:17; 1 Kings 15:4.Proverbs 13:9; Proverbs 20:20, though not the same word in Genesis 15:17,...

Heroic exploits in the Philistine wars This section is quite unconnected with the preceding narrative. It is perhaps a fragment from some "book of golden deeds" recording the exploits of David and his warriors. From such a chronicle may also be derived ch. 2 Samuel 23:8-39, possibly ch. 2 Samuel 5:17-25, and some other sections of the book. 2 Samuel 21:18 are also preserved in Chronicles, where they are placed immediately after the capture of Rabbah (1 Chronicles 20:4-8)....

_Battles With the Philistines._ 2 Samuel 21:15-22 15 Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint. 16 And Ishbi-benob, which _was_ of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear _weighed_ three hundred _shekels_ of brass in weight, he being girded with a new _sword,_ thought to have slain David. 17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel. 18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which _was_ of the sons of the giant. 19 And there was again a bat