2 Samuel 21:2

_AND THE KING CALLED THE GIBEONITES, AND SAID UNTO THEM; (NOW THE GIBEONITES WERE NOT OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, BUT OF THE REMNANT OF THE AMORITES; AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HAD SWORN UNTO THEM: AND SAUL SOUGHT TO SLAY THEM IN HIS ZEAL TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH.)_ The king called the Gibeonites - i:e., David called the small remnant of them that survived, chiefly of the Beerothites (1 Samuel 22:7), and his addressing them was in consequence of the answer he had received from the oracle of Yahweh. Whether his consultation with the Gibeonites, as to the satisfaction they required was David's own spontaneous act, or commanded by God is not said; but the latter is most probable as a statue was involved which none but God Himself could dispense with (Deuteronomy 24:16).

1-9 Every affliction arises from sin, and should lead us to repent and humble ourselves before God; but some troubles especially show that they are sent to bring sin to remembrance. God's judgments often look a great way back, which requires us to do so, when we are under his rebukes. It is not for us to object against the people's smarting for the sin of their king; perhaps they helped him. Nor against this generation suffering for the sin of the last. God often visits the sins of the fathers upon the children, and he gives no account of any matters. Time does not wear out the guilt of sin; nor can we build hopes of escape upon the delay of judgments. If we cannot understand all the reasons of Providence in this matter, still we have no right to demand that God should acquaint us with those reasons. It must be right, because it is the will of God, and in the end it will be proved to be...

Verse 2 Samuel 21:2. _THE REMNANT OF THE AMORITES_] The Gibeonites were _Hivites_, not Amorites, as appears from Joshua 11:19: but _Amorites_ is a name often given to the Canaanites in general, Genesis 15:16; Amos 2:9, and elsewhere....

The way in which the writer here refers to the history of the league with the Gibeonites Joshua 9 shows that the Book of Joshua was not a part of the same work as the Books of Samuel. OF THE AMORITES - The Gibeonites were Hivites Joshua 9:7; Joshua 11:19; and in many enumerations of the Canaanite nations the Hivites are distinguished from the Amorites. But “Amorite” is often used in a more comprehensive sense, equivalent to “Canaanite” (as Genesis 15:16; Deuteronomy 1:27), and denoting especially that

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

AND THE KING CALLED THE GIBEONITES,.... Sent messengers unto them, and summoned them to come to him, AND SAID UNTO THEM; what is expressed in 2 Samuel 21:3; for what follows is in a parenthesis: (NOW THE GIBEONITES [WERE] NOT OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; originally, though they were proselyted to the Jewish religion, and were employed in the menial services of the sanctuary: BUT OF THE REMNANT OF THE AMORITES; they were the remains of the old Canaanites, who sometimes in general were called Amorites, otherwise the Gibeonites were called Hivites; see Joshua 9:7; AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HAD SWORN UNTO THEM; by their princes, as Joshua; yet, and Saul, contrary to this oath, sought to slay them in his zeal to the children

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...

1 SAMUEL 21-24. These Chapter s form an appendix of material from various sources. One of the editors, perhaps the one to whom the book substantially owes its present form, seems to have met with difficulties in an attempted rearrangement of some of the material; finding no other convenient place for 2 Samuel 21:1 Samuel 24, he added them at the end, as a kind of appendix. He or someone else inserted between them the catalogue of heroes (2 Samuel 21:15; 2 Samuel 23:8); later on someone inserted 1 Samuel 22 and 1 Samuel 23:8 in the middle of the catalogue. The reader must remember that ancient editors and scribes had no

GIBEONITES. Compare Joshua 9:3; Joshua 9:16; Joshua 9:17. NOW. Note the Figure of speech _Parenthesis.App-6._ WERE. they [were]. CHILDREN. sons....

_the Amorites Amorites_(highlanders) is here and elsewhere used as a general designation for the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, particularly those who occupied the mountainous country. See note on 1 Samuel 7:14. The Gibeonites belonged to the tribe of the Hivites. _had sworn unto them_ See Joshua 9:3 ff. The oath though obtained by fraud was acknowledged to be binding (Joshua 9:19-20), and its violation was a breach of the third commandment (Exodus 20:7). _in his zeal_ Probably in a fit of zeal to carry out the Law by cleansing the land from the remnant of the heathen ...