VI. DAVID'S TROUBLES chs. 9--20

Chapters 9-20 contrast with chapters 2-8 in that this later section is negative whereas the earlier one was positive. It records failure; the former records success. Compare the similar narrative of Saul's triumphs (1 Sam. 7-12) and his troubles (1 Sam. 13-31).

"The crumbling of the empire in these chapters is far from anticlimactic. It is an outworking of the fertility principle which the author has been presenting throughout the entire book. Even David, the successful king, is not above this principle. When he disobeyed the covenant he was judged, and since he was the king the whole nation was judged with him. Sexual sin (related to the fertility motif) was the cause of David's downfall, and his fall was followed by sexual sins in his family."¹⁴⁹

David got into trouble when he stopped being humble before God and became arrogant. He was not as bad as Eli and his sons or Saul in this respect. Had he been, God would have cut him off too instead of giving him the Davidic Covenant. Chapters 9-20 show the effects of being arrogant before God.

Scholars frequently refer to chapters 9-20 along with 1 Kings 1 and 2 as "the succession narrative."¹⁵⁰The reason for this is that the passage deals with matters that lead up to Solomon's succession of David as Israel's king.¹⁵¹Other scholars prefer to call this unit "court history"since it deals with a broader range of subjects than just Solomon's succession to the throne.¹⁵²

"Virtually all scholars agree that this is one of the finest examples of history writing from the ancient Near Eastern world. It is at the same time a masterpiece of biography and storytelling what with its ingenious interweaving of plots and subplots, its brilliant character sketches, and its attention to artistic touches such as climax and denouement."¹⁵³

Chapters 9-20 begin with information about the survivors in Saul's family (ch. 9) as does the next major section of the book, chapters 21-24 (21:1-14).

 A. David's Faithfulness ch. 9

The story of David's kindness to Mephibosheth (ch. 9) helps to explain David's subsequent acceptance by the Benjamites. It also enables us to see that the writer returned here to events in David's early reign.

"It is, in my personal opinion, the greatest illustration of grace in all the Old Testament."¹⁵⁴

If Mephibosheth was five years old when Jonathan and Saul died on Mt. Gilboa (4:4), he was born in 1016 B.C. When David captured Jerusalem in 1004 B.C., Mephibosheth was 12. Now we see Mephibosheth had a young son (v. 12). Perhaps he was about 20 years old. People frequently married in their teens in the ancient Near East. So perhaps the events of chapter 9 took place about 966 B.C.

David's kindness (Heb. hesed, loyal love, vv. 1, 3, 7) to Jonathan's son, expressed concretely by allowing him to eat at David's table (vv. 7, 10-11, 13), shows that David was, at the beginning of his reign, a covenant-keeping king (cf. 1 Sam. 20:14-17, 42). This was one of David's strengths.¹⁵⁵His goodness to Mephibosheth was pure grace, entirely unearned by Saul's son. Yet the story is primarily about loyalty.

Ammiel (v. 4) was the name of Bathsheba's father (1 Chron. 3:5), but that man and the one named here do not appear to be the same individual. Lo-debar was about 10 miles northwest of Jabesh-gilead in Transjordan and 10 miles south of the Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee). David provided for Mephibosheth's needs in Jerusalem, but Ziba and his family cultivated Mephibosheth's land and brought the produce to David. Thus the produce of his land paid the cost of Mephibosheth's maintenance. The writer may have stressed the fact that Mephibosheth was lame (vv. 3, 13) to remind us of the sad fate of Saul's line because of his arrogance before God. Mephibosheth really had trouble standing before God and His anointed.

"Given David's loathing for the lame and the blind' since the war against the Jebusites (2 Sam 5:6-8), one is brought up short by his decision to give Jonathan's son Mephibosheth, lame in both feet' (9:3, 13), a permanent seat at the royal table. . . . Is David willing to undergo such a daily ordeal just in memory of his friendship with Jonathan, as he himself declares, or as the price for keeping an eye on the last of Saul's line? Considering David's genius for aligning the proper with the expedient, he may be acting from both motives."¹⁵⁶

The sensitive reader will observe many parallels between Mephibosheth and himself of herself and between David and God. As Mephibosheth had fallen, was deformed as a result of his fall, was hiding in a place of barrenness, and was fearful of the king, so is the sinner. David took the initiative to seek out in spite of his unloveliness, bring into his house and presence, and adopt as his own son Mephibosheth. He also shared his bounty and fellowship with this undeserving one for the rest of his life because of Jonathan, as God has done with us for the sake of Christ (cf. Ps. 23:6).

In what sense can the affairs recorded in this chapter be considered part of David's troubles? We have here one of David's major attempts to appease the Benjamites. As the events of the following chapters will show, David had continuing problems with various Benjamites culminating in the rebellion of Sheba (ch. 20). Not all of David's troubles stemmed from his dealings with Bathsheba and Uriah.

 B. God's Faithfulness despite David's Unfaithfulness chs. 10-12

These chapters form a sub-section within the Court History portion of 2 Samuel.¹⁵⁷The phrase "Now it happened"or "Now it was"(10:1; 13:1) always opens a new section.¹⁵⁸Descriptions of Israel's victories over the Ammonites (10:1-11:1; 12:26-31) frame the David and Bathsheba story.¹⁵⁹The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles (19:1-20:3) spans 2 Samuel 10-12 while omitting the David and Bathsheba incident. The motif word salah("send") appears 23 times in this section but only 21 times in the rest of the Court History. Its occurrence may signal the development of a power motif here.¹⁶⁰

 C. David's Rejection and Return chs. 13-20

This is the longest literary section in the Court History of David (chs. 9-20). It records Absalom's antagonism to David that resulted in the king having to flee Jerusalem, but it ends with David's defeat of his enemy and his return to reign. There are obvious parallels with the experience of Jesus Christ.

"If the integrity of chapters 13-20 as a literary unit of the highest order is beyond question (cf. Conroy, p. 1), it is equally clear that the section contains two readily distinguishable subsections: chapters 13-14, which may be characterized as exhibiting for the most part a desire/fulfillment of desire' pattern, and chapters 15-20, which prefer a departure/return' pattern . . ."²¹¹