Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• Balaam's seven oracles chs. 23-24
  "Chapters 23 and 24 are two of the brightest chapters in the book of Numbers. Scores of wonderful things are said about Israel, mainly prophetical. The dark sins of the past were forgotten; only happy deliverance from Egypt w...
• Scope
  The Book of Samuel covers the period of Israel's history bracketed by Samuel's conception and the end of David's reign. David turned the kingdom over to Solomon in 971 B.C.3David reigned for 40 and one-half years (2 Sam. 2:11...
• The Philistine challenge 17:1-11
  The Elah Valley is an S-shaped valley just south of the Sorek Valley. It runs east and west parallel to it. Socoh stood to the east and Azekah to the west. Archaeologists have not yet located Ephes-dammim. Gath was 7 miles to...
• Jonathan's love for David 18:1-5
  We have already seen that Jonathan was a man of faith and courage (14:1-15). Jonathan found a soul brother in David, a man who committed himself to trusting and obeying God as he did. This common purpose on the deepest level ...
• David's promise not to cut off Saul's descendants and name 24:16-22
  David's words and actions convicted Saul of his actions (v. 17), and the king wept tears of remorse (v. 16). He referred to David as his "son"(v. 16), as David had earlier called Saul his "father"(v. 11). Saul confessed David...
• The battle of Mt Gilboa 31:1-6
  God had announced that Saul would deliver His people from the hand of the Philistines (9:16). However, Saul frustrated God's purpose by not following the Lord faithfully. Consequently the Philistines got the better of Saul an...
• Outline
  (Continued from notes on 1 Samuel)V. David's triumphs chs. 1-8A. The beginning of David's kingdom 1:1-3:51. David's discovery of Saul and Jonathan's deaths ch. 12. David's move to Hebron 2:1-4a3. David's overtures to Jabesh-g...
• V. DAVID'S TRIUMPHS chs. 1--8
  The first 20 chapters of 2 Samuel are divisible into four units each of which ends with a list of names that is four verses long (1:1-3:5; 3:6-5:16; 5:17-8:18; 9:1-20:26).2The first two units conclude with lists of David's so...
• A. The Beginning of David's Kingdom 1:1-3:5
  The present section begins with Yahweh's destruction of Saul's line and ends with a summary of David's fecundity. In the middle we find the record of David's anointing as king over Judah (2:1-7). In 1:1-3:5 we see the Israeli...
• 2. David's move to Hebron 2:1-4a
  "Without doubt this portion [of 2 Samuel, i.e., chapters 2-8] forms the crux of the book. Here the fertility motif reaches a peak. The thesis of the author--that Israel is blessed with fertility when the nation (and the epito...
• 3. David's overtures to Jabesh-gilead 2:4b-7
  "The much later crisis of I Kings 12 suggests that the Davidic hold on the north is never deeply established. In our chapter we are given two episodes of David's attentiveness to the north. One (vv. 4b-7) is a peaceable act o...
• 4. Ish-bosheth's coronation over Israel 2:8-11
  David's overtures to the Jabesh-gileadites were very important. Saul's commander-in-chief and cousin, Abner, was working to install Saul's youngest son, Ish-bosheth (called Eshbaal in 1 Chron. 9:39), as his father's successor...
• 5. The conflict between Abner and Joab 2:12-32
  Travelers can visit the pool of Gibeon today. It lies about three miles northwest of Gibeah."The pool is a cylindrical shaft thirty-seven feet in diameter and thirty-five feet deep. Its five-feet-wide spiral stairway, which w...
• 6. The strengthening of David's position 3:1-5
  The first verse in this chapter summarizes 2:8-32. The point of the remaining verses is that during the seven and one-half years that David ruled Judah he grew stronger because God was blessing him.33David resorted to further...
• B. The Unification of the Kingdom 3:6-5:16
  The writer also documented God's blessing on David in this record of how David wisely unified the nation of Israel and became the leader of all 12 tribes."The story of how David became king of all Israel follows, in most esse...
• 1. David's acceptance of Abner 3:6-39
  Abner was the strong man in Israel. Ish-bosheth was simply a figurehead (v. 11). Abner's loyalty to the house of Saul is clear from his actions so far. However there was conflict between Ish-bosheth and Abner. In the ancient ...
• 2. David's punishment of Ish-bosheth's murderers ch. 4
  "Saul the king is dead, Jonathan the heir apparent is dead, Abinadab and Malki-Shua (two of Jonathan's brothers) are dead (1 Sam 31:2), Abner the commander of the army is dead--and no other viable claimants or pretenders cont...
• C. The Establishment of the Kingdom 5:17-8:18
  "As the story of David's accession to kingship over Judah (1:1-3:5) parallels that of his accession to the throne of Israel (3:6-5:16), each concluding with a list of his sons (3:2-5; 5:13-16), so the account of his powerful ...
• God's purpose to honor David 7:4-17
  The promises Yahweh made to David here are an important key to understanding God's program for the future.God rejected David's suggestion that he build a temple for the Lord and gave three reasons. First, there was no pressin...
• 4. The security of David's kingdom ch. 8
  "From the religious heights of chapter 7 we descend again to the everyday world of battles and bloodshed in chapter 8. The military action picks up where the story left off at the end of chapter 5."130Chapter 8 evidently desc...
• 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-...
• David's adultery with Bathsheba 11:1-5
  While Joab was continuing to subdue the Ammonites the following spring by besieging Rabbah (modern Amman, the capital of Jordan; cf. 10:7), David was residing in Jerusalem (11:1). By mentioning the fact that normally kings le...
• Amnon's rape of Tamar 13:1-22
  Maacah bore Absalom while David was reigning in Hebron (3:3). He was David's third-born. Amnon, his first-born, was also born in Hebron but by Ahinoam (3:2). Both sons may have been in their late teens or early twenties at th...
• The aftermath of Amnon's murder 13:30-39
  The writer may have devoted so much text to straightening out the rumor that Absalom had killed all the king's sons to stress God's mercy in not cutting off all of them. At first report David probably thought God had judged h...
• The counsel of Ahithophel and Hushai 16:15-17:29
  This is the central unit of chapters 5-20, and its central focus is the judgment that Hushai's advice was better than Ahithophel's (17:14). This advice is the pivot on which the fortunes of David swung in his dealings with Ab...
• David's administrators 20:23-26
  "With Joab's return to the king in Jerusalem, the grand symphony known as the Court History of David reaches its conclusion for all practical purposes (at least as far as the books of Samuel are concerned . . .). The last fou...
• Bibliography
  Achtemeier, Paul J., and Elizabeth Achtemeier. The Old Testament Roots of Our Faith. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979.Ackerman, James S. "Knowing Good and Evil: A Literary Ananysis of the Court History in 2 Samuel 9-20 and ...
• 2. Adonijah's attempt to seize the throne 1:5-53
  Adonijah was David's fourth son (2 Sam. 3:4) and the eldest one living at this time. Evidently he believed it was more important that the eldest son succeed David, as was customary in the Near East, than that the king of Yahw...
• Joab's execution 2:28-35
  Perhaps because Solomon had shown Adonijah mercy when he fled to the altar (1:50-52) Joab sought refuge from Solomon for participating in Adonijah's rebellion there too. Joab, however, was a murderer as well as a rebel. Conse...
• Solomon's foreign wives 11:1-8
  The writer's condemnation of Solomon in verses 1-2 rests on Deuteronomy 23:3-9 as well as Deuteronomy 7:3-4. The phraseology goes back to 23:3-9 and the motive to 7:3-4 (cf. Exod. 23:31-33; 34:15-16; Ezra 9:1; Neh. 13:26). So...
• Bibliography
  Aharoni, Yohanan. "The Building Activities of David and Solomon."Israel Exploration Journal24:1(1974):13-16.Aharoni, Yohanan, and Michael Avi-Yonahl. The Macmillan Bible Atlas. Revised ed., New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.,...
• The anticipation of Israel's repentance 3:21-25
  3:21 The Lord could hear, in the future, the Israelites weeping and praying in repentance on the hilltops, where they had formerly committed spiritual adultery (v. 2). They would finally realize that they had perverted their ...
• Ishmael's further atrocities and Johanan's intervention 41:4-18
  41:4-5 Two days after Gedaliah's murder, before the news of it had spread, 80 religious pilgrims came down from the old towns of Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria in northern Israel on their way to Jerusalem. Their dress and other...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

• The Bright Dawn Of A Reign
  2 Samuel 2:1-11The last stage of David's wanderings had brought him to Ziklag, a Philistine city. There he had been for over a year, during which he had won the regard of Achish, the Philistine king of Gath. He had, at Achish...
• III. David's Bearing In The Face Of Opposition And Rebellion Comes Out,
  In 2 Samuel 2:8-11. Abner, Saul's cousin, who had been in high position when the stripling from Bethlehem fought Goliath, was not capable of the self-effacement involved in acquiescing in David's accession, though he knew tha...