“When King David arrived at Bachurim, there came out from there a man from Sha’ul’s family named Shim‘i the son of Gera; and he came out pronouncing curses and throwing stones at David and all King David’s servants; even though all the people, including his bodyguard, surrounded him right and left.”-2 Samuel 16:5-6
After accepting the goods Tziva provided, David moved on to a place called Bachurim.
It was there he encountered one hostile elderly dude.
His name was Shimei, and he immediately started hurling insults at David.
Why was he so hostile?
The answer was because he was a distant relative of King Saul.
On top of that, David and his men had just wandered into the tribal territory of Benjamin.
Remember, Saul was a Benjamite.
His family and tribe still harbored bitterness that a king from their own tribe had not only been killed in battle, but that Saul’s dynasty had lost the throne.
So make no bones about it.
They were enraged to no end that Saul had been replaced by his arch enemy David, who came from the competing tribe of Judah.
So Shimei had no qualms in hurling obscenities and insults at David even though he was surrounded by all his bodyguards.
No doubt, the other residents of Benjamin were also present with Shimei, further fueling his confidence to insult David.
The original Hebrew here is interesting.
Shimei called David an ISH HADAM (a man of blood)...
And an ISH BELIAL (a man of zero worth).
In the Scripture, these are the worst possible curses one man can say to another and they are normally only reserved for the total scum of the earth.
What was going on in Shimei’s mind when he attacked David?
Was he thinking about the whole Bathsheba affair, and how he plotted to murder Uriyah?
The answer is no.
We need to look at the bigger political picture here.
Shimei was accusing David of something a million times more dearer to his heart than the murder of some stranger from another tribe he probably never gave a second thought about.
Shimei was exploding with rage over the murders of Abner and King Ishbosheth.
Recall that Abner was Saul’s general and also a fellow Benjamite.
And Ishbosheth was Saul’s son who had assumed the throne after his father.
Of course, we know Shimei’s accusations weren’t true.
David had done everything he could to prove he played no part in the murders of Avner or Ishnosheth.
Yet, the northern tribes of Israel never completely trusted David.
And that mistrust was now on full display in the form of a fuming Shimei who now accused David as being worse than the scum of the earth.
Sure, David may have been innocent from a technical standpoint.
But there’s no doubt, the murders of Avner and Ishbosheth were major barriers to David ascending the throne.
Once these rivals from the tribe of Benjamin were eliminated, the path became clear for David to become king.
So, many from the north likely viewed him as a scheming manipulator who wasn’t beyond murder to achieve his ends.
Alrighty, what’s the takeaway we can extract from this?
It’s this.
Even when you’ve done everything you can to walk in integrity…
There are still gonna be people who see you through the filter of their wounds, losses, and grudges.
That was Shimei’s problem.
To him, David wasn’t the shepherd boy who killed Goliath or the king who united Judah.
He was the man who “stole” the throne from Saul’s family and stood to gain when Abner and Ishbosheth were killed.
No amount of evidence was gonna change that in his mind.
But here’s the thing.
It was David’s response to Shimei’s insults that spoke more volumes than anything.
We’ll look over that the next time we meet.
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