II Samuel 19:40-20:26
Dear RTB’ers,
More unrest and rebellion… Will it never end for David??!! Today’s reading begins with tribal infighting – the tribe of Judah (David’s home) against the ?ten? other tribes. Confusion here. There are twelve tribes (twelve sons of Jacob), counting Levi and Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh as one tribe). Furthermore, if you set Levi aside and then count both Ephraim and Manasseh as tribes (see Genesis 48:5) you still have twelve tribes. So the “ten other tribes” (v. 19:43) presumably sets Levi aside and counts Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) as one tribe. Yes, a small matter, but confusing nonetheless.
Back to the infighting… Yesterday we saw that Judah was the first tribe to reinstall David as king (II Samuel 19:11-15), in that David was from the tribe of Judah. Now the other tribes are troubled with that, which leads to more open rebellion in the person of Sheba, a member of the tribe of Benjamin – Saul’s tribe. Not a whole lot to say about this rebellion – the main incident worth noting is Joab’s murder of Amasa, (II Samuel 20:9-10), an item that I referenced yesterday in David’s comment to Solomon. We continue to see that “other side of Joab” that I mentioned two days ago. It’s worth all of us reading John’s post from 2023 wherein he reflects on the person of Joab more fully.
Blessings!