2 Samuel 16:5-22

When king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out—Shimei—and cursed.— This vile and calumnious treatment of Shimei was one of the severest trials of patience that ever human magnanimity endured. The accusation, 2 Samuel 16:8 was notoriously false, and the king for that reason could bear it the better. But his servants saw it not in the light of their master's equanimity, but of his enemy's insolence. Abishai, David's nephew, could not bear it, but begged the king's permission to take off the traitor's head that uttered it, 2 Samuel 16:9 which David absolutely refused; adding a rebuke to his refusal, 2 Samuel 16:10. What have I to do with you, &c.?—So let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Here we have, in few words, a clear comment upon all the curses throughout David's Psalms. They are prophetic denunciations of divine vengeance. The king then, turning to Abishai and the rest of his servants who were about them, asks, 2 Samuel 16:11. How it could be surprising to see a Benjamite reviling, when they beheld his own son in rebellion against him, and seeking his life? He adds, 2 Samuel 16:12. It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, &c. Although this was a chastisement from God upon him, yet, if he bore it as became him, it might become a means of mercy to him; his humble submission and resignation might call down the divine commiseration upon his patience and penitence. David's penitence but more inflamed Shimei's insolence; and, as David and his servants marched along, Shimei kept pace with them upon the side of an adjacent hill, and still continued cursing, reviling, and throwing dust and stones, unchastised. David endured it all: when he was reviled, he reviled not again: when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed his cause to HIM who judgeth righteously. 1 Peter 2:23. How far he was in this instance an emblem of HIS suffering SON, is not, I presume, hard to discern, or adventurous to assert.