Shimei Curses the King
He threw stones at David while David walked in exile. His time came later.
David was fleeing Jerusalem.
His son had taken his throne.
He was walking barefoot up the Mount of Olives, his head covered.
The people with him wept as they went.
As he came to Bahurim, a man came out.
His name was Shimei, son of Gera, a Benjaminite of the family of the house of Saul.
He came out cursing.
He threw stones at David and at all his officials.
All the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.
And Shimei said: Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man.
The LORD has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul.
In whose place you have reigned.
The LORD has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom.
See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.
Abishai said to David: Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?
Let me go over and take off his head.
David said: What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah?
If he is cursing because the LORD has said Curse David, who then shall say Why have you done so?
He said: Let him alone and let him curse.
For the LORD has told him to.
It may be that the LORD will look on my affliction and repay me with good for his cursing today.
So David and his men walked.
And Shimei walked along on the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went.
Throwing stones at him.
Flinging dust.
When David returned to Jerusalem, Shimei came down immediately to meet him.
He fell before him and asked forgiveness.
Abishai said again: Shall not Shimei be put to death?
David spared him that day.
But David, on his deathbed, told Solomon not to let him go unpunished.
He said: Do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man.
You will know what you ought to do to him.
Bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.
Solomon placed Shimei under house arrest.
Years later Shimei broke the conditions to retrieve his servants.
Solomon had him killed.
The stones had been thrown on a hillside in exile.
The accounting came in a different generation.
But it came.
Scripture — 2 Samuel 16:7
"And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial."
Reflection
David let him curse. He wondered if God had told him to. That moment of restraint in pain is one of his most human.
The stones thrown in exile were not forgotten. The reckoning traveled into the next reign.
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