2 samuel 21 and 22

Read 2 Samuel 21 and 22 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions:

2 Sam 21:1a {s} There was a famine for three years + David sought the LORD’s face
2 Sam 21:1b-6a {p} Judgment against the house of Saul, who killed the Gibeonites
2 Sam 21:6b-14 {p} 7 sons of Saul’s house hanged/ bones of Saul’s house buried in his father’s tomb/ land healed
2 Sam 21:15-17 {p} War with Philistines: the son of giant tried to kill David, but Abishai delivered him
2 Sam 21:18 {s} War with Philistines: another son of the giant killed by Sibbechai the Hushathite
2 Sam 21:19 {s} War with Philistines: another son of the giant killed by Elhanan the Bethlehemite
2 Sam 21:20-22 {p} War with Philistines: the 4th son of the giant killed by Jonathan, David’s nephew
2 Sam 22:1-50 {p} David’s song of praise to the LORD who delivered him from all his enemies

The strong themes:

2 Sam 20:20-21:6a {sx3+p} Rebellion + famine, afflictions against the land, judged
2 Sam 21:6b-14 {p} 7 sons of Saul’s house hanged/ bones of Saul’s house buried in his father’s tomb/ land healed
2 Sam 21:15-17 {p} War with Philistines: Abishai delivered David from the son of giant/ David to go to war no more
2 Sam 21:18-22 {s+s+p} War with Philistines: 3 sons of the giant slain by David’s house/ mighty men
2 Sam 22:1-50 {p} David’s song of praise to the LORD who delivered him from all his enemies

The war with the Philistines, in which the four sons of Goliath are killed, repeats details from David’s own encounter with Goliath (and I believe they will form matching elements in the single chiastic structure for the book of Samuel, a single book in the Hebrew Bible;) and itself forms a chiastic structure:

1a) 2 Sam 21:15a, War with the Philistines: David + his servants fought against them;

1b) 2 Sam 21:15b-17a, Abishai, David’s nephew, killed the son of the giant/ spear weighed 300 shekels;

1a) 2 Sam 21:15b, And David grew faint;
1b) 2 Sam 21:16a, Then Ishbi-Benob, one of the sons of the giant;
central axis) 2 Sam 21:16b, The weight of his bronze spear was 300 shekels + he was bearing a new sword;
2b) 2 Sam 21:16c, Thought he could kill David;
2a) 2 Sam 21:17a, Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to David’s aid + struck, killed the Philistine;

central axis) 2 Sam 21:17b {p} Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel;

2b) 2 Sam 21:18-21 {s+s} David’s house + mighty men killed 3 sons of the giant/ spear like a weaver’s beam;

1a) 2 Sam 21:18-19a {s} War with the Philistines: the mighty men killed two sons of the giant, Goliath of Gath;
central axis) 2 Sam 21:19b {s} The shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam;
2a) 2 Sam 21:20-21, War with the Philistines: the son of the giant killed by Jonathan, the son of David’s brother;

2a) 2 Sam 21:22 {p} These four were born to the giant in Gath/ fell by the hand of David’s house + servants.

What I found interesting about this structure, is that it highlights the change that David’s life wrought in Israel. When Goliath defied the armies of the living God, there was not a man in Israel who stepped up to the giant’s challenge: not the king of Israel, nor any of the tribes of Israel, nor any man of the tribe of Judah, nor any man of the town of Bethlehem, nor any man of the house of Jesse who were with the army. None but David, a 17-year-old shepherd boy.

But we find in the next generation, when not one giant, but four giants who were the sons of Goliath, defied the armies of the living God, not only did several mighty men of the house of Jesse defeat and kill them as David had done, but a mighty man of the town of Bethlehem also defeated and killed one of them. Then a mighty man of a previously unidentified town or district in Israel (Sibbechai the Hushathite) also defeated and killed one of them.

So we see the influence that a single life, dedicated to the LORD God, to His worship, service, and praise, to the truth of His word, can have on his father’s house, on his hometown, on his greater tribe, province, or state; and lastly, on his nation, to change it, like ripples going out in a pond, through the example of his life.

David, in other words, had successful disciples, who did the works he did, and greater works (Joh 14:12).

Now David was praised in Israel because of his might. But he did not take any of that praise to himself, but turned it all and ascribed it to the LORD God (2 Sam 22), whose praise it rightly is. And the thing that his mighty men said of him:

Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel. 2 Sam 21:17b

Was the exact thing that he said of the LORD God:

For You are my lamp, O Lord; The Lord shall enlighten my darkness. 2 Sam 22:29.