2 Samuel 2 Bible study: Shall the sword devour forever?

Saul is dead (1:4), and the chapter's first act is a question. "After this, David inquired of the LORD" (2:1) (tap inquired): "Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?" (2:1). The answer is "Go up" (2:1). He asks again, "Where shall I go up?", and hears, "To Hebron" (2:1). It is how he asked at Keilah, "Shall I go and strike these Philistines?" (1 Samuel 23:2), and at Ziklag, "If I pursue after this troop, will I overtake them?" (1 Samuel 30:8). Then he goes: "So David went up there with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite" (2:2), and his men with him, "every man with his household. They lived in the cities of Hebron" (2:3). Hebron is an old name in the story. Abraham buried Sarah "before Mamre (that is, Hebron)" (Genesis 23:19), and Joshua "gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance" (Joshua 14:13).

2 Samuel 2:5→leads toMatthew 5:7

David's first recorded message as king blesses kindness: "Blessed are you by the LORD, that you have shown this kindness to your lord, even to Saul, and have buried him" (2:5), and "Now may the LORD show loving kindness and truth to you" (2:6). In Jesus' words on the mountain: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7). No New Testament passage cites 2 Samuel 2, and no link between the Hebrew and Greek words is claimed, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some see the same shape in both: a blessing on those who show kindness, and kindness asked for them in return. Others read each on its own terms: Jesus teaching his disciples (Matthew 5:1-2), and David, newly anointed, sending word to a town whose men had buried Saul, with "I also will reward you" and "the house of Judah have anointed me king over them" (2:6-7).

אַחַרacharsay a-KHAR

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "the hinder or following part". Strong's: "properly, the hind part; generally used as an adverb or conjunction, after (in various senses)". It is a small word, and this chapter uses it 15 times, more than any other chapter of 1 or 2 Samuel (here mostly in the form acharei, after). It opens the chapter, "After this" (2:1), and then it tracks who goes after whom. "But the house of Judah followed David" (2:10): in Hebrew, they were after David. Asahel "didn’t turn to the right hand or to the left from following Abner" (2:19), "would not turn away from following him" (2:21), and was told, "Turn away from following me" (2:22). Abner asks, "How long will it be then, before you ask the people to return from following their brothers?" (2:26), and Joab says the people would have gone away, "and not each followed his brother" (2:27). At the end, "Joab returned from following Abner" (2:30). The same word gives the reason Hebron became Caleb's: "because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel wholeheartedly" (Joshua 14:14).