1 Kings 2 · a question people ask
David swore Shimei would not die. Why does he tell Solomon to act?
When Shimei fell down before David at the Jordan (2 Samuel 19:18), "The king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” The king swore to him" (2 Samuel 19:23). Here David remembers it: "I swore to him by the LORD, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’" (2:8). Then he says, "Now therefore don’t hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him" (2:9). Solomon doesn't put Shimei to death at once. He tells him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and live there, and don’t go anywhere else" (2:36); Shimei answers, "What you say is good" (2:38); and after Shimei goes to Gath (2:40), Solomon asks, "Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD and the commandment that I have instructed you with?" (2:43). Christians read David's charge in two main ways, the same two set out in 2 Samuel 19's honest question. Both agree that David himself never put Shimei to death, and that Shimei died under Solomon after leaving Jerusalem (2:41-46).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
He kept his word
Those who read it this way point to the oath itself. David swore, "I will not put you to death with the sword" (2:8), and he never did. His words to Solomon, "don’t hold him guiltless" (2:9), are a king's judgement on a man who, as Abishai said, had "cursed the LORD’s anointed" (2 Samuel 19:21). Solomon acted only after Shimei had agreed to his terms, "As my lord the king has said, so will your servant do" (2:38), and then broken them: "Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD" (2:43).
1 Kings 2:8-9 · 2 Samuel 19:21 · 1 Kings 2:38 · 1 Kings 2:42-43
He spared him for that day
Those who read it this way point to how David framed his pardon. He tied it to the day: "Shall any man be put to death today in Israel? For don’t I know that I am king over Israel today?" (2 Samuel 19:22). And at the end of his life he had not let Shimei's curse go: he calls it "a grievous curse" (2:8), and tells Solomon, "you shall bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood" (2:9). On this reading David kept the letter of his oath while he lived and left the matter to his son.
2 Samuel 19:22 · 1 Kings 2:8-9
The verses
“A ferry boat went to bring over the king’s household, and to do what he thought good. Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king when he had come over the Jordan.”
“The king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” The king swore to him.”
““Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the LORD, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ Now therefore don’t hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.””