2 Samuel 16 · a question people ask

Was Shimei right to call David "a man of blood"?

In the text

Shimei says it twice: "you man of blood" (16:7) and "because you are a man of blood" (16:8) (tap blood). The charge he names is "all the blood of Saul’s house, in whose place you have reigned" (16:8). He doesn't say which blood he means, and the chapter doesn't say whether he was right. David doesn't answer the charge; he answers Abishai (16:10-11). What the books of Samuel have told so far: David would not kill Saul, "since he is the LORD’s anointed" (1 Samuel 24:6), and spared him a second time (1 Samuel 26:9); when Abner was killed he said, "I and my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner" (3:28); and he put to death the men who killed Ishbosheth, Saul's son (4:11-12). The LORD's word through Nathan charged David with Uriah's death, "You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword" (12:9), and Uriah was not of Saul's house. In chapter 21, which tells of a famine "in the days of David" without saying when, the LORD says, "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death" (21:1), and David hands seven of Saul's sons and grandsons over to the Gibeonites, who hang them (21:6-9).

The verses

“Shimei said when he cursed, “Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and wicked fellow! The LORD has returned on you all the blood of Saul’s house, in whose place you have reigned! The LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son! Behold, you are caught by your own mischief, because you are a man of blood!””
2 Samuel 16:7-8 · World English Bible
“He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’s anointed.””
1 Samuel 24:6 · World English Bible
“David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?””
1 Samuel 26:9 · World English Bible
“Afterward, when David heard it, he said, “I and my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner.”
2 Samuel 3:28 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Samuel 16

2 Samuel 16: Let him curse

Shimei shouted that the LORD "has returned on you all the blood of Saul’s house" (16:8). David, who could have had him killed, used the same Hebrew verb in hope: "the LORD will repay me good for the cursing of me today" (16:12).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions