2 Samuel 16 · a question people ask
Did the LORD really tell Shimei to curse David?
The chapter gives David's words and not the narrator's: "Because he curses, and because the LORD has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’" (16:10), and "Leave him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD has invited him" (16:11). In Hebrew, "the LORD has invited him" (16:11) is the same verb as "the LORD has said to him" (16:10), amar, said. Christians read it in two main ways, and both agree on what the chapter shows: David would not let Abishai strike Shimei (16:9-11), he left what came next with the LORD (16:12), and the chapter never says Shimei's charge was true. Shimei himself later says to the king, "your servant knows that I have sinned" (19:20).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The LORD rules even over this
Those who read it this way take David's words as the truth about Shimei's cursing: it came, in some way, under the LORD's hand. They point to the same story, where the book says, "For the LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil on Absalom" (17:14), and to the LORD's word to David through Nathan, "Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house" (12:11). The book says of the census, "he moved David against them" (24:1), where Chronicles says, "Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David" (1 Chronicles 21:1). And Joseph told his brothers, "you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). On this reading the LORD can have a purpose in a hostile act without making the one who does it right.
2 Samuel 17:14 · 2 Samuel 12:11 · 2 Samuel 24:1 · 1 Chronicles 21:1 · Genesis 50:20
David speaking in humility
Those who read it this way take David's words as a humble man's refusal to defend himself, not as a statement that the LORD spoke to Shimei. The narrator never says so; the words are David's, and he speaks in questions and maybes: "who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’" (16:10), and "It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me" (16:12) (tap It may be). He sets Shimei beside his own son: "Behold, my son, who came out of my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now?" (16:11). He had left Saul to the LORD in the same way: "the LORD will strike him; or his day shall come to die" (1 Samuel 26:10). They also note that when David speaks of the curse later, he doesn't call it the LORD's word: at the end of his life he called it "a grievous curse" (1 Kings 2:8) and told Solomon, "don’t hold him guiltless" (1 Kings 2:9).
2 Samuel 16:10-12 · 1 Samuel 26:10 · 1 Kings 2:8-9
The verses
“For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore behold, I have come today as the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.””