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David’s Final Words
23 These are the final words of David: “The oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man raised up a as the ruler chosen by the God of Jacob, Israel’s beloved singer of songs:
2 The Lord’s spirit spoke through me; his word was on my tongue.
3 The God of Israel spoke, the protector of Israel spoke to me. The one who rules fairly among men, the one who rules in the fear of God,
4 is like the light of morning when the sun comes up, a morning in which there are no clouds. He is like the brightness after rain that produces grass from the earth.
5 My dynasty is approved by God, for he has made a perpetual covenant with me, arranged in all its particulars and secured. He always delivers me, and brings all I desire to fruition.
6 But evil people are like thorns— all of them are tossed away, for they cannot be held in the hand.
7 The one who touches them must use an iron instrument or the wooden shaft of a spear. They are completely burned up right where they lie!”
Biblical Studies Press. (2019). The NET Bible (Second Edition, 2 Sa 23:1). Thomas Nelson.
How can we account for the “Book of the Law” suddenly being discovered during Josiah’s renovation of the temple (2 Chron 34:14)? We know from Egypt and Mesopotamia that it was common to seal important documents—including theological documents—in the masonry or foundations of a palace or temple in order to inform a future king who might undertake restoration of the building.
23:1-7
Last Words of David
23:1. oracle of David. The introductory term translated “oracle” is most commonly used to introduce speeches of the Lord, but it is also sometimes used to introduce wise sayings (Agur’s oracle, Prov 30:1) or prophetic speeches (Balaam’s oracle, Num 24:3, 15), as verses two and three suggest this is. This is the only insinuation in the Old Testament that David could be classified among the prophets.
23:1. singer of songs. It is unclear whether this phrase represents a description of David or a description of the “God of Jacob.” Both can be justified from usage of this terminology in the Ugaritic texts. The former would describe David’s singing talents, and the latter would describe God as the treasured object of the songs or perhaps the cherished defender of Israel.
23:5–7. metaphors of kingship. The metaphor begun at verse five has a solar flavor. The rule of a just king is like the warmth of the sun for crops but is devastating to the unjust. Representing the king’s justice as the sun (Yahweh is the king in this case) is found among the Hittites and especially for the kings of Egypt. A Middle Kingdom hymn to the god Amun-Re describes the king as the lord of rays, who gives life-giving rays to those whom he loves but is a consuming fire to his enemies. In Mesopotamia it is Shamash, the sun god, who is the god of justice. Thorns symbolize rebels, who are simply poked into the fire (the result of the sun’s heat).
Matthews, V. H., Chavalas, M. W., & Walton, J. H. (2000). The IVP Bible background commentary: Old Testament (electronic ed., 2 Sa 23:1). InterVarsity Press.
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Ch. 23 The second and much shorter “concluding” poem (vv. 1–7) also encapsulates the official royal ideology, but it is much more unusual. The surprise is not that the narrative introduction presents it briefly as “David’s last words,” while there is still a major episode to follow in ch. 24—the situation of the blessings in Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33 is similar. The strangeness consists more in the formal poetic introduction (23:1b), which can be matched only in two oracles of the seer Balaam, reported in Num 24:3–9, 15–19.
The first of these utters a rich blessing on Jacob/Israel; the second foresees in the distance a star/scepter rising from Jacob/Israel which will dominate the various peoples of Transjordan. In this third and far separated oracle, David claims by the authority of the God of Jacob/Israel to be that long foreseen king. This poem is the only point in the books of Samuel at which there is talk of a divine “covenant” with David (v. 5).
It is this biblical oracle which establishes the important postbiblical tradition of David’s status as prophet, whereby many of the psalms became understood as prophetic oracles. And its suggestion at the end of 2 Samuel of a prophetic role for David corresponds in an interesting way to the presentation of Samuel the prophet as something of a royal figure in the early chapters of 1 Samuel.
The remainder of this chapter offers a list of David’s principal military men. Most of this material in Samuel is found also in 1 Chronicles 11, just after the report in that book of David’s takeover of Jerusalem. The Chronicler’s list is some 60 percent longer and is immediately followed by a long account, not represented at all in Samuel, of support David received in men and supplies from each of the tribes while he was still in Ziklag. Although here and there 1 Chr 11:11–41 may have preserved a name better than Samuel, we do well to prefer the shorter version here in Samuel.
It is sometimes hard to keep track of the arithmetic, but the text broadly maintains a distinction between three superheroes, of whom some exploits are mentioned (23:8–12), and thirty heroes who are simply listed (vv. 24–39). Yet exploits are also reported of Abishai and Benaiah, who, though leaders of the thirty, did not attain the level of the three (vv. 19, 23). We should note that the Samuel list ends with Uriah the Hittite; as with Goliath and Saul, his is a name we already know far better from the much fuller story we have earlier read.
The most famous and poignant story in this section is set immediately after the three superheroes have been introduced (23:13–17). Yet it is attributed to three heroes of the thirty. Since these remain unnamed, the matter of their relationship to the surrounding lists cannot be settled. In any case, the action is more striking than the actors. David is in the Cave of Adullam—this mention of the cave in a story drawn from the Book of Two Houses may be the source on which 1 Sam 22:1–2 draws—but prevented by a Philistine garrison from entering Bethlehem, not many miles above.
Like many an exile, he longs for nothing more than the familiar water of home, but he is incautious enough to say so in the presence of daring and devoted heroes. When his dream actually materialized, he would not even drink the water but poured it out as a solemn libation. It was not for drinking, for it was men’s blood—and all blood had to be poured on the soil (Deut 12:16, 23–25). Water that is men’s blood is powerfully suggestive of bread that is a man’s body and wine that is his blood. However, in the context of the Christian eucharistic communion, the command is to eat and to drink remembering the cost—not to abstain and treat as too holy.
Auld, G. (2003). 1 and 2 Samuel. In J. D. G. Dunn & J. W. Rogerson (Eds.), Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible (p. 243). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
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