2 Samuel 19:41

THE DIVISION BETWEEN JUDAH AND ISRAEL

"Then all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, "Why have our brethren the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king and his household over the Jordan, and all David's men with him"? All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, "Because the king is near of kin to us. Why then are you angry over this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king's expense? Or has he given us any girl"? And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, "We have ten shares in the king, and in David also we have more than you. Why then did you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king"? But the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel."

David's return to Jerusalem was marked by the quarreling factions of Northern and Southern Israel, each being jealous of the king's favor. There was something in that situation which is reminiscent of the quarrels initiated by the tribe of Joseph, first against Gideon, and later against Jephthah, the latter erupting in a bitter war that destroyed forty-two thousand of the tribe of Joseph (Judges 8:1-3; 12:1-6).

This tribal jealousy and bitterness marred what otherwise would have been a happy ending to the rebellion. "A great catastrophe like Absalom's rebellion could not end without leaving profound effects."[24] Here we see one of those effects. The long standing mistrust between Ephraim and Judah, North Israel and South Israel, again broke into the open; and the fierce words that followed eventually issued in the divided kingdom. That the origin of their mutual animosity reached all the way back to Jacob, as we suggested above, is confirmed by the words of the LXX. "The Septuagint (LXX) has, `And I also am the firstborn rather than thou'; that is, compared to Israel (which included the tribe of Reuben the first-born), Judah is a late and inferior addition to the community."[25] As Keil wrote, "The division did not come with the divided kingdom, which only confirmed a permanent distinction,"[26] going all the way back to Leah and Rachel.

These last three verses of the chapter bring home to us the seriousness of the situation. When brethren hate each other, terrible things can happen. "Only half the Northern Israelites had welcomed David back to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 19:40). This indicates that, "David's appeal to the men of his own tribe (2 Samuel 19:11-14) and their response (2 Samuel 19:15) had caused no little offense to the rest of the nation. Of course, Sheba was not slow to take advantage of that and to initiate another rebellion."[27] "The reason for the sacred author's inclusion of this account of the quarrel just here was its relation to the rebellion of Sheba to which it gave rise."[28]

"We have ten shares in the king ... more than you ... we were the first to speak of bringing back our king" (2 Samuel 19:43). This argument of the northern faction was true; and they might have added that the rebellion itself had centered in Judah. "No settlement of the dispute was recorded; and seeds were sown for much trouble to come."[29]

"The words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel" (2 Samuel 19:43). This is the final sentence of the chapter, "This suggests that the men of Judah got the better of the argument, but only annoyed the Northerners the more thereby. At any rate, it was in this situation that Sheba saw his opportunity."[30]