2 Samuel - Chapters 21-22 with Psalm 15 and 18

The Amazing Bible. Book Club

The ending of 2 Samuel seems to be some added events throughout David's reign as king of Israel. Some call the last four chapters (21-24) as an appendix or an epilogue. Robert D. Bergen in his commentary pointed out that it is written in an artistic style called a chiasm. Chapters 21-22 cover the ABC, and then chapters 23-24 cover CBA. The "A" section is 21:1-14, "David Ends a Divinely Sent Famine." The Lord revealed that the famine was brought on because of Saul's sin against the Gibeonites. Joshua had made a treaty to spare the Gibeonite's lives in exchange for their service. Saul tried to wipe them out during his reign. They asked for seven descendants of Saul to kill and expose them for their sin. David did not chose Mephibosheth because of his covenant with Jonathan his father, but he found seven other men. The Gibeonites killed them and hung their bodies up. One of Saul's concubines stayed with the bodies to keep the birds and wild animals from feasting on them. When David heard he got Saul and Jonathan's bones, plus the bones of these seven men and buried them in Benjamin in Saul's father's grave. Section "B," 21:15-22, was the "Loyal and Heroic Soldiers of David." These were 4 men who fought the Philistine giants and won. Then chapter 22 is almost identical to Psalm 18, which is his longest recorded work. Bergen called it, "David Utters a Hymn of Praise to the Lord," section "C." In this chapter we see that David Praises the Lord, he declares it was the Lord that delivered him, he explained the reason was because David walked according to the ways of the Lord, when then goes back to declaring that the Lord delivered David, then to praise, and the last verse, 51, declares the king, the Lord's anointed is David and his descendants forever!