2 Samuel 16:13

Det Norsk Bibelselskap

Så gikk David og hans menn frem efter veien mens Sime'i gikk oppe i lien jevnsides med ham, og han gikk og bante, og han kastet med sten og sand mens han gikk der jevnsides med ham.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

cursed: 2 Samuel 16:5, 2 Samuel 16:6

cast dust: Heb. dusted him with dust, Acts 23:23, It was an ancient custom, in those warm and arid countries, to lay the dust before a person of distinction, by sprinkling the ground with water. Dr. Pococke and the consul were treated with this respect when they entered Cairo. The same custom is alluded to in the well-known fable of Phedrus, in which a slave is represented going before Augustus and officiously laying the dust. To throw dust in the air while a person was passing was therefore an act of great disrespect; to do so before a sovereign prince, an indecent outrage. But it is probable that Shimei meant more than disrespect and outrage to this afflicted king. Sir John Chardin informs us, that in the East, in general, those who demand justice against a criminal throw dust upon him, signifying that he ought to be put in the grave, and hence the common imprecation among the Turks and Persians, "Be covered with earth," or, "Earth be upon thy head.

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 19:21 - cursed

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And as David and his men went by the way,.... In the high road that led to Bahurim, taking no notice of the cursing of Shimei, which made him bolder and more impudent; here is a large pause in the Hebrew text, in the midst of this verse:

Shimei went along on the hill side over against him; as David and his men walked in the plain, he went on a range of hills that ran along right against them:

and cursed as he went; continued his curses and imprecations, to which he was the more emboldened by the behaviour of David and his men:

and threw stones at him, and cast dust; in a way of contempt, though the stones recoiled on his own head, and the dust flew in his own face, as the consequence of things showed; and now David composed and penned the seventh psalm, Psalms 7:1.