Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Let him curse ; for the Lord hath bidden him - No soul of man can suppose that ever God bade one man to curse another, much less that he commanded such a wretch as Shimei to curse such a man as David; but this is a peculiarity of the Hebrew language, which does not always distinguish between permission and commandment. Often the Scripture attributes to God what he only permits to be done; or what in the course of his providence he does not hinder. David, however, considers all this as being permitted of God for his chastisement and humiliation. I cannot withhold from my readers a very elegant poetic paraphrase of this passage, from the pen of the Rev. Charles Wesley, one of the first of Christian poets: -
"Pure from the blood of Saul in vain,
He dares not to the charge reply:
Uriah' s doth the charge maintain,
Uriah' s doth against him cry!
Let Shimei curse: the rod he bears
For sins which mercy had forgiven:
And in the wrongs of man reveres
The awful righteousness of heaven.
Lord, I adore thy righteous will,
Through every instrument of ill
My Father' s goodness see;
Accept the complicated wrong
Of Shimei' s hand and Shimei' s tongue
As kind rebukes from Thee.
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