meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Commentary/Malbim/Prophets/Malbim on II Samuel/English/Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology.txt"}
text: Malbim on II Samuel
  מלבי"ם על שמואל ב
  Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology
  
  
  Malbim on II Samuel
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
  Verse 3
  
  
  
  Verse 4
  
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  And the king and his men went to Jerusalem – Once the two kingships within Israel had been united, because until now the tribe of Yehudah was under David and the remaining tribes (led by Shaul’s tribe Benyamin) were under Ishboshet, and they became one kingdom under David it seemed right, and appeared to be the will of God, that the royal city should lie on a boundary that was connected to both kingly tribes. This was Jerusalem, which lay half in Yehudah and half in Benyamin as is written in the description of the borders of the land, and as the Sages taught “a strip protruded from the portion of Yehudah into the portion of Benyamin and on it the altar was built.” (Yoma 12a) We already explained (on Shoftim 1:8) that the children of Yehudah conquered their portion of Jerusalem while the children of Benyamin did not, and that is where the Jebusites dwelled: And the king and his men went – to drive out the Jebusites from the portion of Benyamin: who spoke to David, saying: 'you shall not come here – In order to understand the plain meaning of the verse, the words of the Ralbag are sweetest to me. He said that they placed statues in the form of the blind and the lame at the gates which were made in such a fashion that they swung extremely heavy iron rods. Thus no one was able to approach the gates because these statues would strike them down with their powerful motions (and it is possible that actual blind and lame people stood beneath them to help the rods move). The statues were close enough to the drainage channel that when it poured out water, its flow caused the statues and their rods to move just like a water mill – as we have seen such things with our own eyes. That is what he said. According to this, up against the gate of the city they erected a line of statues in the form of blind people and after this a line of statues in the form of lame people, and after this the drainage channel, while the citadel stood on the other side of the city. Between the city and the citadel stood the warriors, ready to fight on whichever side the enemy attempted to enter. At first David wanted to go in through the gate, and they said to him ‘you shall not come here unless you remove the blind and the lame’ meaning that it was impossible to enter unless he first removes the blind and then afterwards the lame who were driving the metal rods that prevented him from passing the gate. This is what it says ‘you shall not come here,’ that they are the one declaring that you shall not enter (that is, they will stop you.) (It is also possible that aside from this strategy, they considered these status to have godly powers as the ancient idolaters often did. They made their idols from wheels and hinges able to move and lift heavy things, and thus they deceived the foolish masses into believing that they were gods. This perspective combines with the opinion of our Sages that said the form of these idols hinted at the oath which Avraham or Yitzchak made to Avimelech.)
  
  Verse 7
  
  And David conquered – When he saw that it was not possible to conquer from the side of the city gate he went to the other side where the stronghold stood and conquered the stronghold of Zion. Therefore it was afterwards called the city of David, because he himself conquered it.