Shimei ben Gera

II Samuel relates that when King David was fleeing from his son Absalom, Shimei cursed him as he passed through the village of Bahurim:[2] 5.

And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, there came out thence a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera; he came out, and kept on cursing as he came.

'[3]Shimei's curse has been interpreted as referring to the killing of Abner ben Ner and the death of Ish-bosheth, King Saul's general and son.

The Talmud says that Shimei cursed David because of his sin with Bathsheba, calling him an adulterer, a Moabite, a murderer, an oppressor, and an abomination.

So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hill-side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust.

[3]After David's army defeated Absalom's force, as he crossed back over the Jordan River to return to Jerusalem, Shimei came with about 1,000 men to ask him for forgiveness.

151)[4] However, on his deathbed, David instructed his son Solomon to deal appropriately with Shimei and punish him for his actions.

[8][9] The Talmud further states that as long as Shimei was alive, Solomon refrained from marrying Pharaoh's daughter and other foreign wives.

In Yalkut Shimoni it states that the reason David did not kill Shimei was that he was with the Holy Spirit that Mordechai would come from him and would save the Jewish people.

[13] Josephus includes the story of David and Shimei in his Antiquities of the Jews, putting the following words in David's mouth: "Let us not," said he, "bring upon ourselves another fresh misfortune to those we have already, for truly I have not the least regard nor concern for this dog that raves at me: I submit myself to God, by whose permission this man treats me in such a wild manner; nor is it any wonder that I am obliged to undergo these abuses from him, while I experience the like from an impious son of my own; but perhaps God will have some commiseration upon us; if it be his will we shall overcome them.

"[14] The Nicene Fathers cite David's forgiveness of Shimei as a paradigm of restraining anger[15] and of silence and humility.https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_II/Volume_X/Works/On_the_Duties_of_the_Clergy/Book_I/Chapter_6 John Dryden caricatured the Sheriff of London, Slingsby Bethel, a political enemy of Charles II of England, under the name of Shimei in his Absalom and Achitophel (Part One, ll.

Shimei, whose youth did early promise bring Of zeal to God, and hatred to his king...[16] Abraham Lincoln referred to David's forgiveness of Shimei when asked how he would deal with the South after the Civil War: Judge Gillespie of Edwardsville, Ill. says: "I asked him [Lincoln] once what was to be done with the South after the Rebellion was put down.

He said that he had been recently reading the history of the rebellion of Absalom, and that he inclined to adopt the views of David.