From the Death of Saul to the Death of David - Flavius Josephus

siege to be raised, as we have informed the reader elsewhere. Nay, after him,
and that many years, Herod the king opened another room, and took away a
great deal of money, and yet neither of them came at the coffins of the kings
themselves, for their bodies were buried under the earth so artfully, that they
did not appear to even those that entered into their monuments. But so much
shall suffice us to have said concerning these matters.
Footnote:
1. David is here greatly blamed by some for recommending Joab and
Shimei to be punished by Solomon, if he could find a proper occasion,
after he had borne with the first a long while, and seemed to have
pardoned the other entirely, which Solomon executed accordingly; yet I
cannot discern any fault either in David or Solomon in these cases.
Joab's murder of Abner and Amasa were very barbarous, and could not
properly be forgiven either by David or Solomon; for a dispensing
power in kings for the crime of willful murder is warranted by no law of
God, nay, is directly against it every where; nor is it, for certain, in the
power of men to grant such a prerogative to any of their kings; though
Joab was so nearly related to David, and so potent in the army under a
warlike administration, that David durst not himself put him to death, 2
Samuel 3:39; 19:7. Shimei's cursing the Lord's anointed, and this
without any just cause, was the highest act of treason against God and
his anointed king, and justly deserved death; and though David could
forgive treason against himself, yet had he done no more in the case of
Shimei than promised him that he would not then, on the day of his
return and reinauguration, or upon that occasion, himself put him to
death, 2 Samuel 19:22; and he swore to him no further, ver. 23, as the
words are in Josephus, than that he would not then put him to death,
which he performed; nor was Solomon under any obligation to spare
such a traitor.
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