2 Samuel 23:15

15 David longed for water. He said, "I wish someone would get me a drink of water from the well that is near the gate of Bethlehem."

2 Samuel 23:15 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 23:15

And David longed, and said
It being harvest time, the summer season, and hot weather, and he thirsty:

oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem,
which [is] by the gate!
which he was well acquainted with, being his native place; and which might make it the more desirable, as well as its waters might be peculiarly cool and refreshing, and very excellent, as Kimchi suggests. This well was about a mile from Bethlehem, now called David's well, as some travellers say ^F25. It is said to be a very large well, with three mouths, and lies a little out of the road {z}; and that there is now near Rachel's grave a good rich cistern, which is deep and wide; wherefore the people that go to dip water are provided with small leathern buckets, and a line, as usual in those countries ^F1; but Mr. Maundrell ^F2 says it is a well, or rather a cistern, supplied only with rain, without any excellency in its waters to make them desirable; but it seems, he adds, David's spirit had a further aim. Some think he meant by this to get Bethlehem out of the hands of the Philistines, and obtain the possession of it; others, as Jarchi, that he intended to ask some question of the sanhedrim that sat there; and others, that his desire was after the law of God, called waters, as in ( Isaiah 55:1 ) ; and some Christian writers, both ancient and modern ^F3, are of opinion, that not literal but spiritual water was desired by him, and that he thirsted after the coming of the Messiah, to be born at Bethlehem, and the living water which he only can give, ( John 4:10 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Egmont and Heyman's Travels, vol. 1. p. 363.
F26 Le Bruyn's Voyage to the Levant, ch. 52. p. 204.
F1 Rauwolff's Travels, part 3. p. 317, 318.
F2 Journey from Aleppo p. 90.
F3 Ambros. Apolog. David l. 1. c. 7. gloss. ordinar. & Schmidt in loc. Pfeiffer. Difficil. Loc. Script. cent. 2. loc. 91. Horn. Dissert. de desiderio David. sect. 10.

2 Samuel 23:15 In-Context

13 David was at the cave of Adullam. During harvest time, three of the 30 chief men came down to him there. A group of Philistines was camped in the Valley of Rephaim.

14 At that time David was in his usual place of safety. Some Philistine troops were stationed at Bethlehem

15 David longed for water. He said, "I wish someone would get me a drink of water from the well that is near the gate of Bethlehem."

16 So the three mighty men fought their way past the Philistine guards. They got some water from the well that was near the gate of Bethlehem. They took the water back to David. But David refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out as a drink offering to the Lord.

17 "Lord, I would never drink that water!" David said. "It stands for the blood of these men. They put their lives in danger by going to Bethlehem to get it." So David wouldn't drink it. Those were some of the brave things the three mighty men did.