2nd Samuel Chapter 19 verse 20 Holy Bible
For thy servant doth know that I have sinned: therefore, behold, I am come this day the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.
read chapter 19 in ASV
For your servant is conscious of his sin: and so, as you see, I have come today, the first of all the sons of Joseph, for the purpose of meeting my lord the king.
read chapter 19 in BBE
For thy servant knows that I have sinned; and behold, I am come the first this day of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.
read chapter 19 in DARBY
For thy servant doth know that I have sinned: therefore, behold, I am come the first this day of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.
read chapter 19 in KJV
For thy servant doth know that I have sinned: therefore behold, I have come the first this day of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.
read chapter 19 in WBT
For your servant does know that I have sinned: therefore, behold, I am come this day the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.
read chapter 19 in WEB
for thy servant hath known that I have sinned; and lo, I have come to-day, first of all the house of Joseph, to go down to meet my lord the king.'
read chapter 19 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 20. - The first.., of all the house of Joseph. Shimei, who was a Benjamite, could not have thus claimed to be the representative of the northern tribes, had he remained on the western bank, where "half the people of Israel" were assembled. Strictly, "the house of Joseph" signified the tribe of Ephraim (Judges 1:22, 35; and comp. Psalm 78:67), and in this sense Shimei did not belong to it. But Ephraim claimed a supremacy over all Israel; and one cause of the opposition to David certainly was the transference of the leadership to the tribe of Judah. Even the long reign of Solomon failed to weld the tribes together, and as soon as the reins of power fell into the weak hands of Rehobeam, an Ephraimite. Jeroboam, whom Solomon had made "ruler ever all the charge of the house of Joseph" (1 Kings 11:28), quickly wrested the ten tribes from him. In Amos 5:6 "the house of Joseph" signifies all the northern tribes, for the reason given in 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2; and such is its sense here. And Shimei compressed many powerful arguments in the phrase. For as a Benjamite he offered David the allegiance of the tribe which had given Israel its first king; while, as an Israelite, he professed also to represent the leading house of Ephraim, and all the northern tribes which usually followed its bidding.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(20) The house of Joseph.--Shimei was not strictly of "the house of Joseph," but of Benjamin; and it is plain that Joseph, as the name of the most prominent member, stands for all the tribes outside of Judah. This usage is well recognised at a later time (see 1Chronicles 5:1-2; Amos 5:15), and it has hence been argued that it indicates a late date for the composition of the book; but it is also found in Psalm 80:1-2; Psalm 81:5 (the date of which it would be rash to attempt to fix), in the reign of Solomon, 1Kings 11:28, and probably very early in Judges 1:35. There is no reason why the expression may not have been used at the earliest date when there began to be a certain separation and distinction between Judah and the other tribes, which was soon after the conquest of Canaan. . . .
