2 Samuel 14

2 Samuel 14:1-20

Abfalom’s return is here brought about by a contrivance of Yesh.

1. He informs a widow of Tekoah to make a feigned complaint, and draws from the king a promise of pardon for her son, who had slain his brother, vers. 1—20. 2. This applied to Abfalom’s wife, an outdole to his brought back, but precluded the court, vers. 21—24. 3. His perfect reconciliation at last, with an account of his pardon and family, vers. 25—33.

2. NOW Job the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was towards Abfalom. 2. (Chap. xii. And) Job sent to Tekoah, and fetch thence: a wife of Abfalom, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning-apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead: 3. And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him: So to the king, and the words in her mouth. 4. ¶ And when the woman of Tekoah spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obedience, and said, Help, O king. 5. And the king said unto her, What admits thee? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead. 6. And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two throve together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one fmote the other, and flew him. 7. And behold, the whole family is risen against those handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that fmote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew, and we will destroy the heir also: and do they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth. 8. And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee. 9. And the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father’s house: and the king and his throne be gullibeds. 10. And the king said, Whoeverer faith ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more. 11. Then said the, I pray thee, let the king remember the LORD thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, left they destroy my son. And he said, Jo the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth. 12. Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak our word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on. 13. And the woman said, Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? for the king doth speak this thing, as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished. 14. For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again: neither doth God respect any person, yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him. 15. Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king; it is because the people have made me afraid: and thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid. 16. For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God: 17. Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an angel of God, so it may lead the king, to discern good and bad: therefore the LORD thy God will be with thee. 18. Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord the king

now speak. 19. And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king hath spoken: for thy fervant Joab be made me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid. 20. To fetch about this form of speech hath thy fervant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.

Joab observed the inclinations of the king, and concludes he cannot do him a more acceptable service, than to bring about that event which David himself dared not properly, which nothing could more ingratiate him with Abfalom, who, as heir apparent to the throne, would not fail to remember the obligation, and reward forth an act of kindness; and nothing would more establish his reputation also among the people, who greatly admired Abfalom.

1. The method he takes is by suborning a wise woman of Tekson, a place at some distance from the court, to bring a beyond cafe before the king, which might interest his compulsion for her, and engage him to pardon a murderer. She therefore drafts herself as a mourner, appears before the king, and begs an audience of her afflicting thory. Her husband died, and left two sons: by an unhappy quarrel one was killed; the other was now prosecuted by her family, more from a view to the inheritance when the heir was dead, than from the love of justice; and without the royal clemency, the muft be a childless mother, as well as a disconsolate widow: the muft for the last coal of her house extinguished; her only son perish before her eyes, the comfort of her widowhood, and the prey of her sinking family.

2. The contrivance succeeds; the king melts at the relations; and, not aware of the design, promises to enquire into the circumstances, and, if they were so, he would protect her son. Having gained so far, the prefixes an immediate decree in her favour, and offers to bear any punishment, if the had not truly represented the case; or, as the sense will bear, infirmates though offering to bear the blame herself, that, should he be slain in the mean time, the king and his throne would be involved in guilt. David confirms his promise to the further proceedings, with an assurance of protection. She, as a tender solicitous mother, is earnest to obtain the fullest security; humbly reminds him of the compassions of God, which he would thus imitate; and intimates her desire, that he would issue a proclamation in her favour, or perhaps, meaning he should confirm his promise by an oath. David, to give her the fullest satisfaction, swears her son shall not die. Note, (1.) The rigour of the law deserves sometimes to be softened by the interposition of the royal clemency. (2.) No argument to powerful to excite our joya and compassion to others, as the mercy we ourselves have found from God. (3.) Every believing sinner, the virtually a murderer, even of the Son of God, hath yet the oath of the Most High to comfort him, in the assurance that the avenging found of divine justice shall not come nigh him.

3. Judgment being thus given in the case, the taken off the muft, and with great deference begs pardon for the liberty of applying this decree to the king’s own case; where, though the circumstances in many instances indeed were not parallel, the king was so disposed to comply, as not strictly to scrutinize the disparity. She intimates, the king’s severity against his son was displeasing to the people of God, and contradictory to his own decision in her case. She names not Abfalom, but with a perishable expression of his unhappy state, and suited to awaken the tenderest feelings of a father, calls him his humphed, and intimates, the latter such an exile, where he had sufficiently suffered, it was time to bring him home. She pleads our present mortal state: should David die, the succession might now be disputed. Amnon muft have died shortly, if he had not met that untimely end; and Abfalom, without the sword of justice, muft follow him. She urges God’s mercy towards sinners, who doth not take away their life, (as it may be better rendered, than by the common version, doth not respect any person,) but is patient to bear with them, and graciously contrives the means to bring them to repentance, that banished sinners may return to him. He delights not in their eternal exile from his presence and favour: how much more then should the king’s mercy extend to his own son, nor suffer him to live expelled from the worship, word, and ordinances of God, amidst the uncircumcised. She suggests, that concern for the king’s safety embolmed her address, as the people’s love for Abfalom might now be hereafter be dangerous to the king and his house; mentions her confidence of the king’s compassion in her case, and which would more abundantly extend to his own; and concludes with a fine compliment on David’s wisdom and uprightness, professing the strongest assurance, that God would continue ever to direct and prosper him in all his ways. Note, (1.) God’s patience towards sinners is truly astonishing! How unwilling is he they should perish! (2.) He hath devised a method of restoring

them, wherein his justice is magnified as well as his mercy, thro’ the blood of atonement. (3.) If sinners now die in exile, it is because they refuse to return. (4.) Confidence in a man lays an obligation on him to serve us; how much more confidence in God, whose promises then become an everlasting security to us.

4. David suspected the contrivance was Joab’s, and enjoins the woman to confess the truth, which she ingeniously does, with a compliment on the king’s penetration; not taking the merit to herself, but acknowledging the author of the apologist. Note, Truth will never shame its author.

5. ¶ And the king said unto Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Abfalom again. 22. And Joab fell to the ground on his face, and bowed himself, and? thanked the king; and Joab said, To-day thy fervant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant. 23. So Joab arose and went to Gathur, and brought Abfalom to Jerusalem. 24. And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not be my face. So Abfalom returned to his own house, and saw not the king’s face. 25. ¶ But in all I said I there was none to be so much praised as Abfalom, for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. 26. And when he pulled his head (for it was at every year’s end that he pulled it because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he pulled it) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king’s weight. 27. And unto Abfalom there were born ’three sons and one daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a woman of a fair countenance.

2 Samuel 14:21-27

Joab was perfect, trembling probably for the issue, and is delighted to find the science succeed, and much more to bear the king’s command to go and be the messenger of Abfalom’s refraction.

1. According to his orders he haltes to Abfalom, having thanked the king for his kind acceptance of his petition, and receiving it as a token of his favour towards himself. Abfalom returns hereupon; but, not to countenance so great a criminal, to leave some mark of displeasure upon him, and to bring him to humiliation by such a mortifying denial, he is not suffered to appear at court, but is ordered to his own house. Note, (1.) It is through the merit of our great Advocate, sinners find grace in the sight of God. (2.) They who are forgiven their lic, continue frequently to suffer under it for their deeper abatement.

2. On his return, his personal accomplishments and family are taken notice of. He was the handsome man in Israel, which might account for the regard of the people, and the affection of his father; for beauty hath a strange attraction, and prejudices us greatly in favour of the positions; though too often the tyrant’s face covers the frequent wounds, as was the case with Abfalom. The most valuable beauties are the internal accomplishments of grace. His hair was remarkably fine, and vast in quantity; it grew so full, that he pulled it yearly, and the weight was two hundred shekels, above six pounds, which might well be, if, as Josephus says, it was powdered with gold-dull, or if only wet with oil, and thickened with powder. He liteth thought this ornament, on which he prided himself, would shortly prove his ruin. His family also was increased with three sons, and one fair daughter, whom he named after his beloved father; but his sons born to have died young, See chap. xviii. 18. and therefore their names are not recorded.

3. ¶ So Abfalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king’s face. 29. Therefore Abfalom sent for Joab, to have sent him to the king, but he would not come to him: and when he sent again the second time, he would not come. 30. Therefore he said unto his servants, See, Joab’s field is near mine, and he hath barley there; go and see it on fire: And Abfalom’s servants set the field on fire. 31. Then Joab arose and came to Abfalom unto his house, and said, unto him, Wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire? 32. And Abfalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee to the king, to thy, Wherefore am I come from Gathur? it had been good for me to have been there still: now therefore let me see the king’s face; and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me. 33. So Joab came to the king, and told him: and when he had called for Abfalom, he came to the king and bowed himself