2 Samuel 21

2 Samuel 21:2

Is worthy to die - This seems to be more than the fact deserved, or than he had commission to inflict for it, Exodus 22:1. But it is observable, that David now when he was most indulgent to himself, and to his own sin, was most severe and even unjust to others; as appears by this passage, and the following relation, ver.31, which was done in the time of David’s impenitent continuance in his sin.

2 Samuel 21:4

Thus saith the Lord God - Nathan now speaks, not as a petitioner for a poor man, but as an ambassador from the great God.

2 Samuel 21:6

To be thy wife - To marry her whom he had defiled, and whose husband he had slain, was an affront upon the ordinance of marriage, making that not only to palliate, but in a manner to consecrate such villainies. In all this he despised the word of the Lord; (so it is in the Hebrew.) Not only his commandment in general, but the particular word of promise, which God had before sent him by Nathan, that he would build him an house: which sacred promise if he had had a due value for, he would not have polluted his house with lust and blood.

2 Samuel 21:7

Never depart - During the residue of thy life.

2 Samuel 21:8

Own house - From thy own children and family. Thine eyes - Openly, so that thou shalt know it as certainly as if thou didst see it, and yet not be able to hinder it. And give them - I shall by my providence, give him power over them. Neighbor - To one who is very near thee. But God expresseth this darkly, that the accomplishment of it might not be hindered.

2 Samuel 21:10

I have sinned - How serious this confession was, we may see, Psal 51:1 - 19. Put away thy sin - That is, so far as concerns thy own life. Not die - As by thy own sentence, ver.5, thou dost deserve, and may expect to be done by my immediate stroke.

2 Samuel 21:13

Besought - Supposing the threatening might be conditional, and so the execution of it prevented by prayer. Went - Into his closet.

2 Samuel 21:14

Elders - The chief officers of his kingdom and household. He would not - This excessive mourning did not proceed simply from the fear of the loss of the child; but from a deep sense of his sin, and the divine displeasure manifested herein.

2 Samuel 21:15

Seventh day - From the beginning of the distemper.

2 Samuel 21:17

And came - That is, to the tabernacle, to confess his sin before the Lord, to own his justice in this stroke, to deprecate his just displeasure, to acknowledge God’s rich mercy, in sparing his own life; and to offer such sacrifices as were required in such cases.

2 Samuel 21:20

I fast - Seeing fasting and prayer cannot now prevail with God for his life. I shall go to him - Into the state of the dead in which he is, and into heaven, where I doubt not I shall find him.

2 Samuel 21:21

His wife - Who was now much dejected, both for her former sin, and for the loss of the child. Loved him - That is, the Lord declared to David, that he loved his son, notwithstanding the just cause David had given to God to alienate his affections from him.

2 Samuel 21:22

Jedidiah - That is, beloved of the Lord. Because - Either, because of the Lord’s love to him, or because the Lord commanded him to do so.