2 Samuelchapter 14
33 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
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.
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 2 Samuel Overview.
This chapter is set at the royal court in Jerusalem, where any subject could bring a hard case to the king and his ruling was final. The writer of 2 Samuel records it for a people who knew that open door well. The king's commander uses it to move a father who will neither punish his son nor forgive him. Most of the chapter is a single conversation, and the case argued in it is invented. Listen for the moment the story told to the king becomes a story about the king. Then watch what a pardon given by halves produces over the next two years.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who knew that any subject could bring a case before the king
- What
- An account of how Joab uses a staged petition to bring Absalom home from exile, and of the two years before the king receives him.
- Where
- The court in Jerusalem, with a petitioner fetched from Tekoa in the Judean hills.
- When
- About 985 BC, after the three years at Geshur of 13:38, with two more years added at 14:28.
- Why
- To show a king who can neither punish nor forgive, and the rebellion that grows in the space between.
Historical context
The chapter is Joab's operation. He was David's commander and the king's nephew, and he had his own bloodguilt from killing Abner at 3:27, which the commentators read as part of his interest in a pardon for a killing son.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
Kings in Israel heard appeals in person. A subject with a grievance the local elders could not settle could fall on her face before the throne, and the king's ruling was final. That open door is what Joab uses.
The woman is fetched from Tekoa, about ten miles south of Jerusalem, the town Amos came from according to Amos 1:1. She is described as wise, which was a recognised standing in village life, and this book calls on two such women to talk a powerful man out of a disaster.
Her invented case is a genuine legal dilemma. The dead man's relatives had a duty to avenge blood, and executing the only surviving son would put out the family's last burning coal, so the line and the inheritance would both end.
A first hearer would have caught the trap closing. When David swears that the surviving son will be protected, he has ruled on his own son without knowing it.
Two details fill in the world. Weighing a nobleman's hair at the annual cutting was a vanity that fits a man who also kept chariots and runners, and the text records it because the same hair kills him at 18:9. Burning a neighbour's standing crop was a legal provocation that forced a meeting, since the Law required restitution.
Significance
The chapter is about a half measure. Absalom comes home and is not received, and he lives two years in the city without seeing the king's face.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
A father who can neither punish nor forgive gets neither. The first hearers watched a court that a general and a hired petitioner could manage, and saw how much of the coming rebellion was already in place.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi treats the wise woman of Tekoa as a case of staged pleading, and he works through her speech line by line to show how it was built. He begins with the town itself. He reports a saying of the rabbis that wisdom was found at Tekoa because olive oil was found there. He points the reader to the tractate Menachot for it (Rashi on II Samuel 14:2:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY). At the fifth verse he settles a small word, that the term opening her answer means "In truth" (Rashi on II Samuel 14:5:1).
The middle of the chapter is where he reads her design. At the ninth verse he says her offer to carry the guilt is a euphemism spoken for the king's honour. He supplies the blunt sense underneath it, that the king would command nobody and her son would be murdered (Rashi on II Samuel 14:9:1). At the eleventh he explains her plea about the avenger from the law of the cities of refuge, where the distance a fugitive must run was kept short on purpose (Rashi on II Samuel 14:11:1). At the thirteenth he puts the sharp turn of her speech in one sentence, "You suspected that a Jew could come to kill another [Jew] without witnesses and a warning" (Rashi on II Samuel 14:13:1).
The end of the kept notes is about the disguise coming off. At the fifteenth and sixteenth verses Rashi marks the whole appeal as a parable about herself and her son. It was put so that the king could bear to hear it (Rashi on II Samuel 14:15:1 and 14:16:1). At the seventeenth he reads her closing flattery as a hold on the decision she has just won (Rashi on II Samuel 14:17:1). At the nineteenth he solves the grammar of the king's challenge (Rashi on II Samuel 14:19:1). At the twentieth he gives Joab's purpose as delay, "To skirt around [the issue] until the matter concerning the king's son comes to light" (Rashi on II Samuel 14:20:1).
Radak comments more widely on this chapter than on any other in the span, and Metzudat David and Malbim each stand once. The corpus carries their refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they are cited and unquoted here. They are Radak on II Samuel 14:1:1, 14:3:1, 14:4:1, 14:6:1, 14:7:1, 14:8:1, 14:10:1, 14:12:1, 14:21:1, 14:22:1 and 14:25:1, Metzudat David on II Samuel 14:18:1, and Malbim on II Samuel 14:24:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-four rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Eleven of the thirty-four stand on the twenty-fifth verse, where the text praises Absalom's looks, and the run shows how heavily the rabbis read that one line. The Talmud carries it at Sotah 10b:13 and at Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 1:8:10, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 1:31 and Ein Yaakov, Sotah 1:37. The midrashim are Bamidbar Rabbah 9:24, Midrash Shmuel 13:7 and 27:5, and Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 12:9. Two more are Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 2:11 and 2:13, with Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 243:1 beside them.
Five more sit on the verse after it, where Absalom's hair is weighed, and every one of them is a Nazirite text. They are Nazir 4b:21, Nazir 5a:4 and Nazir 5a:11 in the Babylonian Talmud, with Bamidbar Rabbah 10:17 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Nazir 1:2. On his children at the twenty-seventh verse the corpus carries Sotah 11a:2 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 125:6. On the two years he waited in Jerusalem without seeing the king's face it carries Sanhedrin 69b:9, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 8:1 and Seder Olam Rabbah 14:2.
The rest follow the first half of the chapter. On Tekoa and its oil the corpus carries Menachot 85b:13, Moed Katan 15a:20 and 15b:5. Beside them stand Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Menachot 9:1 and Ein Yaakov, Menakhot 9:2. That is the material behind Rashi's own note at the second verse. On Joab it carries Otzar Midrashim, Yoav, Introduction 1. On the widow's claim it carries Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:36, and on her two sons Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 24:3:1 and Tractate Soferim 7:4. On the saying about water spilled on the ground it carries Introductions to Amoraic Literature, Part II (Notes and Interpretations for Chapters of the Talmud), Baba Batra, Chapter I 402. On her praise of the king's discernment it carries Aggadat Bereshit 35:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Devarim 3:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Devarim 3:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Samuel 14:2:1 to 14:20:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Radak, Radak on II Samuel 14:1:1, 14:3:1, 14:4:1, 14:6:1, 14:7:1, 14:8:1, 14:10:1, 14:12:1, 14:21:1, 14:22:1 and 14:25:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Samuel 14:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on II Samuel 14:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 10b:13 and 11a:2, Nazir 4b:21, 5a:4 and 5a:11, Sanhedrin 69b:9, Menachot 85b:13 and Moed Katan 15a:20 and 15b:5, cited by locator from the Sefaria corpus for 2 Samuel 14; The Midrash, Bamidbar Rabbah 9:24 and 10:17, Midrash Shmuel 13:7 and 27:5, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 2:11 and 2:13, and Aggadat Bereshit 35:1, cited by locator from the Sefaria corpus for 2 Samuel 14.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The wise woman of Tekoa plays a widow's part
perceived that the king’s heart was toward Absalom: Joab reads David's face rather than his words and moves before the king asks for help. The general has his own blood on his hands from killing Abner, and older writers note that a man who wants his own guilt overlooked has reason to work for the pardon of another. His scheme opens the chapter's long argument between mercy and law that David will play out in miniature before he plays it out at full scale in his own house.
2 Samuel 14:1
“Was towards - He desired to see him, but was ashamed to shew kindness to one whom God's law and his own conscience obliged him to punish; he wanted therefore a fair pretense, which therefore Joab gave him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
2 Samuel 14:1
“As one who was himself a delinquent, by the murder of Abner. He was conscious to himself of the guilt of blood, and that he was himself obnoxious to public justice, and therefore whatever favour he could procure to be shown to Absalom would corroborate his reprieve.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 14:2-3
feign thyself to be a mourner: Joab sends for a wise woman of Tekoah and writes her a part: mourning clothes, no oil, the manner of a widow of long standing, and he puts the very words in her mouth. The staging is deliberate, built to reach the king through a door his justice might not close, a stranger's grief rather than a general's request. Gill and Clarke both note the woman was likely chosen for some real resemblance to the case she was made to plead, which is what let the deception hold.
2 Samuel 14:2
“And Joab sent to Tekoah,.... Which Kimchi says was a city in the tribe of Asher, and others in the tribe of Benjamin, but it seems rather to be in the tribe, of Judah, 2Ch 11:5; according Jerom (s), it was twelve miles from Jerusalem, though in another place (t) he says it was but nine; of this place was Amos, and some think (u) the woman after mentioned was his grandmother.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Samuel 14:2
“Joab sent to Tekoah - Tekoah, according to St. Jerome, was a little city in the tribe of Judah, about twelve miles from Jerusalem. There are several circumstances relative to this woman and her case which deserve to be noticed: - 1. She was a widow, and therefore her condition of life was the better calculated to excite compassion. 2. She lived at some distance from Jerusalem, which rendered the case difficult to be readily inquired into; and consequently there was the less danger of detection.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 14:2
“It was a case of compassion which she had to represent to the king, and a case in which she could have no relief but from the chancery in the royal breast, the law (and consequently the judgment of all the inferior courts) being against her.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
put the words in her mouth: Albert Barnes notes that the king sat as judge and any subject could bring a case to him, as the two women do at 1 Kings 3:16. Joab's plan depends on that open door. Absalom will use the same access to win hearts at 15:2.
2 Samuel 14:3
“Come to the king - The king as a judge was accessible to all his subjects (2Sa 15:2; compare 1Ki 3:16).”
2 Samuel 14:4-5
Help, O king: She falls on her face and cries Help, O king, and a claim of a dead husband sets the widow's frame before Joab's real subject is ever spoken. Barnes reads the cry itself as the same word that stands behind Hosanna, a plea for present rescue rather than a formal complaint filed before a court. The king answers plainly, drawing her case out with a single question.
2 Samuel 14:4
“And when the woman of Tekoah spake to the king,.... Or after she had spoken to him, being introduced by Joab, as is probable; when she had saluted him with God save the king, or May the king live, or some such like expressions: she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance; to him as her king, in reverence of his majesty: and said, help, O king; signifying that she was in great distress, and came to him for assistance and deliverance.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 14:4
“Spake - Seems to be an accidental error for came, which is found in many manuscipts and versions. Help - literally, save (see the margin). It is the same cry as Hosanna, i. e. save now Psa 118:25.”
The woman of Tekoa tells the king she is a widow and her husband is dead. A widow had no husband to plead for her, and the law guards such women at Exodus 22:22. Her two sons were her support.
2 Samuel 14:5
“I am indeed a widow woman - It is very possible that the principal facts mentioned here were real, and that Joab found out a person whose circumstances bore a near resemblance to that which he wished to represent.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 14:6-7
they two strove together in the field: The parable is a small courtroom: two sons strive in a field with no one to part them, one kills the other, and the family now demands the survivor's life under the law of blood for blood. Her plea widens the stakes past one death, for killing the surviving son quenches her last coal and erases her husband's name from the earth. Jamieson Fausset and Brown read the coal as the last spark of a house's continuance, the same image Scripture uses elsewhere for a king's own life and line.
Adam Clarke explains that the family took up the office of avenger of blood, the nearest kin having the right to slay a killer, as Numbers 35:19 provides. Their words about the heir betray a motive of gain. Albert Barnes sees in the whole family the royal court, which stood against Absalom's return.
2 Samuel 14:7
“To quench the light of Israel (2Sa 21:17) is to destroy the king's life; to ordain a lamp for any one (Ps 132:17) is to grant him posterity; to quench a coal signifies here the extinction of this woman's only remaining hope that the name and family of her husband would be preserved.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 14:7
“The whole family ... - This indicates that all the king’s sons, and the whole court, were against Absalom, and that the knowledge of this was what hindered David from yielding to his affection and recalling him.”
2 Samuel 14:8-11
I will give charge concerning thee: The king's first answer is a bureaucrat's promise, I will give charge concerning thee, and the woman presses past it toward a binding oath. She invokes the Lord's name so that David swears, As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth, a vow stronger than any decree he had yet offered. Clarke observes this was exactly what she was sent to extract, a public word the king could not later take back.
2 Samuel 14:8
“This was encouraging, that he did not dismiss her petition with " Currat lex--Let the law take its course; blood calls for blood, and let it have what it calls for:" but he will take time to enquire whether the allegations of her petition be true.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
his throne be guiltless: The woman of Tekoa asks that any blame be on her and her father's house, so that the king and his throne stay guiltless. Blood left unavenged was held to defile the land, as Numbers 35:30 to 34 teaches. She takes that guilt on herself.
2 Samuel 14:9
“The iniquity be on me ... - Compare the principle in Gen 9:5-6; Num 35:30-34. The woman therefore says, if there is any such guilt in sparing my son, may it rest upon me and my house, not on David and his throne. Compare 2Sa 3:28. The cunning speech of the woman extracted a more direct promise of protection from the king 2Sa 14:1.”
bring him to me: John Gill reads the promise as a summons of any accuser before the king for rebuke. Adam Clarke notes that this still fell short of her goal, a solemn pledge that every proceeding against her son would stop. So she presses once more.
2 Samuel 14:10
“And the king said, whoever saith ought unto thee,.... Demanding her to deliver up her son to justice, and reproaching her for not doing it: bring him to me; give him in charge to a proper officer to be brought before me, and I shall chastise him for it: and he shall not touch thee any more; give her any further trouble, by words or deeds.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 14:10
“Whosoever saith aught unto thee - Neither did this bring the matter to such a bearing that she could come to her conclusion, which was, to get the king pledged by a solemn promise that all proceedings relative to the case should be stopped.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The woman asks the king to invoke the LORD his God so the avenger of blood will spare her son. Matthew Henry hears a reminder that God had spared David for the blood of Uriah. The king swears by the LORD that her son is safe.
2 Samuel 14:11
“Let the king remember the Lord thy God - Consider that when God is earnestly requested to show mercy, he does it in the promptest manner; he does not wait till the case is hopeless: the danger to which my son is exposed is imminent; if the king do not decide the business instantly, it may be too late. And he said, As the Lord liveth - Thus he binds himself by a most solemn promise and oath; and this is what the woman wanted to extort.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 14:12-14
speak one word unto my lord the king: She turns the parable on the king in one stroke: if he has sworn to spare a fictional killer, how does he justify barring his own living son from home? Verse 14 is the sentence the older writers return to across the ages, we must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground, yet God devises means that his banished be not expelled from him. The words are placed in a coached mouth for a political end, yet Spurgeon preached them as true beyond the widow's brief, a picture of how God works for the return of the exile, and Henry read the same verse beside the patience God shows sinners while their case still stands open.
2 Samuel 14:12
“Then the woman said, let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my Lord the king,.... Having gained her point, and gotten a decree from him confirmed by an oath, that her son though he had killed his brother should not die; she proceeds to accommodate the parable, and apply it to the case of Absalom, and improve it in his favour: and he said, say on; gave her leave to say what she had further to observe to him; see Luk 7:40.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 14:12
“Having at last obtained what she wanted, the king’s oath that her son should not die, she proceeds to the case of Absalom. The meaning of 2Sa 14:13 may be paraphrased thus: “If you have done right as regards my son, how is it that you harbor such a purpose of vengeance against Absalom as to keep him, one of God’s people, an outcast in a pagan country, far from the worship of the God of Israel?”
against the people of God?: Matthew Henry explains the phrase by Absalom's standing as a likely heir, so his exile wronged the whole people who looked to David's house. John Wesley observes that Absalom's case differed widely from the widow's, since Absalom had planned his killing. David was too fond to notice.
2 Samuel 14:13
“Absalom has reason to complain that he is treated by his own father more sternly and severely than the meanest subject in the realm; and the whole nation will have cause for saying that the king shows more attention to the petition of a humble woman than to the wishes and desires of a whole kingdom.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 14:13
“It is true, Absalom's case was widely different from that which she had supposed. But David was too well affected to him, to remark that difference, and was more desirous than she could be, to apply that favourable judgment to his own son, which he had given concerning hers.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The woman says all people die and are like water poured out on the ground. John Wesley ties her plea to the cities of refuge, where a banished man could return home at the high priest's death, as in Numbers 35:25. God devises ways to bring the banished one back.
2 Samuel 14:14
“For we must needs die - Whatever is done must be done quickly; all must die; God has not exempted any person from this common lot. Though Amnon be dead, yet the death of Absalom cannot bring him to life, nor repair this loss. Besides, for his crime, he justly deserved to die; and thou, in this case didst not administer justice. Horrible as this fratricide is, it is a pardonable case: the crime of Amnon was the most flagitious; and the offense to Absalom, the ruin of his beloved sister, indescribably great.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
4 more voices on this verse
2 Samuel 14:14
“Respect - So far as to exempt him from this common law of dying. Not expelled - He hath given laws to this purpose, that the man-slayer who is banished should not always continue in banishment, but upon the High-priest's death return to his own city.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 14:14
For God's purpose, according to which he did not make the human being to perish but to live forever, abides unchanging. When his kindness sees shining in us the slightest glimmer of good will, which he himself has in fact sparked from the hard flint of our heart, he fosters it, stirs it up and strengthens it with his inspiration, "desiring all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." For, he says, "it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."
John Cassian · written before 435 · CONFERENCE 13.7patristic
2 Samuel 14:14
“THE woman of Tekoah, in arguing with David for the recall of his son Absalom, argued with great shrewdness. After craftily entrapping the king by her parable, she then pleaded with him in persuasive terms—the cleverness of which we must admire—though the end aimed at was not consistent with the impartial justice which every magistrate ought to exercise. In effect she pleaded thus—"It is true that Absalom slew his brother Amnon. But nevertheless spare his life, and permit him to return from exile. What is done cannot be undone.”
2 Samuel 14:14
“Here are two great instances of the mercy of God to sinners, properly urged as reasons for showing mercy: --First, The patience he exercises towards them. His law is broken, yet he does not immediately take away the life of those that break it, does not strike sinners dead, as justly he might, in the act of sin, but bears with them, and waits to be gracious.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 14:15-17
the people have made me afraid: She closes her case with the fear that drove her, the people have made me afraid, and folds in a flattering line that the king discerns good and bad like an angel of God. The same comparison recurs at verse 20 in Joab's own mouth once the trick is exposed, so the flattery becomes a line the reader is let in on before David is. Wesley reads her closing therefore the Lord thy God will be with thee as the reward she promises a king who forgives what strict justice would condemn.
2 Samuel 14:15
“The people have made me afraid - She pretends still that her suit was a real one, and that she was in fear of the people (“the whole family,” 2Sa 14:7) setting upon her and her son.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 14:15
“The people - The truth is, I was even forced to this bold address to thee by the disposition of thy people, who are discontented at Absalom's perpetual banishment, lest, if Absalom by his father-in-law's assistance invade the land, the people who have a great kindness for him, and think he is very hard used, should take up arms.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
John Wesley reads the inheritance as the land where God placed his presence and worship. Her words hint at Absalom's danger, living in Geshur among idolaters and far from God's house. David himself once grieved the same exile at 1 Samuel 26:19.
2 Samuel 14:16
“Inheritance - That is, out of that land which God gave to his people to be their inheritance, and in which alone God hath settled the place of his presence and worship: whereby she intimates the danger of Absalom's living in a state of separation from God, and his house, amongst idolaters.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The woman credits the king with the power to discern good and evil like the angel of God. Albert Barnes takes this as praise that the king's word would be as right as heaven's. Such praise left David little room to refuse her.
2 Samuel 14:17
“Angel - In wisdom, and justice, and goodness. Therefore - Because thou art so wise and gracious to those who in strict justice deserve punishment, God will own and stand by thee in this thy act of grace: or God will prosper thee in thy enterprizes.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 14:18-20
Hide not from me: David sees through the performance and asks straight out, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this, and the woman confirms it without apology. Her closing flattery repeats the angel of God comparison from verse 17, now turned to praise the king's own perception of the very plot laid against him. Wesley notes that the substance of Joab's coaching held even where its exact wording bent to fit whatever the king said back, the mark of a genuinely wise performer rather than a fixed script.
2 Samuel 14:18
“21 And the king said unto Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again. 22 And Joab fell to the ground on his face, and bowed himself, and thanked the king: and Joab said, To day thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the hand of Joab: Her oath, As surely as you live, answers the king's own oath in verse 11. John Wesley paraphrases her reply as a plain admission that the king has found out the truth. Flattery wraps the admission.
2 Samuel 14:19
“And the king said, is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this?....”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 14:19
“Of Joab - Hast thou not said and done this by Joab's direction. Said - It is even so, thou hast discovered the truth. These words - As to the substance of them, but not as to all the expressions; for these were to be varied as the king's answer gave occasion.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
John Wesley explains the change of affairs as Joab's aim to present the people's wish for Absalom's return through a parable. Adam Clarke hears her closing praise as the flattery of Eastern courts, which credited a ruler with knowing everything. Nathan had used a parable on David at 12:1.
2 Samuel 14:20
“According to the wisdom of an angel of God - This is quite in the style of Asiatic flattery. A European is often addressed, “Saheb can do every thing; we can do nothing; none can prevent the execution of Saheb’s commands; Saheb is God.” See Ward.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Let him not see my face: a homecoming that isn't one
2 Samuel 14:21-22
bring the young man Absalom again: David grants the request to Joab directly, not to the woman, which shows he read the scheme correctly from the start and answers the man behind it. Joab's gratitude at verse 22 is genuine and self-interested at once, for the general's own past bloodguilt sits safer once the king has shown he can forgive a killing son. Henry reads the scene as a small figure of a greater mercy, for the king does not restore Absalom on his own first motion but is moved to say Go, bring them again, much as a mediator's plea rather than a sinner's own standing brings the banished home.
2 Samuel 14:21
“It is true God has thought of compassion towards poor sinners, not willing that any should perish, yet he is reconciled to them through a Mediator, who intercedes with him on their behalf, and to whom he has given these orders, Go, bring them again. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and he came to this land of our banishment to bring us to God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John Wesley holds that David had no power to set aside God's law on blood, and he sees Absalom's later revolt as God's scourge on that mercy. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown find selfishness in Joab's thanks. Matthew Henry notes that Solomon will call Joab to account at 1 Kings 2.
2 Samuel 14:22
“Joab took it as a kindness to himself, and (some think) as an indication that he would never call him to an account for the murder he had been guilty of. But, if he meant so, he was mistaken, as we shall find, 1 Kings ii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
2 Samuel 14:22
“Fulfilled - But it seems David had no power to dispense with God's laws, nor to spare any whom God appointed him to destroy: for the laws of God bound the kings and rulers, as well as the people of Israel. How justly did God make this man, whom he had so sinfully spared, a scourge to him?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 14:23-24
brought Absalom to Jerusalem: Joab fetches Absalom from Geshur, but David's order lands short of full restoration, let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. The pardon and the distance stand side by side, and the phrase saw not the king's face will be repeated at verse 28 to measure exactly how long that distance held. Clarke reads the king's caution as a proper mark of his own respect for justice, forgiving the life while still refusing the presence, so mercy and the memory of the crime are both kept in view.
2 Samuel 14:23
“So Joab arose and went to Geshur,.... Where Absalom was with his grandfather, the king of the place; see 2Sa 13:37, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem; from thence, which, according to Bunting (t), was the distance of eighty eight miles from it. (t) Travels, &c. p 146, 148.”
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2 Samuel 14:23
“I see not how David can be justified in suspending the execution of the ancient law ( Gen. ix. 6 ), Whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, in which a righteous magistrate ought not to acknowledge even his brethren, or know his own children.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The king let Absalom return to his own house on the condition that he never see the king's face. Albert Barnes calls this a half measure. Absalom lived two years in Jerusalem without seeing the king.
2 Samuel 14:24
“Let him turn - Lest whilst be shewed some mercy to Absalom, he should seem to approve of his sin. Likewise by this means Absalom might be drawn to a more thorough humiliation and repentance.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
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2 Samuel 14:24
“Though he was the son of such a devout father, we read nothing of his devotion. Parents cannot give grace to their children, though they give them ever so good an education. All that is here said of him is, 1.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The beauty of Absalom, weighed out by the hair
2 Samuel 14:25-27
there was no blemish in him: The narrator pauses on Absalom's beauty and his hair, cut once a year and weighed at two hundred shekels, a detail the story will not let go: this same hair catches him in the oak at his death in chapter eighteen. Henry sets the unblemished body against a mind he calls full of wounds and bruises, the handsome exterior no window into the man. Verse 27 counts three sons and a daughter named Tamar for his ruined sister, and the later record at chapter eighteen has Absalom raise a pillar for want of a son to keep his name, a tension the commentators take up where that chapter's own notes fall.
2 Samuel 14:25
“None to be so much praised as Absalom - It was probably his personal beauty that caused the people to interest themselves so much in his behalf; for the great mass of the public is ever caught and led by outward appearances. There was no blemish in him - He was perfect and regular in all his features, and in all his proportions.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
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2 Samuel 14:25
“Handsome are those that handsome do. Many a polluted deformed soul dwells in a fair and comely body; witness Absalom's, that was polluted with blood, and deformed with unnatural disaffection to his father and prince. In his body there was no blemish, but in his mind nothing but wounds and bruises.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
two hundred shekels: Absalom cut the hair of his head every year when it got heavy, and the cut hair weighed two hundred shekels by the royal standard. Albert Barnes judges twenty shekels more likely. Matthew Henry reads the hair as a mark of pride.
2 Samuel 14:26
“When he polled his head - Not at any particular period, but when the hair became too heavy for him. On this account of the extraordinary weight of Absalom’s hair, see the observations at the end of this chapter, 2Sa 14:30 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
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2 Samuel 14:26
“This notice is taken of his hair, not as the hair of a Nazarite (he was far from that strictness), but as the hair of a beau. He let it grow till it was a burden to him, and was heavy on him, nor would he cut it as long as ever he could bear it; as pride feels no cold, so it feels no heat, and that which feeds and gratifies it is not complained of, though very uneasy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Absalom had three sons and a daughter named Tamar, a beautiful woman who carried the name of his sister. At 18:18 Absalom says he has no son to preserve his name, so the sons likely died young. Tamar is the one child named.
2 Samuel 14:27
“Three sons - These probably died in infancy (see the marginal reference). From Tamar must have been born Maachah, the mother of Abijah, and the favorite wife of Rehoboam 1Ki 15:2; 2Ch 11:20-22.”
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2 Samuel 14:27
“He cannot do his father a mischief till he is reconciled to him; this therefore is the first branch of his plot; this snake cannot sting again till he be warmed in his father's bosom. He gained this point, not by pretended submissions and promises of reformation, but (would you think it?) by insults and injuries.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Barley set on fire to win a kiss
2 Samuel 14:28-30
dwelt two full years in Jerusalem: Two full years pass with Absalom back in Jerusalem and still barred from his father's face, the exact words of verse 24 returned to mark how long the pardon stayed half kept. When Joab twice refuses to come at Absalom's summons, Absalom answers with arson, burning the general's barley to force an audience he could not get by asking. Clarke calls it strange conduct that nonetheless had the desired effect, the same readiness to force other men's hands that will drive Absalom's rebellion a few chapters on.
2 Samuel 14:28
“So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem,.... After his return from Geshur: and saw not the king's face; all that time; which was owing either to the king's resentment of the fact committed by him, or to state policy.”
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2 Samuel 14:28
“This slight severity was designed to bring him to sincere repentance, on perceiving that his father had not fully pardoned him, as well as to convince the people of David's abhorrence of his crime.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Charles Spurgeon notes that Joab had lost much of his liking for the young prince by this time. The general who arranged the return now keeps his distance. Absalom had wanted him to act as mediator with the king.
2 Samuel 14:29
“YOU REMEMBER the historical narrative. Absalom had fled from Jerusalem under fear of David’s anger. He was after a time permitted to return; but he was not admitted into the presence of the king. Earnestly desiring to be restored to his former posts of honor and favor, he besought Joab to come to him, intending to request him to act as mediator. Joab, having lost much of his liking for the young prince, refused to come; and, though he was sent for repeatedly, he declined to attend at his desire.”
go and set it on fire: Absalom told his servants that Joab's field next to his own had barley, and they set the field on fire. Matthew Henry finds it strange to seek a kindness by doing Joab harm. Joab came at once.
2 Samuel 14:30
“Go and set it on fire - This was strange conduct, but it had the desired effect. He had not used his influence to get Absalom to court; now he uses it, and succeeds. Additional observations on 2Sa 14:26: - “And at every year’s end, he (Absalom) polled his head; and he weighed the hair at two hundred shekels.” The very learned Bochart has written a dissertation on this subject (vide Bocharti Opera, vol. iii., col. 883, edit. Lugd. 1692) in a letter to his friend M. Faukell. I shall give the substance in what follows.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 14:31-33
Wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire?: Absalom protests his own innocence to Joab, it had been good for me to have been there still, and demands the king's face on his own terms, let him kill me if I am guilty. Joab carries the demand, and David answers with a kiss, the physical seal of reconciliation after three years of exile and two more years of silence. The chapter closes on the gesture rather than on any change in Absalom's heart, and the sword promised at 12:10 will fall from that same unaddressed heart within a few chapters.
2 Samuel 14:31
“Absalom was obliged by the law to make restitution ( Exod. xxii. 6 ), yet we do not find either that he offered it or that Joab demanded it. Joab (it might be) thought he could not justify his refusal to go and speak with him; and therefore Absalom thought he could justify his taking this way to fetch him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
let him kill me: Matthew Henry reads the offer as a dare, made by a son who knew his father loved him too much to act on it. John Wesley sees Absalom now standing on his own justification as though the killing deserved no death. He treats the exile itself as the wrong.
2 Samuel 14:32
“He denies his own crimes, though most notorious, and will not own that there was any iniquity in him, insinuating that therefore he had been wronged in the rebuke he had been under. He defies the king's justice: "Let him kill me, if he can find in his heart," knowing he loved him too well to do it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the king kissed Absalom: Joab told the king, and David called for Absalom, who bowed low before him. Then the king kissed him, as Joseph kissed his brothers in Genesis 45:15. Matthew Henry notes that Absalom showed no sorrow for his sin.
2 Samuel 14:33
“Did the bowels of a father prevail to reconcile him to an impenitent son, and shall penitent sinners question the compassion of him who is the Father of mercy? If Ephraim bemoan himself, God soon bemoans him, with all the kind expressions of a fatherly tenderness: He is a dear son, a pleasant child, Jer. xxxi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A staged legal petition, a parable used a second time to draw a verdict from the king before he sees its subject, as 14 classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The second parable | The chapter repeats the method of chapter 12 with a different hand on it. Nathan brought a case about a lamb and drew a sentence out of the king before naming the subject. The woman of Tekoa brings a case about two sons in a field and does the same. The difference is the purpose. Nathan's parable convicted the king and this one is used to move him.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown and Matthew Henry, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, and Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Samuel 14:5 to 14:7, as this site's published exposition note on those verses reports them. | 2 Samuel 12:1, 2 Samuel 14:5, 2 Samuel 14:6, 2 Samuel 14:13 |
| The king's face | The phrase measures the whole second half of the chapter. David's order at 14:24 lets Absalom return to his house and bars him from the king's face, 14:28 counts two years of it, and Absalom's demand at 14:32 asks for that face and nothing else. The chapter ends at 14:33 with a kiss.Adam Clarke and John Gill, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 2 Samuel 14:28, as this site's published exposition note on that verse reports them. | 2 Samuel 14:24, 2 Samuel 14:28, 2 Samuel 14:32, 2 Samuel 14:33 |
| The angel of God, said twice | The woman flatters the king's discernment at 14:17 by comparing it to the angel of God, and Joab repeats the comparison in his own mouth at 14:20 once the trick is out. The reader is let in on the line before David is, and the second use praises the king's perception of the very plot laid against him.John Wesley and Adam Clarke, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, and Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 2 Samuel 14:17 to 14:20, as this site's published exposition notes on those verses report them. | 2 Samuel 14:17, 2 Samuel 14:20 |
| The last coal | The woman's plea widens from one death to a house. She argues that killing the surviving son quenches her last coal and leaves her husband with no name on the earth. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the coal as the last spark of a house's continuance, the image Scripture uses elsewhere for a king's own life and line.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 2 Samuel 14:7, as this site's published exposition note on verses 5 to 7 reports them. | 2 Samuel 14:7 |
The debated concept: Absalom's sons
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 27 records three sons and a daughter named Tamar, and 18:18 has Absalom raise a pillar because he had no son to keep his name in memory. The two verses have to be held together somehow, and the commentators divide. This site's published exposition note on 14:25 to 14:27 states the tension and sends the reader to the notes on chapter 18 for the positions.
The common readings are that the three sons died young, or that 18:18 speaks of the time when the pillar was raised. The text states both facts and reconciles neither, and this row takes no verdict.
The debated concept: the weight of the hair
Verse 26 records that Absalom cut his hair once a year and that it weighed two hundred shekels by the royal standard. The figure is large, and the question is what the royal standard was. The chapter gives the measure and names the standard, and the row states the figure as the text states it.
What the detail is for is clearer. This site's published exposition note on those verses records that the same hair catches him in the oak at 18:9, so the chapter plants what chapter 18 uses. Matthew Henry sets the unblemished body of 14:25 against a mind he calls full of wounds and bruises.
The New Testament's use
The New Testament does not quote this chapter. Albert Barnes reads the woman's cry at 14:4 as the word that stands behind Hosanna, a plea for present rescue rather than a formal complaint. That is the one New Testament term a commentator brings to this chapter.
The historical value
Tekoa stands about ten miles south of Jerusalem in the Judean hills, and it is the town Amos came from, as Amos 1:1 records. A woman fetched from Tekoa is a stranger in Jerusalem, which is what makes the staging work.
The legal frame is also real. Israelite law placed the duty of avenging a killing on the nearest male relative and distinguished manslaughter from murder, and the cities of refuge existed for that distinction. The woman's case is built on the boundary between the two, which is why the king has to rule rather than refuse.
The pattern the chapter sets
A pardon is given and a distance is kept, and the chapter spends five years showing what that costs. Absalom burns Joab's barley at 14:30 to force an audience he could not get by asking, and Adam Clarke calls the conduct strange and notes that it worked. The same readiness to force other men's hands opens the next chapter.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 2 Samuel 14:24, as this site's published exposition note on verses 21 to 24 reports him; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Samuel 14:21, as this site's published exposition note on verses 21 to 22 reports him and This site's published exposition of 2 Samuel 14, The published notes on 14:1 to 14:8 and on 14:13 to 14:14, which read the widow's case as a courtroom built to reach the king through a door his justice might not close.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Charles Spurgeon; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.