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2 Samuel 18:21

in 2 Samuel 18

So Joab said to a Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen.” The Cushite bowed to Joab and took off running.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Then said Joab to the Cushite, Go, tell the king what thou hast seen. And the Cushite bowed himself unto Joab, and ran.

KJV

Then said Joab to Cushi, Go tell the king what thou hast seen. And Cushi bowed himself unto Joab, and ran.

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This verse in 2 Samuel 18

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
Cushi - “The Cushite,” a foreign slave, perhaps of Joab’s, whom he did not scruple to expose to David’s anger. If, however, it is a name, it must be rendered “Haccushi.” In the title to Ps. 7, “Cush, the Benjamite,” cannot mean this Cushi, since the contents of the Psalm are not suitable to this occasion.

This site's exposition

the Lord hath avenged him of his enemies

on 2 Samuel 18:19-23

Ahimaaz asks to be the one who carries word that the Lord hath avenged him of his enemies, and Joab refuses him because the king's son is dead, sending Cushi instead to tell the king what he has seen. Ahimaaz asks a second time to run after Cushi and Joab lets him go, though he warns him he has no news ready to tell; Ahimaaz takes the way of the plain and outruns Cushi, who has kept to the harder road through the hills. Barnes reads Cushi as a foreign slave, a man Joab did not scruple to send first into whatever anger the news might draw down on the one who carries it.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), an Ethiopian, so his name signifies, and some think that he was so by birth, a black that waited on Joab, probably one of the ten that had helped to dispatch Absalom (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation

Then said Joab to Cushi,.... The Ethiopian, or blackamoor; who either was an Ethiopian by birth and proselyted, or he was an Israelite of a black complexion, and therefore so called; and was judged a proper person by the general to carry such dismal news to the king, as he knew it would be.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Tell the king what thou hast seen - At this time the death of Absalom was not publicly known; but Joab had given Cushi private information of it. This Ahimaaz had not, for he could not tell the king whether Absalom were dead. To this Joab seems to refer, 2Sa 18:22: “Thou hast no tidings ready.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּ֤אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • יוֹאָב֙Joab

    yoavH3097 →144 times

  • לַכּוּשִׁ֔יto the Cushite

    lakushiH3569 →26 times

  • לֵ֛ךְgo

    lekhH1980 →1546 times

  • הַגֵּ֥דtell

    hagedH5046 →370 times

  • לַמֶּ֖לֶךְto the king

    lamelekhH4428 →2525 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֣ר[that] which

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • רָאִ֑יתָהyou have seen

    raitahH7200 →1300 times

  • וַיִּשְׁתַּ֧חוּand he bowed down

    vaiyishtachuH7812 →172 times

  • כוּשִׁ֛י[the] Cushite

    khushiH3569 →26 times

  • לְיוֹאָ֖בto Joab

    leyoavH3097 →144 times

  • וַיָּרֹֽץ׃and he ran

    vaiyarotzH7323 →103 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About 2 Samuel

The Death of Absalom — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Death of Absalom — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
2 Samuel: the study guide →Read 2 Samuel 18 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 2 Samuel 18 →