Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Samuel 19
Charles Ellicott Commentary
2 Samuel 19
Charles Ellicott Commentary
2 Samuel 19
"And Joab came into the house to the king, and said, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, who this day have saved thy life, and the lives of thy sons and of thy daughters, and the lives of thy wives, and the lives of thy concubines;" — 2 Samuel 19:5 (ASV)
And Joab came. —This is a continuation of 2 Samuel 19:1, the intervening verses being parenthetical. Joab’s whole character appears strikingly in his conduct on this occasion. With his hand red with the blood of the beloved son, he goes, in the hardest and most unfeeling terms, to reproach the father for giving way to his grief; he treats the king with thorough insolence, and with the air of a superior; and yet he counsels David for his own welfare and for that of the kingdom as a wise and loyal statesman. It may be doubted whether David yet knew of Joab’s part in the death of Absalom.
The lives of your sons. —Had Absalom succeeded, he would no doubt not only have slain his father, but also, after the Eastern custom, have put out of the way all who might possibly have become rival claimants of the throne. (1 Kings 15:29; 1 Kings 16:11; 2 Kings 10:6–7; 2 Kings 11:1.)
"Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak comfortably unto thy servants; for I swear by Jehovah, if thou go not forth, there will not tarry a man with thee this night: and that will be worse unto thee than all the evil that hath befallen thee from thy youth until now." — 2 Samuel 19:7 (ASV)
I swear by the Lord. —The statement which Joab emphasizes with this solemn oath is not that he will lead the people into revolt—he does not seem to have conceived, far less to have expressed any such design—but it is simply an assurance of the extreme danger of the course David was pursuing, put in such a strong and startling way as to rouse him from the selfishness of his sorrow.
"Then the king arose, and sat in the gate. And they told unto all the people, saying, Behold, the king is sitting in the gate: and all the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled every man to his tent." — 2 Samuel 19:8 (ASV)
For Israel had fled. —Translate, but Israel fled; “Israel” being used here, as throughout this narrative (see 2 Samuel 16:15; 2 Samuel 16:18; 2 Samuel 17:5; 2 Samuel 17:14–15; 2 Samuel 17:24; 2 Samuel 17:26; 2 Samuel 18:6–7; 2 Samuel 18:16–17), for those who had espoused the cause of Absalom.
"And all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king delivered us out of the hand of our enemies, and he saved us out of the hand of the Philistines; and now he is fled out of the land from Absalom." — 2 Samuel 19:9 (ASV)
The king saved us. —With the collapse of the rebellion the accompanying infatuation passed away, and the people began to remember how much they owed to David. There seems to have been a general disposition among the people to return to their allegiance, yet the movement was without organisation or leadership.
"And Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why speak ye not a word of bringing the king back?" — 2 Samuel 19:10 (ASV)
We anointed over us. —There is no other mention of the anointing of Absalom, and it certainly would not have been performed by the high priests. It may have been done by some prophet, or this may be a mere form of expression taken from the custom of anointing, and only mean “whom we appointed over us.”
Why speak ye not? —There was evidently a hesitation and delay, arising probably from a mere lack of organization, but yet of dangerous tendency. It is under these circumstances that David shows that politic power which had so often before stood him in good stead. The Septuagint very unnecessarily places at the end of this verse the clause which is found at the end of 2 Samuel 19:11.
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