2 Samuel 3:13 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

2 Samuel 3:13

11 And he could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.

12 Then Abner sent messengers on his behalf to David, saying, “Whose is the land?” saying also, “Make your covenant with me, and indeed my hand shall be with you to bring all Israel to you.”

13 And David said, “Good, I will make a covenant with you. But one thing I require of you: ^ayou shall not see my face unless you first bring ^bMichal, Saul’s daughter, when you come to see my face.”

14 So David sent messengers to ^aIshbosheth, Saul’s son, saying, “Give me my wife Michal, whom I betrothed to myself ^bfor a hundred foreskins of the Philistines.”

15 And Ishbosheth sent and took her from her husband, from¹ Paltiel the son of Laish.

16 Then her husband went along with her to ^aBahurim, weeping behind her. So Abner said to him, “Go, return!” And he returned.

17 Now Abner had communicated with the elders of Israel, saying, “In time past you were seeking for David to be king over you.

18 Now then, do it! ^aFor the Lord has spoken of David, saying, ‘By the hand of My servant David,¹ I will save My people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and the hand of all their enemies.’ ”

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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2 Samuel 3:12-13

Abner sent messengers to David—Though his language implied a secret conviction, that in supporting Ish-bosheth he had been laboring to frustrate the divine purpose of conferring the sovereignty of the kingdom on David, this acknowledgment was no justification either of the measure he was now adopting, or of the motives that prompted it. Nor does it seem possible to uphold the full integrity and honor of David's conduct in entertaining his secret overtures for undermining Ish-bosheth, except we take into account the divine promise of the kingdom, and his belief that the secession of Abner was a means designed by Providence for accomplishing it. The demand for the restoration of his wife Michal was perfectly fair; but David's insisting on it at that particular moment, as an indispensable condition of his entering into any treaty with Abner, seems to have proceeded not so much from a lingering attachment as from an expectation that his possession of her would incline some adherents of the house of Saul to be favorable to his cause.

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