2 Samuel 14:5 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

2 Samuel 14:5

3 Go to the king and speak to him in this manner.” So Joab ^aput the words in her mouth.

4 And when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she ^afell on her face to the ground and prostrated herself, and said, ^b“Help, O king!”

5 Then the king said to her, “What troubles you?” And she answered, ^a“Indeed I am a widow, my husband is dead.

6 Now your maidservant had two sons; and the two fought with each other in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other and killed him.

7 And now the whole family has risen up against your maidservant, and they said, ‘Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may execute him ^afor the life of his brother whom he killed; and we will destroy the heir also.’ So they would extinguish my ember that is left, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the earth.”

8 Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.”

9 And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord, O king, let ^athe iniquity be on me and on my father’s house, ^band the king and his throne be guiltless.”

10 So the king said, “Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you anymore.”

11 Then she said, “Please let the king remember the Lord your God, and do not permit ^athe avenger of blood to destroy anymore, lest they destroy my son.” And he said, ^b“As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.”

12 Therefore the woman said, “Please, let your maidservant speak another word to my lord the king.” And he said, “Say on.”

13 So the woman said: “Why then have you schemed such a thing against ^athe people of God? For the king speaks this thing as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring ^bhis banished one home again.

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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2 Samuel 14:2-21

JOAB INSTRUCTS A WOMAN OF TEKOAH. (2Sa. 14:1-21)

And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman—The king was strongly attached to Absalom; and having now got over his sorrow for the violent death of Amnon, he was desirous of again enjoying the society of his favorite son, who had now been three long years absent. But a dread of public opinion and a regard to the public interests made him hesitate about recalling or pardoning his guilty son; and Joab, whose discerning mind perceived this struggle between parental affection and royal duty, devised a plan for relieving the scruples, and, at the same time, gratifying the wishes, of his master. Having procured a countrywoman of superior intelligence and address, he directed her to seek an audience of the king, and by soliciting his royal interposition in the settlement of a domestic grievance, convinced him that the life of a murderer might in some cases be saved. Tekoah was about twelve miles south of Jerusalem, and six south of Beth-lehem; and the design of bringing a woman from such a distance was to prevent either the petitioner being known, or the truth of her story easily investigated. Her speech was in the form of a parable—the circumstances—the language—the manner—well suited to the occasion, represented a case as like David's as it was policy to make it, so as not to be prematurely discovered. Having got the king pledged, she avowed it to be her design to satisfy the royal conscience, that in pardoning Absalom he was doing nothing more than he would have done in the case of a stranger, where there could be no imputation of partiality. The device succeeded; David traced its origin to Joab; and, secretly pleased at obtaining the judgment of that rough, but generally sound-thinking soldier, he commissioned him to repair to Geshur and bring home his exiled son.

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