2 Samuel 14:1-33
1 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom.
2 And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead:
3 And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth.
4 And when the woman of Tekoah spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help,a O king.
5 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead.
6 And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him.
7 And, behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder uponb the earth.
8 And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee.
9 And the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father's house: and the king and his throne be guiltless.
10 And the king said, Whosoever saith ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more.
11 Then said she, I pray thee, let the king remember the LORD thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.
12 Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on.
13 And the woman said, Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? for the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished.
14 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.
15 Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid.
16 For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.
17 Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable:c for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: therefore the LORD thy God will be with thee.
18 Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.
19 And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid:
20 To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.
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 thankedd 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.
23 So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
24 And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, and saw not the king's face.
25 But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
26 And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year's end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king's weight.
27 And unto Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a woman of a fair countenance.
28 So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king's face.
29 Therefore Absalom sent for Joab, to have sent him to the king; but he would not come to him: and when he sent again the second time, he would not come.
30 Therefore he said unto his servants, See, Joab's field is neare mine, and he hath barley there; go and set it on fire. And Absalom's servants set the field on fire.
31 Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom unto his house, and said unto him, Wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire?
32 And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? it had been good for me to have been there still: now therefore let me see the king's face; and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me.
33 So Joab came to the king, and told him: and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Absalom.
2 Samuel 14:2. Tekoah; a city of Judah, twelve miles south of Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 11:6.
2 Samuel 14:6. The one smote the other, probably with some weapon, or sharp instrument. The lord Ellenborough's Act directs that all persons cutting and maiming with such instruments, shall be capitally convicted.
2 Samuel 14:26. He weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels. Poole, in his Synopsis of the Critics, has a long note here. The Septuagint, followed by Josephus and the Vulgate, reads,” He set,” or valued, “his hair at two hundred shekels;” for it is said to have been bought by the ladies in Jerusalem. Two hundred shekels, or five Roman pounds, would be too heavy for one year's growth of his hair.
2 Samuel 14:33. The king kissed Absalom; a full token of the royal favour as a son, and as a prince. Had Absalom been now a good man, all this had passed without regret: in this pardon of a fratricide David was too precipitate.
REFLECTIONS.
David, too indulgent to Amnon, was not less so, after a while, to Absalom. His feelings as a father gradually gained the ascendency over his prudence and fortitude as a judge and a king. David was perfectly aware of the atrocity of the crime, however mitigated by the provocation; and though the lapse of time did not diminish the guilt, yet it removed the painful recollections to a greater distance; while the affections of a father to an exiled son were invariably the same, David, long an exile himself, pitied the soul of his son, exposed to the pagan morals of Talmai's court.
Joab, though a good general, and faithful to the king in all his troubles, here discovered a policy but too common to those who surround the throne. He studiously turned the king's passion to his private interest. Chileab being dead, as is supposed, Joab saw that Absalom was the heir apparent; and he thought by bringing him back, he would lay him under such obligations as to ensure his own ascendency in the affairs of state, and in the military command. Joab had yet farther views, and views intimately connected with his internal repose. He well knew that the king's conscience accused him for not executing judgment upon him for the blood of Abner; and he thought, if the king in regard to Uriah, if Absalom in regard to Amnon, stood in a similar situation of guilt, no man in Israel could then either make him afraid or ashamed. How mean is the policy, how many are the artifices of men, oppressed with conscious guilt, and loaded with public reproach. But all this finesse merely encreased his own and his country's troubles. The web was so thin that the king immediately saw through it; and the web of the wicked, intended to cover their crimes, has generally some hole left, into which justice thrusts a finger and gives the whole a terrible rent. So in the issue it proved to Joab. But how contrary is all this artifice to the simplicity of the kingdom of heaven. Indeed, in earthly courts, the tinsel is soon worn off; and in God's presence it is totally inadmissible. Except a man be converted, and become as a little child, he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Joab, knowing that the assassination of Amnon, when invited as a brother and intoxicated at a feast, was regarded with horror, wished to confer the honour of his recal on a third person, a widow of Tekoah, who no doubt had an only son in exile; and the relations, more wishful of the family estate than of justice, had still kept him abroad. The speech he put into the mouth of this woman is a specimen, that he was well skilled in the human heart. She pleads well for the life and liberty of her son; and so far she is a fine model for a sinner in pleading with God for pardon and salvation. He should take words with him, and fill his mouth with arguments, nor rest till he receive a pardon sealed with promises.
A kindness conferred on the wicked is but to make them the more ungrateful, and afford them opportunities of greater wickedness. To Absalom a limited pardon was insupportable; for he had no shame, no repentance, no love but to himself. He preferred liberty at Geshur, to the smallest restraints at home: and when fair speeches failed with Joab, he took the liberty of burning his corn. He wanted to see the king's face, but more through pride than filial affection. Here is a true portrait of a bad man under national or ecclesiastical displeasure: the pride and naughtiness of his heart reproach the fairest sentence, and revolt at the mildest strokes of justice. To rise gradually by repentance, piety and virtue, the only way in which an offender can rise in the eyes of heaven, is to him insupportable. He therefore justifies himself, and demands with threats immediate restoration: and the receiving of such a character to the peace of the church, is too often as the restoration of Absalom, pregnant with greater mischiefs than all his former faults. What wisdom, what firmness, what compassion should distinguish the ministers of justice, and those entrusted with discipline in the church.