2 Samuel 14:32

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.

Ver. 32. It had been good for me to have been there still.] Since there I lived at liberty, and in all manner of courtly jollity; as for the use of God's ordinances, he made no reckoning of that.

Now therefore let me see the king's face.] Oh, deep dissimulation! he was even now hatching treason in his heart against his father, and yet maketh as if he could not live out of his favour.

And if there be any iniquity in me.] This he speaketh as one confident either of his father's lenity and indulgence, or of his own conceited innocency in killing Amnon for forcing his sister. We know what Jacob's two sons said in defence of that horrid act of theirs in slaughtering the Shechemites. "Should he deal with our sister as a harlot?" Gen 34:31 The word harlot is written with a great letter in the original ז, to show with what a courage they spake it. Hebrew Text Note We know also how Collatinus, the husband of Lucretia, is cried up in the Roman history for killing Tarquin, who had ravished her: and likewise Virginius for murdering his own daughter, that she might not be deflowered. a

Let him kill me.] Ubi non sis qui fueris, non est cur vivas. b

a Liv. Val. Max., lib. vi. cap. 1. το ζην μη καλως, μεγας εστι πονος. - Euripid.

b Cicero.