2 Samuel 14:4

And when the woman … spake … she fell All the versions and many Hebrew MSS read as the sense requires: "And the woman of Tekoah came to the king, and fell," &c.

fell on her face to the ground It was and in some cases still is the practice in Oriental countries for a subject approaching the king, especially with any petition, to kneel down and bend forward until the forehead actually touches the ground. See the illustrations from Assyrian and Egyptian monuments in Van Lennep's Bible Lands, II. 649.

did obeisance See note on ch. 2 Samuel 1:2, and cp. the almost identical phrase in 1 Samuel 25:23.

Help Or, Save. Cp. 2 Kings 6:26; Psalms 20:9. The Sept. repeats it twice: "Help, O king, help."