The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 340

EXPOSITION. administration of justice in the realm yet CHAPTER XIV. evidently this woman h11d the right of Yer. 1.-The king'1 hea.rt wa.e towara bringing her suit before the king; and we Abea.lom. Again there is a diversity of ma.y be sure that Joe.b would t.o.ke care that ,·iew RB to the right rendering. The prepo- nothing unusual was done, lest it should 6ition docs not usually menn "towe.rd," but awe.ken the king's suspicions. But J?OSsibl_v " against," e.ud is so rendered in ver. 13. there was e. want of method in JUdioial 'fhe wllole phrase occurs a.gain only in De.n. matters, and very muoh was left in the xi. 28, e.ud certainly there implies enmity. hands of the tribal offloers, such as we find Tile whole attitude of De.vid towards Abse.- mentioned in Josh. xxiv. I. lom is one of persistent hostility, e.nd, even Ver. 7.-The whole family. This does when Joab had obtained his recall, for two not mean the kinsfolk, in whom such a dis- full vee.rs he would not admit him into hie regard of the mother's feelings would have presence. What he.s led most commentators been cruel, but one of the great divisions to force the meaning here e.nd in eh. xiii. of the tribe (see note on the mishpachah, in :1:i is the passionate burst of grief when I Sam. xx. 6, and comp. I Sam. x. 21). In uews was brought of Abse.lom's dee.lb fol- ver. 15 she rightly calls them "the people." lowing upon the anxious orders given to the We have thus e. glimpse of the ordinary generals to be careful of the young man's method of administering the criminal law, life. But David was e. man of very warm and lind that each portion of e. tribe exer- nffections, and while this would make him cised justice within its own district, being feel intense sorrow for the death of a son by summoned to e. general convention by its his brother's hand, and stern indignation hereditary ohief; and in this case the widow towards the murderer, there would still lie represent.9 it as determined to punish the deep in the father's heart true love towo.rds crime of fratricide with inflexible severity, his sinning child, and Absalom's fall was nnd we may assume that such was the usual sad enough to cause a strong revulsion of practice. The mother sets before David the feeling. David's grief would be not merely other side of the matter-her own loneliness, for the death of his son, but that he should the wiping out of the father's house, the have died so miserably, e.nd in an attempt utter ruin of her home if the last live coo.I so shameful. Was not, too, the natnra.l on her hearth be extinguished. And in this g-rief of a father made the more deep by the way she moves his generous sympathies even feeling that this we.s the third stage of the to the point of overriding the legal rights of penalty denonnced on his own sin, and the mishpachah.. In modem communities that the sou's death was the result of the there is always some formal power of soften- father's crime? ing or entirely remitting penalties required Ver. 2.-Tekoah. Thie town, famous e.s by the letter of the law, and of taking into the birthplace of the Prophet A.mos, lay consideration matters of equity and even of upon the borders of the great wilderness feeling, which the judge must put aside; south-east of Jerusalem. A.s it was only and in monarchies this is e.l ways the high five miles to the south of Bethlehem, Joe.b's preroge.ti ve of the crown. Aud we will de- birthplace, he had probably often heard stroy the heir also. The Syrie.c has the tales of this woman's intelligence; and, third person, "And they will destroy even the though he contrived the parable himself, heir, and quench my coal that is left," This vet it would need tact and adroitness on is more nature.I, but there is greater pun- the woman's part to give the tale with gency in the widow putting into the mouth tragic ellect, and answer the king's ques- of the heads of the clan, not words which tions with e.11 the signs of genuine emotion. they had actually spoken, but words which If her acting we.s bad, the king would see showed what would be the real effect of through the plot, and only by great skill their determination. There is grer.t force wonld his heart be so moved as to force him and beauty also in the description of her to some such expression of feeling as would son e.s the last Ii ve coal left to keE'p the serve Joab's purpose. family hearth burning. In another but Ver. 4.-When the woma.n of Tekoah allied sense David is ce.lled "the lamp of 1pa.ke. All the versions e.nd several manu- !llrael" (eh. xxi. 17, marg,). scripts read. o.s the sense requires, "when Ver. 9.-The iniquity be on me. The king the woman of Tekoah came." There is an had given e. general promise to help the interesting article in De Rossi, fixing with widow, but she wants to lead him on to a much probability the twelfth century as the definite assure.nee that her son shall be par- date of tLis enor. Though Absalom sub- doned. Less than this would not help 11eq ueutly (eh. xv. 4) oompleined of the lax Absalom's case. Instead, therefore, of with- en. XIV. 1-33.] Tlrn SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL, 131:i