The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 342

her words nrc fnr more expressive thnn whnt ia to be decirledly rejected, with all other is given in our vereione. Liternlly they attempts of the Massorltee to remove liltlo nre, R!1 th!f l((e, 0 ffl!/ lord tl,.e Iring, tl1ere ia roughnee808 of grammar. fl<Jfhing Ofl the right <Jt' on the left of all that Ver. 24.-Let him tum to his own house my ford the ~-ing /1m spoken. Bis words hRd eto. 'I'his half-forgiveness was unwise, allCi gone straight to the mark, without the led to unhappy results. It seems even as slightest den&tion ou either side. if Absalom w&S e. prisoner in his housr v,,1-. 20.-To fetoh abont this form of as he could not leave it to visit Jo~b. Still: ■peeoh; correctly, e.s in the Revised Version, we must not assume that even kmd ti-eo.t• to cJu•n~e the face of tlie ,n;rUer hatli thy ment would have mllde Absalom o. dutiful """'""' ,Toab, eto. 'I'he me.tt.er wu that son. or weaned him from his ambitious pur- referred to iu ver. 15, which the king now poses. The long-plotted revenge, carded out uud~.rstnnds to refer to Absalom. l<'or in so determinately, gives us a. low idea. of his the earth, translate in the la11d. The Hebrew character, and probably during these two hN! no means of distinguishing the wider years of waiting, he had brooded over David's and na.rrower signifiae.tions of the word; criminal leniency, and regarded it as a jus- but while the king would be tlnttered by the tification for his own foul deed. And now, supposition that he k--new all that happened when allowed to come home, but still treated in ilis dominions, the assertion that he unkindly, thoughts condemnatory of his knew all thnt was done in all the world father's conduct were cherished by him. It was too broad and genera.I to be agreeable. seems, too, as if a. protrncted punishment is 'I'he Authorized Version has been misled by always dangerous to the moral character of the thought of what an angel might know; the criminal. And must we not add another but while it was a compliment to ascribe to reason? Absa.lom, we may feel sure, saw the king an angel's intelligence in his own with indignation the growing influence of Rphcre, it would have been bad taste and Bathsheba over the king. A granddaughter unmeaning to lll!Cribe to him omniscience. of Ahithophel, she was sure to be an adept Nay. it is an &Ssumption without proof that in those intrigues in which the women of a. C\·en nn angel knows "&I.I things that are harem pass their time; and even if, upon in the earth." the whole, we form a. favourable judgment Ver. 21.-I have done this thing. This upon her character, yet undoubtedly she is nn Oriental form of assent, jnst 118 we say wa.e a. very able woman, and could have no in English, "It is done," that is, as good as affection for Abse.lom. done, now that the -order is given. A few Ver. 26.-Two hundred shekels after the mnn uscri pts, nevertheless, support o. Ma.s- king's weight. Unless the royal shekel was soretic emendation (K'ri), namely, "Thou smaller than the shekel of the sanctuary, hnst done this : go therefore," etc. Bot both the weight of Abse.lom's hair would be sii.: the Septuagint and Vulga.te agree with the pounds. But we cannot believe that the written text (K'tih ), and it is less fiat and king's shekel was not full weight: for to commonplace than the supposed emendation. imagine this is to suppose that the king Ver. 22.-In that the king bath ful1illed had tampered with the coinage: for the the request of his servant. Keil concludes shekel was e. coin as well as a weight, being t:rom this that Joab had often interceded for originally a. fixed quantity of silver. As e. .Ai>salom'e pardon, and that this had mnde matter of fact, David he.d amassed too much the king suspect him of being the prime silver to have need of resorting to what is mover in the a.ffuir. Bot this is to force the the expedient of feeble and impoverished meaning. Joab now stood confessed as the princes. Nor co.n we grant an error in the i,erson who had brought the woman before number: for the versions all agree with the the king, and had employed her to gain Hebrew, so that any mist.aka must, at all a heariug. Had he been allowed to plead events, be of great antiquity. Josephus says freelv, her intervention would not have been that Solomon's body-guard wore long hail: necessary. We have seen, too, that the powdered with gold dust, and undoubtedly king's BUSpicions have been me.de in the Absalom's hair was something extraordinary .Authorized Version much stronger than ( eh. xviii. 9). But six pounds is so enormoUIJ they really were. Many commentators also a. weight that it is just possible that some llS8UUle that J oe.b had a frier.dohi p for ancient copyist has enlarged the number, to Absa.lom, but there are few traces of it in make it accord with a legend current among his conduct, and more probably Joab was the people, in which this feature of Absa. chiefly intluenood by politic motives. It lom's beauty had been exaggerated. WllS injarious to the well-being of the nation Ver. 27.-Threesons. Their names are not that there should be discord and enmity given, because they died earl,y (see eh. xviii. between tho king and his eldest son, and J 8). Of his daughter Tamar, named after her that the latter should be living in exile. aunt, aa<I, like her, possessed of great beauty, 'J.'l,e ~'ri, th11 servant, pl&.ced in the me.rgiu, the :Oeptuagint adds that she became the orr. uv. 1-33.] THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. 317