The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 430

resist Joab'e onelaught. There wae no the K'tib is better: " Or hnd I wrought por- rownrrlicc on hie part, but eimply the dia• fldiously nisninAt his life-and nothing is ebnrge of hi• duty ae R genera.I. • He tume hidden from the king----eo wouldst thou hi• mule round. and dBBbee a.way in order havo set thyself a1tninet me." Not only to halt end form hie men, keeping t.o the was the man fRithful to the king, but he wood that he may not be seen. In hie groat WIii! perfectly nwnre of Joe.b's unsorupulous haste he i• not careful in picking his route, cha.meter. If only Abse.lom were put out &nd po81!ibly hie mule wae stubborn, end of the way, Joe.b would he.ve readily con- swernld; end l!O, in attempting to force his sented to the execution of the unimport1mt way through the thicket, he is stunned by person who had been the means of gratify- a blow from e branoh of a terebinth treo, ing his wish. and so entangled in its boughs that he oan• Ver. 14.-Threa darts ; Hebrew, U1ree not free himself; and 88 none of David's Bf411es (see eh. xxiii. 21). The weo.pons of men had seen him, he might have hung tho ancients were of e. very inferior kind, there t.o be the prey of the vultures, and and eta.kes sharpened e.t the end and hard- only hie riderless mule have beeo left to ened in the fire were used by the infantry, bear witness to hie having met with some until the incree.sing cheapness of iron made disaster. Meanwhile hie followers struggle it possible to supply them with pikes. Joab's on, until they come upon David's men, who act was not one of intentional cruelty, but, put them to the sword. There is no battle, picking up the first wee.pons that ea.me to but the three divisions, adva.neing in order, hand, be hurried a.way to kill hi• victim. make merciless slaughter of their opponents. His thrusts with these pointed sticks were For some time Absalom's forces, extended brutal, e.nd inflicted mortal wounds; but as over many miles of march, do not even learn they were not immediately fate.I, Joab's what is going on in their front, and twenty armour-bearers, who had followed him, and thousand men had fallen before, beooming who had with them Joab's own better aware of their defeat, they fly in wild con- wee.pons, were called upon to put an end fusion. to lose more men in their panic than to Absalom's sufferings. His bee.rt does had fallen in fighting. Their loBB wou'.d not mean that organ anatomically, but the even have been greater had not Joab stopped middle of his body. So at the end of the the purenit upon Abse.lom's death. But verse, in the midst of the oak, is, in the where was Amo.ea, and what we.e he doing? Hebrew, in the heart of the terebinth. He ha.d led his troops miserably, had taken Ver. 16.-Joab blew the trumpet. Stern no precautions against surprise, and did and nnscrnpulous as he was, yet Joab is nothing to rally tbem. Had Absalom got always statesmanlike. He had slain Absa- back in safety to the van, he might have lom more for public than for private ree.sons, saved his men from so dise.strous a defeat; though he may have grimly remembered his but A.me.so., doubtless a brave 11oldier, proved cwn blazing barley-field. But the rebellion himself quite incompetent to the duties of being now crushed, further slnughter wo.s a oommander-in-chief, and no match for the impolitic, and would only cause sullen dis-' sagacions Joab. pleasure. The people, at the end of the Ver. 11.-.A girdle. This WB8 an impor- verse, a.re those under Joab's command, and tant article of dress (Ezek. xxiii. 15), and e. translation proposed by some, "Joab was often richly embroidered. Absalom's wished to spare the people,'' is to be rejected. death was well deserved, and there can be Ver. 17.-A great pit; Hebrew, the great little donbt that, if he had gained the victory, pit; as though there was some great hollow he would have massacred David and o1l his or well-known depression in the wood, into family. The dishonour done to his father which they cast Absalom's dead body, and at Jerusalem was even intended by Ahitho- raised a. cairn over it. Such cairns were phel to render all reconciliation impossible. need as memorials of any event deemed But Joab wo.s disobeying the king's express worthy of lasting remembrance, but the orders, and as Absalom was incapable of similar cairn piled over the dead body of making resistance, he ought to lie.ve taken Acha.n (Josh. vii. 26) makes it probable him prisoner, and left it to David to decide that the a.et was also intended as a sign of what his punishment should be. condemnation of Absalom's oonduct. All Ver. 12.-Though I Bhonld receive. The Israel fled every one to his tent. The Israel- Hebrew text expresses the horror of the ites were still e. pastoral people, with tents man at Joab's proposal mnch more vividly for their a.bodes, tbough houses wel'e gradu- than the tame oorrection of the Massorites ally ta.king their place. The cry, "To your e.dmitted into the Authorized Version:" And tents, 0 Israel I " (1 Kings xii. 16), meant, I, no ! weighing in my palm e. thousand "Go e.wa.y to your homes I" and not" Gather of silver, I would not put forth my hand for war I" It is remarkable how corstantly 11,gainst the son of the king." A bsalom's followers are descl'iLecl e.s Vtr. 13,-Age.inllt mine own life. Age.in "Lra'.ll," while the loyo.l men are" David's ott. :tvm. 1-33.J 'rim sicoNb 1300:lt OF SAMUtt. 439