CHAPTER 14

(1027 B.C.)

JOABS PLOT

¹Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the kings heart was toward Absalom. (The Hebrew word rendered toward should have been rendered against, for that is its actual meaning. The kings heart was against Absalom, because of the crime he had committed, even though David loved him dearly.)

²And Joab sent to Tekoah and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray you, feign yourself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not yourself with oil, but be as a woman who had a long time mourned for the dead:

³And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth (told her what to say and do).

THE WOMAN OF TEKOAH

⁴And when the woman of Tekoah spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king.

⁵And the king said unto her, What ails you? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and my husband is dead.

⁶And your handmaid had two sons, and they two did strive together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and killed him.

⁷And, behold, the whole family is risen against your handmaid, and they said, Deliver him who smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he killed; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the Earth (there is a great force and beauty also in the description of her son as the last live coal left to keep the family hearth burning, hence, her using such terminology).

⁸And the king said unto the woman, Go to your house, and I will give charge concerning you.

⁹And the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my fathers house: and the king and his throne be guiltless.

¹⁰And the king said, Whosoever says ought unto you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you anymore.

¹¹Then said she, I pray you, let the king remember the LORD your God, that you would not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As the LORD lives, there shall not one hair of your son fall to the earth. (Williams says concerning this, The argument of the woman was very clever. It dealt with the secret wish of the king to pardon his son, and with the hindrance thereto which public opinion and the Divine Law presented. She skillfully persuaded him that exceptional provocation justified a setting aside of the Law, and a defiance of the people; and she got the king to pledge himself to this in the interests of her supposed son.)

¹²Then the woman said, Let your handmaid, I pray you, speak one word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on.

¹³And the woman said, Wherefore then have you thought such a thing against the people of God? for the king does speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king does not fetch home again his banished (of course, she is speaking of Absalom, saying all the things that Joab has told her to say).

¹⁴For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither does God respect any person: yet does He devise means, that His banished be not expelled from Him. (The womans argument is as follows: she says, Death is not a penalty exacted as a punishment, but, on the contrary, God is merciful, and, when a man has sinned, instead of putting him to death, the Lord is ready to forgive and welcome back one rejected because of his wickedness.

The application is plain. The king cannot restore Amnon to life, and neither must he kill the guilty Absalom, but must recall his banished son.

The argument is full of poetry, and touching to the feelings, but it is not spiritually or Scripturally sound. For God requires Repentance and change of heart; and there was no sign of contrition on Absaloms part. At any rate, David fell for the ploy.)

¹⁵Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and your handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid.

¹⁶For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the Inheritance of God.

¹⁷Then your handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an Angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: therefore the LORD your God will be with you (in other words, her story about her son was fiction; it had all been a ploy regarding Absalom).

JOAB

¹⁸Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray you, the thing that I shall ask you. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.

¹⁹And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman answered and said, As your soul lives, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king has spoken: for your servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid:

²⁰To fetch about this form of speech has your servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an Angel of God, to know all things that are in the Earth.

ABSALOM IS BROUGHT BACK

²¹And the king said unto Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again. (When dependence upon God and subjection to His Word cease to govern the life, then is it easy for the wisdom of this world to entangle the heart. Therefore, it was that the wise woman of Tekoah easily entrapped David to indulge his affection as a father rather than performing his duty as a ruler.

The Law of God commanded the death of Absalom. The king should have obeyed the Law. Had he done so, many lives would have been saved, and much sin and suffering escaped. Had he obeyed the Word of the Lord and put Amnon to death, still greater evil would have been thereby prevented. All this teaches the lesson, which man is so slow to learn, that a Christian embitters his days by acting independently of God. Amid all the movements of this Chapter was the Will of God sought? No, the Lord does not once appear Williams.)

²²And Joab fell to the ground on his face, and bowed himself, and thanked the king: and Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found grace in your sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has fulfilled the request of his servant. (Joabs design in this matter was to make Absalom indebted to him, and thus to get both the present and future king, for Absalom was in line for the throne, into his power, or so he thought!)

²³So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, and saw not the kings face (allowing him to return home, still, David would have no fellowship with him).

²⁵But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him (once again, a work of the flesh, which looked beautiful outwardly, but inwardly was a ravening wolf; but yet, as usual, the people would fall for this outward expression, because the flesh appeals to the flesh).

²⁶And when he polled his head, (for it was at every years end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it [cut it]:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the kings weight (about six pounds when wet).

²⁷And unto Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a woman of a fair countenance. (She was named after her aunt, the girl who had been raped, and, like her, possessed great beauty. The Septuagint states that she became the wife of Rehoboam, the king who succeeded Solomon, and the mother of Abijah, who succeeded Rehoboam.)

ABSALOM DEMANDS TO SEE DAVID

²⁸So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the kings face (in other words, David would not see him).

²⁹Therefore Absalom sent for Joab, to have sent him to the king; but he would not come to him: and when he sent again the second time, he would not come.

³⁰Therefore he said unto his servants, See, Joabs field is near mine, and he has barley there; go and set it on fire. And Absaloms servants set the field on fire (which Absalom felt would guarantee Joab coming to see him, which it did!).

³¹Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom unto his house, and said unto him, Wherefore have your servants set my field on fire?

³²And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto you, saying, Come hither, that I may send you 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 kings face; and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me.

³³So Joab came to the king, and told him: and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Absalom (Davids kiss was, as in the case of the prodigal son, the sign of reconciliation, and of the restoration of Absalom to his place as a son, with all its privileges).