all Israel 13. David over living son from the avenger of blood, and to swear that no Judah 20, harm should come to him for the crime he was charged with; as she had brought to his mind the mercy of God, and thereby insinuated that, as he sat on God's throne, he had the example of God himself to justify him in extending mercy, on particular occasions, to persons who had forfeited their lives to justice by taking away the lives of others; she therefore begs the king to indulge her in what she had further to offer to his consideration; and having obtained his permission, she thus proceeded: "Since thou hast granted this favour to thine handmaid, that the avenger of blood shall not pursue my son to destruction, why wilt thou deny the same grace to thine own son, to the prejudice of the whole people of God? In extending his compassion to me, the king seems to blame his own conductP, in not rescuing his son from the avenger of blood, and restoring him from his banishment. We are all naturally subject to death 9, and when dead our lives are no more capable of being recovered than the water that is spilt upon the ground; and can the decease or banishment of thy living son recover to life him that is already dead? God himself doth not take away the life of the slayer, but hath contrived the means for • Wherefore hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God?] Here she discovers her real intention, and from the concessions which she had drawn in the king to make in favour of her son, she argues the propriety and reasonableness of his making the same in favour of his own, from the regard he had to the inclinations and desires of the people of God. As he had promised that the revenger of blood should not pursue her son to destruction, why should he continue resolved not to forgive and secure from vengeance his own son, especially as the public good seemed to require it? She adds: The king doth speak this thing as one that is faulty] i. e. by promising me full protection from the avenger of blood for my son, the king censures his own conduct, by not granting the same protection to his own, and suffering him to languish in a state of banishment. a For we must needs die, &c.] This is urged as a reason why the king should prevent the avenger of blood from destroying Absalom, because by destroying him he could not recover Amnon to life, any more than water can be gathered up again that is once spilt upon the earth; and that as death is what all are subject to, the loss of one son should not be so resented as to put the king upon taking away the life of the other. r Neither doth God respect any person] N. Bp. Patrick justly observes, that the words s D never signify respect of persons, and therefore says they should be translated, God doth not take away the soul or life,-Deus non aufert animam, as father Houbigant and several of the ancient versions. Mr. Le Clerc's rendering, Annon princeps ignoscere potest alicui, is very forced, though the sense would very well suit the place. The law had provided, not only that the slayer should be safe from the avenger of Judah 20, his safety, and that, though banished for a while, he may not David over be for ever driven from his presence. I have therefore pre-all Israel 13. sumed to speak of this affair unto my lord the king, especially as I have been terrified by the murmurs of the peoples, who blood in one of the cities of refuge, but that after the death of the high priest he should return from the place of his retreat into the land of his inheritance; and the argument which the woman makes use of to induce David to pardon and recall his son was, that God not only ordered a place of refuge for the slayer, where he might be secure from vengeance, but also limited the time of his confinement to that place, after which he was to return to and be put into full possession of his inheritance; thereby insinuating that, having such an example, he might and ought to pardon and recall his son. God doth not take away life, but hath devised the means whereby his banished might not be expelled from him; viz. by providing that he should not always remain in a state of banishment. s It is because the people have made me afraid] This whole affair seems to have been privately concerted between Joab and the widow, and the making it public before it was transacted must have prevented the effect of it; and therefore the fear she speaks of could not arise, as bishop Patrick supposes, from any advice that she could receive from others about the danger of applying to the king, because she advised only with Joab, who put her on making this application, instructed her what to say, and bid her intimate to the king that the people were discontented, and that it might prove very prejudicial to the peace of his government if he did not soon gratify them in recalling the heir of his crown from banishment. She therefore pretends that it was affection and loyalty to him that encouraged her to make the representation she had taken the liberty to lay before him. I cannot help here remarking, that whereas F. Houbigant supposes a very great dislocation of passages in this conversation between David and the widow of Tekoa, it appears to me to be without the least necessity, and that the present order of the narration in our copies is far preferable to that which he supposes it ought to have been. He thinks, that after those words in the 11th verse, lest they destroy my son, the 15th, 16th, and 17th verses should immediately follow, in this manner; Let the king not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. For whereas that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid; and so on to the words, The Lord thy God be with thee. After this he brings in the end of the 11th verse; And the king said, As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth. The good father tells us, that he cannot divine how the order of the text came to be disturbed, but that it is plain it hath been disturbed, because some interpreters have been led into an error by the order of the words as they stand in our copies. But I do not think that the mistaken interpretations of others are any proof of this. The unanimous consent of all the ancient versions, who retain the present order, is a very strong argument of the contrary; especially as the present order renders the whole discourse well connected, and shows the widow's good sense, prudence, and modesty. According to the present order she first prevailed on the king to promise her that he would give order about her affair, then to bring the person before him that should give her any disturbance about it, then to swear that he would protect her and her son from the avenger of blood. This was the point she drove at, and that in the most effectual manner prepared David for the application of what she had said about her son to the case Judah 20, David over are grown uneasy at the continued banishment of the king's all Israel 13. son, and because I encouraged myself to hope that he would grant the request of his handmaid in his behalf. For I thought that if the king, in his great clemency and mercy, would deliver me from the hands of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God, he would give me a favourable answer with respect to his own, as it will give great satisfaction to all his people; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king ready to attend to the voice of mercy as well as the demand of justice; and let the Lord thy God be continually with thee to direct and prosper thee." There is, as bishop Patrick observes, a great deal of artifice in all this; for to presume upon the kindness of another, and to expect gracious answers from their noble characters, is very moving; men being loath to defeat those who think so highly of them; and we may add, especially when the requests they make are agreeable to the inclinations and wishes of those to whom they address them. Indeed the whole management of this affair shows the widow's great sagacity, and the knowledge she had of the human heart. Her arguments, if not always conclusive, are very plausible, and by drawing in the king, by of his own; and this she doth im- from his great compassion, that he would not suffer him to be destroyed out of the inheritance of God. And from thence she further tells him, that she concluded he would not suffer his own son to be cut off by the avenger of blood, or to be for ever banished from the inheritance of the Lord. And therefore she promised herself that the resolution of the king towards him would be h, to the rest, the ease, the satisfaction of his whole people, who were solicitous for his being recalled from banishment. But that upon the whole she referred the matter to his great wisdom; for that, as an angel of God, he had the most perfect discernment when it was proper to extend mercy and when to punish with severity. She concludes with praying God to direct his conduct in this affair for the best. I think nothing could be more politely or affectionately urged upon so important and delicate an occasion. Judah 20, all Israel 13. the dictates of his compassion, solemnly to promise his pro- David over tection to her son, she awakened all his pity and tenderness towards his own, and almost engaged him, before he was aware, to bring him from his exile, and restore him to favour. David, upon this explication of the widow, immediately perceived that she had been tutored in her lesson by some of his courtiers, to make this attempt for the restoration of Absalom, and therefore commanded her to answer him plainly the question he was going to ask her; and when she had promised to obey him, he said to her, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? Is not this whole affair his contrivance? and is not he the person who hath sent you to me on this errand? She immediately replied, "As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, no evasion whatsoever can conceal the truth from my lord the king. It is even as thou hast said; for thy servant Joab commanded me, and put all that I have now spoken into the mouth of thy handmaid; that by representing the case of my son, and obtaining protection for him, I might put the king in mind of his own son, and induce him, by the goodness of his nature, to forgive him his offence, and recall him from banishment. The wisdom of my lord is like that of an angel, for he knows every thing that passes throughout the whole land." Joab was in waiting to know what would be the event of the widow's representation, and being called in by the king, he said that he had granted his request, and immediately ordered him to go and bring back Absalom to Jerusalem; imagining, that as Joab had interposed in the affair, the recalling his son from exile would be agreeable to the army he commanded. Joab immediately prostrated himself before the king, and thanked him for this instance of his goodness, adding; "This day hath thy servant had the fullest assurance of my lord the king's great regard for him, in so graciously vouchsafing to answer his request." After this he immediately set out for Geshur, and soon returned with him to the city. Upon his arrival, the king refused to see him, confined him to his own house, where he remained two full years, without being admitted to the presence of his king and father. Absalom, as to his person, was the handsomest man in the 2 Sam. xiv. whole kingdom, and there was no blemish in him, from the 25. all Israel 13. David over sole of his foot to the crown of his head, so that he was held Judah 20, in admiration by all that saw him. He was remarkable for hair, both for the thickness and length of it, and which grew so heavy and burdensome to him, that he was forced every year to poll his head, and the hair that was taken from him was so extraordinary, as that it was worth two hundred shekels after the king's weight. He had three sons, and one daughter, named Tamar, who was a very fair and lovely David over woman. He was of too impatient and enterprising a nature to bear the confinement his father had put him under; especially as he looked upon himself to be the heir to the crown, and might probably suspect, by his father's long refusal to be reconciled to him, that he had an intention to exclude him from the succession, and substitute one of his brethren in his room. This he had well deserved by the murder of his brother Amnon, and there is little room to doubt that this was what David had determined in his own mind, after he had seen this instance of his perfidious, revengeful, and bloody temper. Absalom therefore wanted to enjoy his full liberty, that he might be able to take the proper measures to defeat his father's purpose, and secure the succession of which he was ambitious. CHAP. XIV. Absalom's rebellion. AFTER two full years' confinement he sent for Joab once Judah 21, and again, to desire him to wait on the king, in order to all Israel 14. obtain leave to see him, and be fully restored to his favour. Joab, either supposing that such an application would not be agreeable to the king, or from some disgust he had taken to Absalom himself, refused to come near him. This provoked Absalom, who was resolved to take more effectual methods to procure an interview with Joab, and as their two estates were contiguous to each other, ordered his servants to burn down a field of barley belonging to the general. They obeyed his orders, and when Joab had been informed of the injury that had been done him, he immediately went to Absalom to complain of it, and to ask the reason why he had destroyed his Absalom, without making any further apology, told him, it was because he would not come to him, after his corn. |