2 Samuel 13:37

_BUT ABSALOM FLED, AND WENT TO TALMAI, THE SON OF AMMIHUD, KING OF GESHUR. AND DAVID MOURNED FOR HIS SON EVERY DAY._ Absalom fled, and went to Talmai. The law as to premeditated murder (Numbers 35:21) gave him no hope of remaining with impunity in his own country; the cities of refuge could afford him no sanctuary: and he was compelled to leave the kingdom, taking refuge at the court of Geshur with his maternal grandfather, who would doubtless approve of his conduct....

30-39 Jonadab was as guilty of Ammon's death, as of his sin; such false friends do they prove, who counsel us to do wickedly. Instead of loathing Absalom as a murderer, David, after a time, longed to go forth to him. This was David's infirmity: God saw something in his heart that made a difference, else we should have thought that he, as much as Eli, honoured his sons more than God....

Verse 2 Samuel 13:37. _ABSALOM FLED_] As he had committed wilful murder, he could not avail himself of a city of refuge, and was therefore obliged to leave the land of Israel, and take refuge with Talmai, king of Geshur, his grandfather by his mother's side. See 2 Samuel 3:3....

See the marginal reference. Ammihur (see the margin) is found as a Punic name....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 13:1 AFTER THIS. This phrase, as we have seen on 2 Samuel 10:1, has little chronological force, but the date of the sad event which formed the second stage in David's punishment can be settled with considerable certainty. Tamar was the daughter of Maacah, a princess of Geshur, and David's marriage with her, while still at Hebron, is mentioned as a proof of his growing power, and consequently some time must have elapsed after his appointment as king before this alliance took place. As Absalom was apparently older than Tamar, if she were now fifteen or sixteen years of age. David would have been king of all Israel at least thirteen or fourteen years, and would have reached the summit of his glory. His wars would be over, Rabbah capt

BUT ABSALOM FLED,.... As before related, but here repeated for the sake of what follows: AND WENT TO TALMAI, THE SON OF AMMIHUD, KING OF GESHUR: his mother's father, see 2 Samuel 3:3, where he might hope for protection and safety: AND [DAVID] MOURNED FOR HIS SON EVERY DAY; or "all the days" q, i.e. of the three years Absalom was in Geshur, about the end of which he was comforted concerning Amnon, as the following verses show. Some think it was for Absalom he mourned, but rather for Amnon. The reason why he mourned for him, when he did not for his child by Bathsheba, who died, because that was an infant, this a grown man, and heir to his crown, and was slain by the sword of his brother, and so fulfilled a threatening to himself on account of his own sin, which, hereby no doubt, was brought fresh to his mind. q כל הימים "cunctis diebus", V. L.

BUT ABSALOM FLED, AND WENT TO TALMAI (1 Samuel 27:8). David, in the years of his wanderings, made a savage raid upon Geshur, and evidently bore away Maacah, daughter of the king of Geshur. Of her was born Absalom, and in him was her wild Bedouin blood, and the blood of a father who had been the reckless chief of a handful of desperate men. (2 Samuel 3:3); (2 Samuel 23:8) and whom only the divine love could tame. (2 Samuel 22:36). In Absalom David reaped from his own sowing....

3. FURTHER CHASTISEMENT: AMNON, TAMAR, AND ABSALOM CHAPTER 13 _ 1. Amnon's wicked desire (2 Samuel 13:1)_ 2. The incest (2 Samuel 13:6) 3. His hatred (2 Samuel 13:15) 4. Amnon murdered (2 Samuel 13:19) 5. Absalom's flight (2 Samuel 13:37) “Behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house.” This was Jehovah's sentence and it is now carried out. The evil which he had nourished in his heart, the passion which he had fed now breaks out in his own family. His oldest

2 SAMUEL 13. AMNON, TAMAR, AND ABSALOM (J). 2 SAMUEL 13:1. Amnon, David's eldest son, forces his half-sister, Tamar, the full sister of Absalom. He might have married her (2 Samuel 3:5 *) but did not choose to do so. She rent her royal tunic, probably a garment reaching to the hands and feet (_cf._ Genesis 37:3 *); Joseph's coat of many colours represents the same Heb. word. David was angry, but he did not vex him by punishing him, for he loved him because he was his first-born (so LXX). 2 SAMUEL 13:23. Two years later, Absalom induced Amnon to be his guest at the sheepshearing (p. 101) at Baalhazor

AMMIHUD, or Ammihur. DAVID. Septuagint reads "David the king"....