2 Samuel 13:39

_AND THE SOUL OF KING DAVID LONGED TO GO FORTH UNTO ABSALOM: FOR HE WAS COMFORTED CONCERNING AMNON, SEEING HE WAS DEAD._ The soul of king David longed to go forth unto Absalom. The verb, being feminine, does not refer to David, neither is it correct to say that David longed to go forth to Absalom; because there is no ground to suppose that he entertained either an intention or a wish to visit his exiled son. The clause should be rendered: The anger of king David ceased to go (left off going) forth against Absalom. In this sense the verb is used, 2 Samuel 11:1; Genesis 14:18, in apparent efforts to pursue the fratricide, and bring him to condign punishment for his crime. [So the Septuagint renders it: kai ekopasen ho basileus Dauid tou exelthein pros Abessaloom, and king David ceased fro

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 13:39. _DAVID LONGED TO GO FORTH UNTO ABSALOM_] We find that he had a very strong paternal affection for this young man, who appears to have had little to commend him but the beauty of his person. David wished either to go to him, or to bring him back; for the hand of time had now wiped off his tears for the death of his son Amnon. Joab had marked this disposition, and took care to work on it, in order to procure the return of Absalom. It would have been well for all parties had Absalom ended his days at Geshur. His return brought increasing wretchedness to his unfortunate father. And it may be generally observed that those undue, unreasonable paternal attachments are thus rewarded....

LONGED TO GO FORTH - Rather, “longed after Absalom,” literally, was consumed in going forth, with a sense of disappointed hope....

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

AND [THE SOUL OF] KING DAVID LONGED TO GO FORTH UNTO ABSALOM,.... In like manner it is supplied and paraphrased in the Targum, because the word rendered "longed" is feminine; though it may be used to denote the effeminateness of David's disposition and carriage on this occasion. Aben Ezra thinks the word "wife", should be supplied, and then the sense is, that the wife of King David, the mother of Absalom, made supplication to him to send forth one of the young men to fetch Absalom, and that by her importunity to him she stirred up a longing desire in David after him. Abarbinel observes, from another writer of theirs, that all the three years David was mourning for his son, he went out continually to seek to take vengeance on Absalom; but after that time, the mother of Absalom, or Tamar his sister, or his daughter, was importunate with the king, and restrained him from going forth to seek...

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

THE SOUL OF KING DAVID. The Aramaean reads "the soul _(nephesh)_ of the king". Compare the omission of _nephesh_ in Psalms 16:2....

The news brought to David. Absalom's flight 31. _tare his garments_ RENT HIS CLOTHES. The E. V. has introduced a distinction which does not exist in the Hebrew. Cp. ch. 2 Samuel 1:11. _lay on the earth_ Cp. ch. 2 Samuel 12:16. _and all his servants_, &c. The Sept. and Vulg. represent a slightly different reading; "And all his servants, who stood by him, rent their clothes....