2 Samuel 18:33

_AND THE KING WAS MUCH MOVED, AND WENT UP TO THE CHAMBER OVER THE GATE, AND WEPT: AND AS HE WENT, THUS HE SAID, O MY SON ABSALOM, MY SON, MY SON ABSALOM! WOULD GOD I HAD DIED FOR THEE, O ABSALOM, MY SON, MY SON!_ The king ... went up to the chamber over the gate х_ `AL_ (H5921) _ `ALIYAT_ (H5944)]. 'To most houses of respectable size or public importance there is a smaller one annexed, which sometimes rises one storey higher than the house; at other times it consists of one room or two rooms only and a terrace; while others that are built, as they frequently are, over the porch or gateway, have, if we except the ground floor, which they have not, all the conveniences that belong to the house properly so called. It is a sequestered part of the building, to which a person can retire for meditation and undisturbed solitude' (Dr. Shaw's 'Travels:' see further the n

19-33 By directing David to give God thanks for his victory, Ahimaaz prepared him for the news of his son's death. The more our hearts are fixed and enlarged, in thanksgiving to God for our mercies, the better disposed we shall be to bear with patience the afflictions mixed with them. Some think David's wish arose from concern about Absalom's everlasting state; but he rather seems to have spoken without due thought. He is to be blamed for showing so great fondness for a graceless son. Also for quarrelling with Divine justice. And for opposing the justice of the nation, which, as king, he had to administer, and which ought to be preferred before natural affection. The best men are not always in a good frame; we are apt to over-grieve for what we over-loved. But while we learn from this example to watch and pray against sinful indulgence, or neglect of our children, may we not, in David,...

Verse 2 Samuel 18:33. _O MY SON ABSALOM_] It is allowed by the most able critics that this lamentation is exceedingly pathetic. In what order the words were pronounced, for much depends on this, we cannot say. Perhaps it was the following: - בני אבשלום בני Beni Abshalom, beni! My son Absalom! O my son! בני אבשלום Beni Abshalom! O my son Absalom! מי יתן מותי אני תחתיך Mi yitten muthi ani thachteicha. O that I

There is not in the whole of the Old Testament a passage of deeper pathos than this. Compare Luke 19:41. In the Hebrew Bible this verse commences the nineteenth chapter. The King James Version follows the Greek and Latin versions....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 18:1 AND DAVID NUMBERED. The verb really means that he organized his army, and arranged it in companies and divisions. As Absalom gathered all Israel to him, there would be some delay; and David, like a wise general, made use of it for training the brave but undisciplined men who had joined him, chiefly from Gilead. Besides these, he had with him numerous veterans, whose skill and experience would be invaluable in such service. The result was that when the rebels came to close quarters, they had a vast body of men, but David a disciplined force, which, under skilful generalship, scattered Absalom's raw levies with ease. The arrangement into thousands and hundreds was in accordance with the civil divisions (Exodus 18:25), both being,

AND THE KING WAS MUCH MOVED,.... His affections were moved, his passions were stirred up; he was greatly troubled, distressed, and grieved: AND WENT UP TO THE CHAMBER OVER THE GATE, AND WEPT; got out of sight and company as soon as he could; as his own dwelling was at some distance, he made haste to the chamber in the watchtower, over the gate of the city, where the watchman was, to vent his grief; and could not suppress it till he got thither: AND AS HE WENT; up the stairs to the chamber: THUS HE SAID, O MY SON ABSALOM! MY SON, MY SON ABSALOM! which repetition expresses the vehemence of his affections, and how inconsolable he was on account of his son's death: WOULD GOD I HAD DIED FOR THEE, O ABSALOM, MY SON, MY SON! some think he said this on account of his eternal state, being satisfied of his own; but it may be it was only the effect of natural affection, indulged to too great a...

8. THE CIVIL WAR AND ABSALOM'S DEATH CHAPTER 18 _ 1. The battle in the forest of Ephraim (2 Samuel 18:1)_ 2. The death of Absalom (2 Samuel 18:9) 3. The tidings of his death and David's grief (2 Samuel 18:19) And now everything is ready for the battle and the victory. The army of David consisted of three divisions, Joab, Abishai and the faithful Ittai had the command. David was ready to go forth with his warriors, but the people refused to let him go. What a testimony they gave concerning him! “Thou art worth ten thousand of us. But of Him, who according to the flesh is the Son of David, we say, “He alone is worthy.” The king then stood by the gate of Mahanaim to see the d

1 SAMUEL 18:1 TO 1 SAMUEL 19:8. DEFEAT AND DEATH OF ABSALOM. DAVID'S GRIEF (J). 2 SAMUEL 18:1. Absalom's followers are defeated with great slaughter. Nothing is known as to the battle-field, the Forest of Ephraim, beyond what may be gathered from this story. Many fugitives lost their lives by falling headlong in the broken, rocky country; some perhaps, especially the wounded died of hunger and exhaustion in these inhospitable tracts, with which they were not familiar. Forest here, as often in England, _e.g._ Ashdown Forest, denotes the kind of country described above, and not a continuous mass of trees (_cf._ Budde)....

MY SON... MY SON. Figure of speech _Epizeuxis._ App-6. for. instead of....

David's mourning for Absalom 33. _was much moved_ Better perhaps, WAS SORE TROUBLED. Sept. ἐταράχθη is a good rendering. This passionate outburst of grief was due not only to the tenderness of affection, which was so striking a trait in David's character, but to the bitterness of the thought that the rebel, the would-be parricide, was thus "Cut off even in the blossoms of his sin, No reckoning made, but sent to his account With all his imperfections on his head;" and that this terrible catastrophe was the fruit and the punishment of his own crimes. The heart-broken cry "Would God I had died for thee" was not only the utterance of self-sacrificing love, but the confession that he had himself deserved the punishment which fell upon another. Cp. ch. 2 Samuel 24:17. _would God_, &c. So Moses ...