2 Samuel 18:5

_AND THE KING COMMANDED JOAB AND ABISHAI AND ITTAI, SAYING, DEAL GENTLY FOR MY SAKE WITH THE YOUNG MAN, EVEN WITH ABSALOM. AND ALL THE PEOPLE HEARD WHEN THE KING GAVE ALL THE CAPTAINS CHARGE CONCERNING ABSALOM._ Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. This affecting charge, which the king gave to his generals, proceeded not only from his overweening affection for his children, but from his consciousness that this rebellion was the chastisement of his own crimes, Absalom being merely an instrument in the hand of retributive Providence; and also from his piety, lest the unhappy prince should die with his sins unrepented of....

1-8 How does David render good for evil! Absalom would have only David smitten; David would have only Absalom spared. This seems to be a resemblance of man's wickedness towards God, and God's mercy to man, of which it is hard to say which is most amazing. Now the Israelites see what it is to take counsel against the Lord and his anointed....

Verse 2 Samuel 18:5. DEAL _GENTLY - WITH THE YOUNG MAN_] David was the _father_ of this worthless young man; and is it to be wondered at that he feels _as a father_? Who in his circumstances, that had such feelings as every man should have, would have felt, or acted otherwise?...

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 COMMANDED JOAB, AND ABISHAI, AND ITTAI,.... His three generals, to whom he had committed his army divided into three parts: SAYING, [DEAL] GENTLY FOR MY SAKE WITH THE YOUNG MAN, [EVEN] WITH ABSALOM; he does not call him his son, being in rebellion against him, but the young man, who was young, and rash, and foolish, and so to be pitied; his request is, that they would spare him, and not take away his life, when in their power; that they would not aim at him, and push him hard, and fall upon him with wrath and fury; but if he fell into their hands, to take him alive, and bring him away, and not put him to death. This flowed from a natural affection to him, and a concern for the welfare of his soul, that he might not die in this sin; and also from a consciousness that it was for his own sins that he was raised up to rebel against him; and he seems to speak as if he was certai...

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)....

HEARD. this explains 2 Samuel 18:12...

_all the people heard_ Cp. "in our hearing" in 2 Samuel 18:12....

DEAL GENTLY FOR MY SAKE WITH THE YOUNG MAN, &C.— The king yielded to the affectionate entreaties of the people, that he should not hazard his life in the battle; and, no doubt, he did it with less reluctance, upon a reflection that he must otherwise go against his own subjects, and draw his sword against a rebel son, whom he could not think of but with too much tenderness, in spite of all his crimes: and as a proof of this, he here gives the kindest charge concerning him to all his captains. He begs them to _deal gently_ with that _young man;_ as if all his faults were more those of his youth than of his nature: but at the same time that his people could not but discern in these words the excess of his weakness for that profligate son, they could not but observe also in them a calm presage and assurance of their success against their enemies....