2 Samuel 18:29

Is the young man Absalom safe Taking up the exclamation of Ahimaaz; Is it well with the young man Absalom? lit. Is there peace to the young man Absalom?Cp. 2 Kings 4:26. "Not only the question itself, but the very terms of it, breathe the tenderness of David's feelings. Absalom is -the youth," as if his youth were a full excuse for his conduct." Speaker's Comm.

the king's servant The Cushite, to whom Ahimaaz points as he comes up. But it is not improbable that the king's servantis an alternative reading for thy servant, originally written in the margin, and afterwards inserted in the text, so that we should read simply when Joab sent thy servant.

I knew not what it was Ahimaaz was eager to be first with the good news, but deliberately concealed the bad. Can it be wondered at that his regard for truth had been weakened when we remember the business he had been engaged in at David's command?