Spake - Seems to be an accidental error for came, which is found in many manuscipts and versions.Help - literally, save (see the margin). It is the same cry as Hosanna, i. e. save now Psalms 118:25. read more
The whole family ... - This indicates that all the king’s sons, and the whole court, were against Absalom, and that the knowledge of this was what hindered David from yielding to his affection and recalling him. read more
2 Samuel 14:7 . Deliver him, that we may kill him Put him to death, as the law requires, Numbers 35:18-19. We will destroy the heir also Take away his life, although he be the heir, or the only one remaining of the family. And so they shall quench my coal which is left Deprive me of the little comfort of my life which remains, and ruin the only hope of my family. Shall leave to my husband neither name nor remainder Shall utterly extinguish my husband’s memory. The reader will easily... read more
David’s family troubles begin (13:1-14:33)The first of the foretold disgraces that fell on David’s family followed the same pattern as David’s own sin: sexual immorality followed by murder, with the murderer carefully plotting how to get rid of his victim.Amnon, David’s eldest son, tried to seduce his half-sister Tamar, but when Tamar resisted him he raped her (13:1-14). Cruelly, Amnon then drove Tamar away, and the young princess cried bitterly at the loss of her virginity in such... read more
spake to the king . Many codices, with three early printed editions, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read "came in unto the king". read more
a widow . One of nine widows specially me' tioned. See note on Genesis 38:19 . mine husband is dead. Figure of speech Synonymia. App-6 . behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6 . life = soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13 . read more
THE STORY THAT THE WOMAN TOLD THE KING"When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, "Help, O king." And the king said to her, "What is your trouble"? She answered, "Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. And your handmaid had two sons, and they quarreled with one another in the field; there was no one to part them, and one struck the other and killed him. And now the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, `Give... read more
2 Samuel 14:7. So they shall quench my coal which is left— The expression is singularly beautiful and expressive. Heathen authors seem to have borrowed it from hence. Plato and Lucian call the few men who survived the deluge ζωπυρα, live coals, who were to re-kindle the vital flame, and continue the human race: and in Scripture a man and his successors are often called a lamp or light: see chap. 2 Samuel 21:17. Psa 132:17 and Calmet and Le Clerc. read more
7. they shall quench my coal which is left—The life of man is compared in Scripture to a light. To quench the light of Israel ( :-) is to destroy the king's life; to ordain a lamp for any one (Psalms 132:17) is to grant him posterity; to quench a coal signifies here the extinction of this woman's only remaining hope that the name and family of her husband would be preserved. The figure is a beautiful one; a coal live, but lying under a heap of embers—all that she had to rekindle her fire—to... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - 2 Samuel 14:7
The whole family. This does not mean the kinsfolk, in whom such a disregard of the mother's feelings would have been cruel, but one of the great divisions of the tribe. In 2 Samuel 14:15 she rightly calls them "the people." We have thus a glimpse of the ordinary method of administering the criminal law, and find that each portion of a tribe exercised justice within its own district, being summoned to a general convention by its hereditary chief; and in this case the widow represents it as... read more