Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - 2 Samuel 18:1-33
The Might-have-been 2 Samuel 18:33 I. Besides the Absalom who was, there is the Absalom who might have been: this is the dead son whom David is lamenting, this is the son he knew, the son he cannot forget, whose image is not blotted out by the shamed figure of the murderer, rebel, traitor, which is the only Absalom visible to all the rest. II. King David has been for Jew and for Christian a type of the Christ. For this once we will make him a type of something else: he shall be an image not... read more
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 2 Samuel 18:23
(23) By the way of the plain.—The word used here is generally applied to the valley of the Jordan and hence it has been argued that the battle could not have been fought on the eastern side of the river, since, in that case, Ahimaaz could not have reached Mahanaim by the Jordan valley except by a long and tedious detour. But the word simply means circuit, or surrounding country, and is used in Nehemiah 12:28 for the country about Jerusalem. Here it means that Ahimaaz ran “by the way of the... read more