2 Samuel 13:38

13:30-39 Jonadab was as guilty of Ammon's death, as of his sin; such false friends do they prove, who counsel us to do wickedly. Instead of loathing Absalom as a murderer, David, after a time, longed to go forth to him. This was David's infirmity: God saw something in his heart that made a difference, else we should have thought that he, as much as Eli, honoured his sons more than God.

So Absalom fled,.... This is the third time it is mentioned, and the reason of it here Abarbinel thinks is, that when he first fled to his grandfather, he used to stand openly in the court of his palace, and go with him wherever he went from place to place; but when he understood that his father mourned so for the death of Amnon, he was afraid he would send some person to lay hold on him, and take vengeance on him; and therefore he would go no more with the king from place to place, but went and abode in Geshur always, which was a fortified city, as it follows: and went to Geshur, and was there three years: and never went out of it, until he was fetched by Joab, as 2 Samuel 14:23 relates; nor is there anything in 2 Samuel 13:37 disturbed and mutilated, as Spinosa (r) intimates, but the whole is very expressive and emphatic. (r) Tractat. Theolog. Politic. c. 9. p. 176.

(38) Was there three years. —This is the third time the flight of Absalom has been mentioned; but, after the custom of Scripture narrative, each repetition has been for the purpose of introducing some additional fact. In 2Samuel 13:34 the simple fact of his flight is stated; in 2Samuel 13:37 it is added that he went to his grandfather, and here that he remained with him three years.

38 . “If the text of these verses is sound, they afford a curious specimen of Hebrew narrative. In 2 Samuel 13:34 we read Absalom fled ; in 2 Samuel 13:37 , Absalom fled and went to Talmai, the son of Ammihud, king of Geshur ; in 2 Samuel 13:38 , Absalom fled and went to Geshur and was there three years . At each step of the narrative only the fact is brought out which is wanted, (1) the flight; (2) the place whither he fled; (3) the duration of the absence; but with each new fact the old ones on which it depends are repeated.” Speaker’s Comm . 2 Samuel 13:38

2Sa 13:37-39. Absalom Flees to Talmai. 37. Absalom fled, and went to Talmai—The law as to premeditated murder (Nu 35:21) gave him no hope of remaining with impunity in his own country. The cities of refuge could afford him no sanctuary, and he was compelled to leave the kingdom, taking refuge at the court of Geshur, with his maternal grandfather, who would, doubtless, approve of his conduct.

"Only Absalom had fled and gone to Talmai the son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur." These words form a circumstantial clause, which the writer has inserted as a parenthesis, to define the expression "the king's sons" more particularly. If we take these words as a parenthesis, there will be no difficulty in explaining the following word "mourned," as the subject (David) may very easily be supplied from the preceding words "the king," etc. ( 2 Samuel 13:36 ). To the remark that David mourned all his life for his son (Amnon), there is attached, just as simply and quite in accordance with the facts, the more precise information concerning Absalom's flight, that he remained in Geshur three years. The repetition of the words "Absalom had fled and gone to Geshur" may be accounted for from the general diffuseness of the Hebrew style. Talmai the king of Geshur was the father of Maacah, Absalom's mother ( 2 Samuel 3:3 ). The lxx thought it necessary expressly to indicate this by inserting εἰς γῆν Χαμαχάαδ (al. γῆν Μαχάδ).

"And Absalom fled." This statement follows upon 2 Samuel 13:29 . When the king's sons fled upon their mules, Absalom also took to flight. 2 Samuel 13:30-33 are a parenthesis, in which the writer describes at once the impression made upon the king and his court by the report of what Absalom had done. The apparently unsuitable position in which this statement is placed may be fully explained from the fact, that the flight of Absalom preceded the arrival of the rest of the sons at the king's palace. The alteration which Bttcher proposes to make in the text, so as to remove this statement altogether on account of its unsuitable position, is proved to be inadmissible by the fact that the account of Absalom's flight cannot possibly be left out, as reference is made to it again afterwards (2 Samuel 13:37, 2 Samuel 13:38, "Absalom had fled"). The other alterations proposed by Thenius in the text of 2 Samuel 13:34, 2 Samuel 13:37, 2 Samuel 13:38, are just as arbitrary and out of place, and simply show that this critic was ignorant of the plan adopted by the historian.