Chapter 18:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1 Samuel 1 Kings
2 Samuel 18
David prepares to engage the rebels, ver. 1-5. The total
defeat of Absalom, ver. 6-8. His death and burial, ver. 9-18. The
news brought to David, ver. 19-32. His lamentation over
Absalom, ver. 33.
Verse 5. Deal gently - If you conquer (which be presaged they would by
God's gracious answer to his prayer for the turning of
Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness,) take him prisoner, but do
not kill him. Which desire proceeded, from his great indulgence
towards his children: from his consciousness that he himself was
the meritorious cause of this rebellion, Absalom being given up to
it for the punishment of David's sins; from the consideration of his
youth, which commonly makes men foolish, and subject to ill
counsels: and from his piety, being loth that he should be cut off
in the act of his sin without any space for repentance. But "what
means, says Bp. Hall, this ill-placed mercy? Deal gently with a
traitor? Of all traitors with a son? And all this for thy sake, whose
crown, whose blood he hunts after? Even in the holiest parents
nature may be guilty of an injurious tenderness. But was not this
done in type of that unmeasurable mercy, of the true King of
Israel, who prayed for his murderers, Father, forgive them! Deal
gently with them for my sake!" Yea, when God sends an affliction
to correct his children, it is with this charge, deal gently with them
for my sake: for he knows our frame.
Verse 8. The wood - More people died in the wood, either through
hunger, and thirst, and weariness: or, by the wild beasts, whereof
great numbers were there, which, though they were driven away
from the place of the main battle, yet might easily meet with them
when they fled several ways: or, by falling into ditches and pits,
which were in that place, ver. 17, and probably were covered with
grass or wood, so that they could not see them till they fell into
them: and especially by David's men, who pursued them, and
killed them in the wood: and the wood is rightly said to have
devoured them, because it gave the occasion to their destruction,
inasmuch as the trees, and ditches, and pits, entangled them, and
stopped their flight, and made them an easy prey to David's men,
who followed them, and slew them in the pursuit. The sword - In
the main battle: the sword being put for the battle, by a common
figure.
Verse 9. The servants of David - Who, according to David's command,
spared him, and gave him an opportunity to escape. His head - In
which probably he was entangled by the hair of the head, which
being very long and thick, might easily catch hold of a bough,
especially when the great God directed it. Either he wore no
helmet, or he had thrown it away as well as his other arms, to
hasten his flight. Thus the matter of his pride was the instrument
of his ruin.
Verse 15. Slew him - The darts did not dispatch him, and therefore they
smote him again, and killed him.
Verse 18. A pillar - To preserve his name; whereas it had been more for
his honour if his name had been buried in perpetual oblivion.
Verse 24. Gates - For the gates of the cities then were, as now they are,
large and thick; and for the greater security, had two gates, one
more outward, the other inward. Here he sat, that he might hear
tidings when any came into the city.
Verse 33. Over the gate - Retiring himself from all men and business,
that he might wholly give up himself to lamentation. My son -
This he might speak from a deep sense of his eternal state,
because he died in his sins, and because David himself had by his
own sins been the occasion of his death. But it seems rather to be
the effect of strong passion, causing him to speak unadvisedly
with his lips.
Chapter 18:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1 Samuel 1 Kings
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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