2 Samuel 14:5

5 The king asked her, "What can I do for you?" She answered, "I'm a widow; my husband is dead.

2 Samuel 14:5 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 14:5

And the king said unto her, what aileth thee?
&c.] Or what is thy case? What is the condition, and what the circumstances, that thou art in, which require help and assistance? intimating that he was ready to grant it on knowledge thereof; however, he was ready to hear what she had to say:

and she answered, I [am] indeed a widow woman;
of a truth a widow, as the Targum; she was really one, a widow indeed, as in ( 1 Timothy 5:3 1 Timothy 5:5 ) ; not one that was separated from her husband, he being alive, or divorced from him on any account; and therefore she adds,

and mine husband is dead;
and has been a long time; this she said to move the pity and compassion of the king, who, as the supreme magistrate in God's stead, was a Father of the fatherless, and the judge of the widow.

2 Samuel 14:5 In-Context

3 Go to the king, and tell him this...." Then Joab told her exactly what to say.

4 The woman from Tekoa came to the king and immediately bowed down with her face touching the ground. "Help [me], Your Majesty," she said.

5 The king asked her, "What can I do for you?" She answered, "I'm a widow; my husband is dead.

6 I had two sons who quarreled in the field, and there was no one to separate them. One killed the other.

7 Then the entire family turned against me. They said, 'Give us the man who killed his brother so that we can kill him because he took his brother's life. We're going to destroy the one who [now] would be the heir.' In this way they wish to extinguish the [one] burning coal that is left for me. They will not let my husband's name or descendants remain on the face of the earth."