2 Samuel 14:5

5 Then the king asked her, "{What do you want}?" And she said, "Truly I [am] a widow, and 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 Then you must go to the king and speak to him according to this word." [Thus] Joab put the words in her mouth.

4 So the Tekoite woman spoke to the king, and she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance. She said, "Help me, O king!"

5 Then the king asked her, "{What do you want}?" And she said, "Truly I [am] a widow, and my husband [is] dead.

6 Your servant had two sons, and they both fought in the open field, and there [was] no one {to part them}. One struck the other and killed him.

7 And look, all of the family has risen up against your servant, and they said, 'Give up the one who struck his brother, that we may kill him in exchange for the life of his brother whom he murdered. We will also wipe out the heir,' and so they would put out my embers which remain, by not preserving for my husband a name and a remnant on the face of the earth."

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "What is for you"