2 Samuel 14:14-24

14 "For ¹we will surely die and are ²like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that ³the banished one will not be cast out from him.

15 "Now the reason I have come to speak this word to my lord the king is that the people have made me afraid; so your maidservant said, 'Let me now speak to the king, perhaps the king will perform the request of his maidservant.

16 'For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy both me and my son from ⁴the inheritance of God.'

17 "Then your maidservant said, 'Please let the word of my lord the king be comforting, for as ⁵the angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil. And may the LORD your God be with you.' "

18 Then the king answered and said to the woman, "Please do not hide anything from me that I am about to ask you." And the woman said, "Let my lord the king please speak."

19 So the king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?" And the woman replied, "As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. Indeed, it was ⁶your servant Joab who commanded me, and it was he who put all these words in the mouth of your maidservant;

20 in order to change the appearance of things your servant Joab has done this thing. But my lord is wise, ⁷like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know all that is in the earth."

Absalom Is Recalled

21 Then the king said to Joab, "Behold now, ⁸I will surely do this thing; go therefore, bring back the young man Absalom."

22 Joab fell on his face to the ground, prostrated himself and blessed the king; then Joab said, "Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, O my lord, the king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant."

23 So Joab arose and went to ⁹Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

24 However the king said, "Let him turn to ¹⁰his own house, and let him not see my face." So Absalom turned to his own house and did not see the king's face.

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2 Samuel 14:14-24 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 14

This chapter relates that Joab, perceiving David's inclination to bring back Absalom, employed a wise woman of Tekoah to lay before him a feigned case of hers, drawn up by Joab, whereby this point was gained from the king, that murder might be dispensed with in her case, 2Sa 14:1-20; which being applied to the case of Absalom, and the king finding out that the hand of Joab was in this, sent for him, and ordered him to bring Absalom again, though as yet he would not see his face, 2Sa 14:21-24; and after some notice being taken of the beauty of Absalom's person, particularly of his head of hair, and of the number of his children, 2Sa 14:25-27; it is related, that after two full years Absalom was uneasy that he might not see the king's face, and sent for Joab, who refused to come to him, till he found means to oblige him to it, who, with the king's leave, introduced him to him, 2Sa 14:28-33.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 10

1. Job 30:23; Job 34:15; Hebrews 9:27
2. Psalms 58:7
3. Num 35:15, 25, 28
4. Deuteronomy 32:9; 1 Samuel 26:19
5. 1 Samuel 29:9; 2 Samuel 14:20; 2 Samuel 19:27
6. 2 Samuel 14:3
7. 2 Samuel 14:17; 2 Samuel 19:27
8. 2 Samuel 14:11
9. Deuteronomy 3:14; 2 Samuel 13:37, 38
10. 2 Samuel 13:20

Footnotes 8

[a]. Lit "devices"
[b]. Lit "that"
[c]. Lit "word"
[d]. Lit "to"
[e]. Lit "palm"
[f]. Lit "together"
[g]. Lit "for rest"
[h]. Lit "word"