2 Samuel 20:19

19 I am a peaceful person, one of the faithful in Israel, but you're trying to destroy a city that is like a mother in Israel. Why would you devour the Lord's inheritance?"

2 Samuel 20:19 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 20:19

I [am one of them that are] peaceable [and] faithful in
Israel
Her meaning is, that she was of a city which consisted of peaceable and faithful men, that were peaceable among themselves, and faithful to their king, who never were concerned in any insurrection or rebellion, not in the late one under Absalom:

thou seekest to destroy a city, and a mother in Israel;
a metropolitan city, which had several towns and villages under its jurisdiction, which were as daughters to it. Some think she means herself, because very old, supposed ^F3 to be Serah, the daughter of Asher, a son of Jacob, which is improbable:

wilt why thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord?
a city which is a part of the land, that is the Lord's inheritance.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 Jarchi & Kimchi in loc. Hieron. Trad. Heb. in 2 Reg. fol. 79. L.

2 Samuel 20:19 In-Context

17 When he had come near her, the woman asked, "Are you Joab?" "I am," he replied. "Listen to the words of your servant," she said to him. He answered, "I'm listening."

18 She said, "In the past they used to say, 'Seek counsel in Abel,' and that's how they settled [disputes].

19 I am a peaceful person, one of the faithful in Israel, but you're trying to destroy a city that is like a mother in Israel. Why would you devour the Lord's inheritance?"

20 Joab protested: "Never! I do not want to destroy!

21 That is not [my] intention. There is a man named Sheba son of Bichri, from the hill country of Ephraim, who has rebelled against King David. Deliver this one man, and I will withdraw from the city." The woman replied to Joab, "All right. His head will be thrown over the wall to you."