And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the Lord
At Gibeon:
and said unto him;
that is, to Joab:
thus saith the king, come forth;
meaning, out of the tabernacle; which plainly shows that his orders were not to slay him in it:
and he said, nay, but I will die here;
since he must die, he chose to die there; but what was his reason for it is not so clear; the Jews, some of them, say, to save his goods, and that they might come to his heirs, which would have been forfeited to the crown if he had been tried and condemned in a court of judicature; others, that he might be buried with his ancestors, whereas, had he been sentenced to death by the court, he would have been buried in the common place of malefactors; but rather he thought, or at least hoped, he should not die at all; either that, by gaining time, Solomon might be prevailed upon to pardon him; or however that he would not defile that sacred place with his blood; or, if he should die, he chose to die there, as being a sacred place, and so might hope to receive some benefit from it, as to his future state, where sacrifices were offered to atone for sin:
and Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, thus said Joab, and
thus he answered me;
told me he would not come out, and, if he must die, he would die there.