2 Samuel 14:5

5 "What do you want?" he asked her. "I am a poor widow, sir," she answered. "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 go to the king and say to him what I tell you to say." Then Joab told her what to say.

4 The woman went to the king, bowed down to the ground in respect, and said, "Help me, Your Majesty!"

5 "What do you want?" he asked her. "I am a poor widow, sir," she answered. "My husband is dead.

6 Sir, I had two sons, and one day they got into a quarrel out in the fields, where there was no one to separate them, and one of them killed the other.

7 And now, sir, all my relatives have turned against me and are demanding that I hand my son over to them, so that they can kill him for murdering his brother. If they do this, I will be left without a son. They will destroy my last hope and leave my husband without a son to keep his name alive."