2 Samuel 14:29

29 So Absalom sent for Joab in order to send him to the king, but Joab refused to come. Absalom sent for him a second time, but he still refused to come.

2 Samuel 14:29 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 14:29

Therefore Absalom sent for Joab, to have sent him to the king,
&c.] To introduce him into his presence, being uneasy to be thus confined at his own house, and not suffered to come to court:

but he would not come to him;
knowing the king's mind, and being unwilling to disoblige him by a troublesome solicitation:

and when he sent again the second time, he would not come;
knowing his business with him; and perhaps between the first time of his sending and this he had sounded the king about it, and found it was not agreeable to him to admit him to access to him as yet.

2 Samuel 14:29 In-Context

27 Absalom had three sons and one daughter. His daughter Tamar was a beautiful woman.

28 Absalom stayed in Jerusalem two full years without seeing the king.

29 So Absalom sent for Joab in order to send him to the king, but Joab refused to come. Absalom sent for him a second time, but he still refused to come.

30 So Absalom said to his servants, "Look, Joab's field is next to mine. He has barley in it. Go and set it on fire." So Absalom's servants set it on fire. Joab's servants came to him [in grief] and said, "Absalom's servants have set [your] field on fire."

31 Then Joab immediately went to Absalom at his home. "Why did your servants set my field on fire?" he asked.