2 Samuel 14:5

5 And the king said to her, "What is your trouble?" She answered, "Alas, I am a widow; 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 and go to the king, and speak thus to him." So Jo'ab put the words in her mouth.

4 When the woman of Teko'a came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, "Help, O king."

5 And the king said to her, "What is your trouble?" She answered, "Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead.

6 And your handmaid had two sons, and they quarreled with one another in the field; there was no one to part them, and one struck the other and killed him.

7 And now the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, 'Give up the man who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he slew'; and so they would destroy the heir also. Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant upon the face of the earth."