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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 Samuel 15:7 - 15:7
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Absalom's rebellion. - 2Sa 15:7, 2Sa 15:8. After the lapse of forty (?) years Absalom said to the king, “Pray I will go (i.e., pray allow me to go) and perform a vow in Hebron which I vowed to the Lord during my stay at Geshur” (2Sa 15:8). The number forty is altogether unsuitable, as it cannot possibly be understood either as relating to the age of Absalom or to the year of David's reign: for Absalom was born at Hebron after David had begun to reign, and David only reigned forty years and a half in all, and Absalom's rebellion certainly did not take place in the last few weeks of his reign. It is quite as inappropriate to assume, as the terminus a quo of the forty years, either the commencement of Saul's reign, as several of the Rabbins have done, as well as the author of the marginal note in Cod. 380 of De Rossi (שאול למלכות), or the anointing of David at Bethlehem, as Luther (in the marginal note) and Lightfoot do; for the word “after” evidently refers to some event in the life of Absalom, to which allusion has previously been made, namely, either to the time of his reconciliation with David (2Sa 14:33), or (what is not so probable) to the period of his return from Geshur to Jerusalem (2Sa 14:23). Consequently the reading adopted by the Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate, also by Theodoret and others, viz., “four years,” must certainly be the correct one, and not “forty days,” which we find in Codd. 70 and 96 in Kennicott, since forty days would be far too short a time for maturing the rebellion. It is true, that with the reading אַרְבַּע we should expect, as a rule, the plural שָׁנִים. At the same time, the numbers from two to ten are sometimes construed with a singular noun (e.g., 2Ki 22:1; cf. Gesenius, §120, 2). The pretended vow was, that if Jehovah would bring him back to Jerusalem, he would serve Jehovah. אֶת־יְהֹוָה עָבַד, “to do a service to Jehovah,” can only mean to offer a sacrifice, which is the explanation given by Josephus. The Chethib יָשִׁיב is not the infinitive, but the imperfect Hiphil: si reduxerit, reduxerit me, which is employed in an unusual manner instead of the inf. absol., for the sake of emphasis. The Keri יָשׁוּב would have to be taken as an adverb “again;” but this is quite unnecessary.