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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - 2 Samuel 14:13 - 14:13
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If thou wouldst not permit the avengers of blood to molest me, or to destroy my son, who are but two persons; how unreasonable is it that thou shouldst proceed in thy endeavours to avenge Amnon’s blood upon Absalom, whose death would be highly injurious and grievous to the whole commonwealth of Israel, all whose eyes are upon him as the heir of the crown, and a wise, and valiant, and amiable person, unhappy only in this one act of killing Amnon, which was done upon a high and heinous provocation, and whereof thou thyself didst give the occasion, by permitting Amnon to go unpunished!
The king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty; by thy word, and promise, and oath given to me for thy son, thou condemnest thyself for not allowing the same equity towards thy own son.
His banished, to wit, Absalom, from that heathenish country, where he is in evident danger of being infected with their idolatry and other vices; which is likely to be a great and public mischief to all thy people, if he come to reign in thy stead, which he is very likely to do. It is true, there was a considerable disparity between her son’s and Absalom’s case, the one being a rash and sudden action, the other a deliberate and premeditated murder; but that may seem to be balanced in some measure, partly by Amnon’s great and lasting provocation, and principally by the vast difference between a private injury, which was her case, and in a public calamity and grievance, which she affirmed, and the king easily believed, was Absalom’s case: and what David said in the case of Joab’s murder of Abner, that he could not revenge it, because the sons of Zeruiah were too hard for him, 2Sa_3:39; the like peradventure might have been said in this case, where the people’s hearts may seem to have been universally and vehemently set upon Absalom, and the rather, because his long banishment moved their pity, and his absence made him more desirable, as it frequently happens among people; and therefore it might really be out of the king’s power to punish him; and so he might seem to be obliged to spare him for the common safety of his whole kingdom.