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i.e. Restored Absalom at my request; whereby. Joab thought to establish himself for ever, and that he should be both the father’s and the son’s favourite.
Quest. Whether David did well in granting this request?
Answ. Although there be some circumstances which in part extenuate David’s fault herein, as Amnon’s high provocation of Absalom; Absalom’s being out of the reach of David’s justice, where also he could and would have kept himself, if David had not promised him immunity; the extreme danger of Absalom’s infection by heathenish principles and practices; the safety of David’s kingdom, which seemed to depend upon the, establishment of the succession, and that upon Absalom, to whom the hearts of the people were so universally and vehemently inclined, if the matter was really so, and not pretended or magnified by the art of this subtle woman: yet it seems most probable that David was faulty herein, because this action was directly contrary to the express laws of God, which strictly command the supreme magistrate to execute justice upon all wilful murderers, without any reservation, Gen_9:6 Num_35:30,31. And David had no power to dispense with God’s laws, nor to spare any whom God commanded him to destroy; for the laws of God did bind the kings and rulers as well as the people of Israel to observe and obey them, as is most evident from Deu_17:18,19, and from Jos_1:8, and many other places. And indeed we may read David’s sin in the glass of those tremendous judgments of God which befell him, by means of his indulgence to Absalom. For although God’s providences be in themselves no rule to judge of the good or evil of men’s actions; yet where they comply with God’s word, and accomplish his threatenings, as here they did, they are to be taken for the tokens of God’s displeasure.