All the country, i.e. the generality of the people by whom they passed; for it must be considered that Absalom’s friends and partisans were gone to him to Hebron, and the rest of the people thereabouts were either well-willers to David, or at least moved with compassion at the sad and sudden change of so great and good a king, which was able to affect a heart of stone.
The brook Kidron was near Jerusalem. See Mat_26:36Joh_18:1.
Toward the way of the wilderness; which was between Jerusalem and Jericho.