him to speak in a friendly manner to the people who had exposed their lives for him, inasmuch as his present conduct would necessarily stifle the affection of the people towards their king, and might be followed by the most serious results with reference to his throne. At the same time, he did this in so heartless and lordly a manner, that the king could not fail to be deeply hurt by his words.
Verse 8
Nevertheless David was obliged to yield to his representations. “The king rose up, and sat in the gate, and ... all the people came before the king,” i.e., the troops marched before the king, who (as we may supply from the context) manifested his good-will in both looks and words. But Israel, i.e., that portion of the people which had followed Absalom, had returned to its tents (i.e., gone home: cf. 2Sa 18:17). This sentence forms the transition to the account which follows.
Verses 9-10
2Sa 19:9-10Preliminaries to the return of David to Jerusalem. - 2Sa 19:9, 2Sa 19:10. As the rebellion was entirely crushed by Absalom's death, and the dispersion of his followers to their respective homes, there arose a movement among all the tribes in favour of David. “All the people were disputing (נדון, casting reproaches at one another) in all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king has saved us out of the hand of our enemies, ... and now he is fled out of the land before Absalom. But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle; and now why do ye keep still, to bring back the king?” This movement arose from the consciousness of having done an injustice to the king, in rising up in support of Absalom.
Verses 11-12
When these words of all Israel were reported to David, he sent to the priests Zadok and Abiathar, saying, “Speak to the elders of Judah, why will ye be the last to bring back the king to his palace? ... Ye are my brethren, my bones and flesh (i.e., my blood relations): why then,” etc.? The last clause of 2Sa 19:11, “the speech of all Israel is come to the king, even to his house,” is a circumstantial clause inserted in the midst of David's words, to explain the appeal to the men of Judah not to be the last. In the lxx, and some Codices of the Vulgate, this sentence occurs twice, viz., at the end of 2Sa 19:10, and also of 2Sa 19:11; and Thenius, Ewald, and Böttcher regard the clause at the end of 2Sa 19:10 as the original one, and the repetition of it at the close of 2Sa 19:11 as a gloss. But this
