28 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 20 This chapter gives an account of a new rebellion raised by Sheba, 2 Samuel 20:1; of David's shutting up his concubines unto the day of their death, whom Absalom had lain with, 2 Samuel 20:3; of Amasa being ordered to assemble the men of Judah to crush the rebellion, but being dilatory, Abishai is sent out with...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And there happened to be a man of Belial,.... A wicked man, as the Targum, a lawless, yokeless man, that had cast off the yoke of the law, and was without it, as Belial is by some interpreted; or one unprofitable and useless, yea, noxious and pernicious: this man, though, with respect to second causes, may be said to be there by chance, yet it was...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
How do the clouds return after the rain! No sooner is one of David's troubles over than another arises, as it were out of the ashes of the former, wherein the threatening is fulfilled, that the sword should never depart from his house. I. Before he reaches Jerusalem a new rebellion is raised by Sheba, ver. 1, 2. II. His first work, when he comes...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So every man of Israel went up from after David,.... Those that met him on the road departed from him, and went no further with him: [and] followed Sheba the son of Bichri; and made him their captain, who was the author of their mutiny and sedition: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan to Jerusalem: never left him, after they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David came to his house at Jerusalem,.... His palace there, which was in that part of the city called the fort of Zion, and city of David: and the king took the ten women [his] concubines, whom he had left to keep the house; when he fled from Jerusalem because of Absalom, 2 Samuel 15:16; and put them in ward; partly as a punishment for easily...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then said the king to Amasa,.... Whom he had promised to make general of his army, 2 Samuel 19:13; and by the following order declared him such: assemble me the men of Judah within three days; which was done by the sound of the trumpet, or by the proclamation of a herald; it seems that the men of Judah, who attended David to Jerusalem, were gone...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So Amasa went to assemble [the men of] Judah,.... To gather, them together out of their several tribes, and bring them to Jerusalem: but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him: than the three days; whether this was owing to the remissness of Amasa, or the unwillingness of the people to serve under him, who had been...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David said to Abishai,.... For it seems he would have nothing to say to Joab, being displeased with him for slaying Absalom, and having removed him from his posts; and therefore speaks to the next officer in his army, Abishai; though Josephus (p) says, he addressed himself to Joab, contrary to the express words of the text: now shall Sheba the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And there went out after him Joab's men,.... Who though he was removed from his post as general, yet might still have the command of a regiment: and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites; over whom Benaiah was, 2 Samuel 20:23; these attended David in his flight, and had now returned with him, 2 Samuel 15:18; and all the mighty men; the military men...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
When they [were] at the great stone which [is] in Gibeon,.... Which, according to Josephus (r), was forty furlongs, or five miles from Jerusalem: what this great stone was, whether an obelisk, or what, is not certain; one of the greatest stones we read of was that which Semiramis cut out of the mountains of Armenia, which was an hundred thirty...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joab said to Amasa,.... In a friendly manner, with all the air of pleasantry and good humour: [art] thou in health, my brother? this looked like a friendly salutation to ask of his health, and wish him it, and a loving appellation to call him brother; though they were near of kin, sisters' children, and so own cousins; thus he addressed him,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But Amasa took no heed to the sword that [was] in Joab's hand,.... In his left hand, for with his right hand he took him by the beard; he might see the sword drop out of the scabbard, and Joab take it up, which he supposed he did in order to put it into its sheath again, having no suspicion of his wicked design, and therefore not at all upon his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And one of Joab's men stood by him,.... By the body of Amasa; no doubt by the order of Joab, to satisfy the people as they came up, and reconcile them to this fact, and to exhort them not to stop, but to follow after Joab; for though Amasa their general was dead, Joab had taken the command of the army, and the pursuit was carried on with as much...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway,.... By which it seems, that though the wound was mortal, and of which he died, that as yet there was life in him, and through the pain he was in, and the pangs of death on him, he rolled himself about in his own blood in the high road, where the fact was committed: and when the man saw that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
When he was removed out of the highway,.... Into the field, and covered over with a cloth, that he could not be seen: all the people went on after Joab; made no stop at all, knowing nothing of the matter, or what had happened: to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri; these were the troops that Amasa had been assembling, which followed one another...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he went through all the tribes of Israel,.... That is, Sheba the son of Bichri, last mentioned, 2 Samuel 20:13, who passed through all the tribes of Israel to get as many to be of his party as he could, and to be proclaimed their king; or finding himself pursued, he passed on as fast as he could from place to place, through all the tribes,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they came and besieged him in Abel of Bethmaachah,.... That is, Joab and Abishai, with the forces under them, who pursued him hither: and they cast up a bank against the city; which some understand of a warlike machine or engine, with which stones were cast; but it rather seems to be a bank of earth thrown up, for the better working of such...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then cried a wise woman out of the city,.... And such an one as the woman of Tekoah, supposed by some to be the governess of the city; but whoever she was, she well deserved the character of a wise woman; her conduct in this affair shows it: she cried with a loud voice, upon the wall of the city, to Joab's men, who were underneath battering it,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when he was come near unto her,.... As he did, upon the information of his men, that a woman on the wall had something to say to him: the woman said, [art] thou Joab? she was willing to be satisfied that he was really the general, before she would impart her mind to him: and he answered, I [am he]; the very person you ask after: and she said...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then she spake, saying, they were wont to speak in old time,.... It was a common saying, a proverbial expression among the ancient sages: saying, they shall surely ask [counsel] at Abel, and so they ended [the matter]. Abel, it seems, had been a city so famous for wise and prudent men, that it was common for the inhabitants of other cities, in the...