719 matching verse commentaries
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I [am one of them that are] peaceable [and] faithful in Israel,.... Her meaning is, that she was of a city which consisted of peaceable and faithful men, that were peaceable among themselves, and faithful to their king, who never were concerned in any insurrection or rebellion, not in the late one under Absalom: thou seekest to destroy a city, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joab answered and said, far be it from me, far be it from me,.... He repeats these words, to show how detestable it was to him to do what she suggested: that I should swallow up or destroy; any in a violent and unrighteous manner, and especially a city of which she had given such a character for its greatness and worth, and for the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The matter [is] not so,.... I am not come with the army against this city with any ill will to it, and with an intention to destroy it: the case is this, but a man of Mount Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name; for though he was by birth a Benjaminite, his dwelling was in Mount Ephraim in that tribe; unless there was a place of this name in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then the woman went unto all the people in her wisdom,.... Went from the wall of the city into it, and convened the principal inhabitants together, and made so wise a speech to them, and represented things in such a light, and so prudently conducted, that they unanimously agreed to her motion: and they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now Joab [was] over all the host of Israel,.... Established in the post in which he formerly was; either having been never displaced, which though David thought to do, he was not able to effect it, because of his power and influence with the people; or if he had displaced him, which by some things in this chapter seemed to be the case, yet Amasa...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Adoram [was] over the tribute,.... Or over those that collected and brought it, as the Targum; this was a new office, and which respected both the revenue he received from his own people, and the tribute brought him from the nations conquered by him: and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud [was] recorder; who was in this office before, and now...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Sheva [was] scribe,.... Either the same with Benaiah, or he was dead or removed, and Sheva was put in his place, see 2 Samuel 8:17; and Zadok and Abiathar [were] the priests; as before; [See comments on 2 Samuel 8:17].
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Ira also the Jairite,.... Which some take to be the same with Ira the Ithrite, 2 Samuel 23:38; a son of Jether or Ithra the Israelite, 2 Samuel 17:25; though others suppose he was Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, 2 Samuel 23:26; and so the Targum here calls him Ira the Jairite, which was of Tekoah; and Tekoah being the chief place in Israel...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 21 A famine being in the land three years, the Lord was inquired of, to know the reason of it; and it being answered, that it was on account of Saul's slaughter of the Gibeonites, they were summoned by David to know what satisfaction they required for the cruel usage of them, 2 Samuel 21:1; to which they replied, that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year,.... That is, three years running, one after another; some think this, though here related, was before the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba, and not after, and there are several things which may incline to it, as that the sin of Saul should otherwise be so long unpunished,...