2 Samuel 13:35

And Jonadab said unto the king, Behold, the king's sons come: as thy servant said, so it is.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:30-39 Jonadab was as guilty of Ammon's death, as of his sin; such false friends do they prove, who counsel us to do wickedly. Instead of loathing Absalom as a murderer, David, after a time, longed to go forth to him. This was David's infirmity: God saw something in his heart that made a difference, else we should have thought that he, as much as Eli, honoured his sons more than God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The watchman, as his duty was, had sent immediate notice to the king that he saw a crowd approaching (see 2 Kings 9:17-20). Jonadab, who was with the king, was prompt to give the explanation.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

30, 31. tidings came to David, saying, Absalom hath slain all the king's sons—It was natural that in the consternation and tumult caused by so atrocious a deed, an exaggerated report should reach the court, which was at once plunged into the depths of grief and despair. But the information of Jonadab, who seems to have been aware of the plan, and the arrival of the other princes, made known the real extent of the catastrophe.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Jonadab said to the king, behold, the king's sons come,.... For as they came nearer, it was plainly discovered that they were the king's sons, seen on the side of the hill:

as thy servant said, so it is; he seems to applaud himself, and exult at his penetration and foresight.

Geneva Study Bible

And Jonadab said unto the king, Behold, the king's sons come: as thy servant said, {o} so it is.

(o) That only Amnon is dead.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

2 Samuel 13:35

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"And Absalom fled." This statement follows upon 2 Samuel 13:29. When the king's sons fled upon their mules, Absalom also took to flight.

2 Samuel 13:30-33 are a parenthesis, in which the writer describes at once the impression made upon the king and his court by the report of what Absalom had done. The apparently unsuitable position in which this statement is placed may be fully explained from the fact, that the flight of Absalom preceded the arrival of the rest of the sons at the king's palace. The alteration which Bttcher proposes to make in the text, so as to remove this statement altogether on account of its unsuitable position, is proved to be inadmissible by the fact that the account of Absalom's flight cannot possibly be left out, as reference is made to it again afterwards (2 Samuel 13:37, 2 Samuel 13:38, "Absalom had fled"). The other alterations proposed by Thenius in the text of 2 Samuel 13:34, 2 Samuel 13:37, 2 Samuel 13:38, are just as arbitrary and out of place, and simply show that this critic was ignorant of the plan adopted by the historian. His plan is the following: To the account of the murder of Amnon, and the consequent flight of the rest of the king's sons whom Absalom had invited to the feast (2 Samuel 13:29), there is first of all appended a notice of the report which preceded the fugitives and reached the king's ears in an exaggerated form, together with the impression which it made upon the king, and the rectification of that report by Jonadab (2 Samuel 13:30-33). Then follows the statement that Absalom fled, also the account of the arrival of the king's sons (2 Samuel 13:34-36). After this we have a statement as to the direction in which Absalom fled, the king's continued mourning, and the length of time that Absalom's banishment lasted (2 Samuel 13:37, 2 Samuel 13:38), and finally a remark as to David's feelings towards Absalom (2 Samuel 13:39).

Jonadab's assertion, that Amnon only had been slain, was very speedily confirmed (2 Samuel 13:34). The young man, the spy, i.e., the young man who was looking out for the return of those who had been invited to the feast, "lifted up his eyes and saw," i.e., saw as he looked out into the distance, "much people (a crowd of men) coming from the way behind him along the side of the mountain." אחריו מדּרך, ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ ὄπισθεν αὐτοῦ (lxx), per iter devium (Vulg.), is obscure; and אהר, "behind," is probably to be understood as meaning "to the west:" from the way at the back of the spy, i.e., to the west of his station. The following words, ההר מצּד, also remain obscure, as the position of the spy is not given, so that the allusion may be to a mountain in the north-west of Jerusalem quite as well as to one on the west.

(Note: The lxx have very comprehensive additions here: first of all, after ἐκ πλευρᾶς τοῦ ὄρους, they have the more precise definition ἐν τῇ καταβάσει, and then the further clause, "and the spy came and announced to the king," Ἄνδρας ὲώρακα ἐκ τῆς ὁδοῦ τῆς ὠρωνῆν (?) ἐκ μέρους τοῦ ὅρους, partly to indicate more particularly the way by which the king's sons came, and partly to fill up a supposed gap in the account. But they did not consider that the statement in 2 Samuel 13:35, "and Jonadab said to the king, Behold, the king's sons are coming," does not square with these additions; for if the spy had already informed the king that his sons were coming, there was no necessity for Jonadab to do it again. This alone is sufficient to show that the additions made by the lxx are nothing but worthless glosses, introduced according to subjective conjectures and giving no foundation for alterations of the text.)

When the spy observed the crowd of men approaching, Jonadab said to the king (2 Samuel 13:35), "Behold, the king's sons are coming: as thy servant said, so has it come to pass."