2 Samuel 14:16

For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

2 Samuel 14:16. For the king will hear — Clemency and kindness are the properties of a good king, and such a king, she insinuates, she knew David to be, who, she was persuaded, would grant her audience and acceptance. To deliver his handmaid, &c. — By granting her request concerning her son, in whose life, she intimates, her own was bound up, so that she could not outlive his death; supposing that David’s case might be similar, and therefore that this might touch him in a tender part, though it was not proper to say so expressly; and thereby suggesting, that the safety and comfort of the people of Israel depended on Absalom’s restoration. Out of the inheritance of God — That is, out of that land which God gave to his people, to be their inheritance, and in which alone he hath fixed the place of his presence and worship. Thus she artfully reminds the king how dangerous it was to let Absalom (unto whom she had ventured to apply her case) continue among idolaters, in a state of separation from God, his house, and people.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:1-20 We may notice here, how this widow pleads God's mercy, and his clemency toward poor guilty sinners. The state of sinners is a state of banishment from God. God pardons none to the dishonour of his law and justice, nor any who are impenitent; nor to the encouragement of crimes, or the hurt of others.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The people have made me afraid - She pretends still that her suit was a real one, and that she was in fear of the people ("the whole family," 2 Samuel 14:7) setting upon her and her son.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13-17. Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God, &c.—Her argument may be made clear in the following paraphrase:—You have granted me the pardon of a son who had slain his brother, and yet you will not grant to your subjects the restoration of Absalom, whose criminality is not greater than my son's, since he killed his brother in similar circumstances of provocation. Absalom has reason to complain that he is treated by his own father more sternly and severely than the meanest subject in the realm; and the whole nation will have cause for saying that the king shows more attention to the petition of a humble woman than to the wishes and desires of a whole kingdom. The death of my son is a private loss to my family, while the preservation of Absalom is the common interest of all Israel, who now look to him as your successor on the throne.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

For I know the king is so wise and just, that I assure myself of audience and acceptation; which expectation of hers is cunningly insinuated here, that the king might conceive himself obliged to answer it, and not to disappoint her hope, nor to forfeit that good opinion which his subjects now had of him.

To deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man; to grant my request concerning my son, and consequently the people’s petition concerning Absalom.

Me and my son; implying that her life was bound up in the life of her son, and that she could not outlive his death; (and supposing, it is like, that it might be David’s case also, and would therefore touch him in a tender part, though it were not proper to say it expressly;) and thereby suggesting that the tranquillity, safety, and comfort of the people of Israel depended upon Absalom’s restitution, and the settlement of the succession in him.

Out of the inheritance of God, i.e. out of that inheritance which God hath given to me and mine; or out of that land which God gave to his people to be their inheritance and possession, and in which alone God hath settled the place of his presence and worship; whereby she intimates the danger of Absalom’s living in a state of separation from God and his house, and amongst idolaters.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the king will hear,.... She was fully persuaded of it, as now he had heard her:

to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God; he had given his word and his oath that he would deliver her son from the avenger of blood, that neither he nor any other should destroy him; which would have been the destruction of her and her whole family out of the land of Israel, the land which God had chosen for his inheritance, and had given to the of Israel to be theirs; and since the king had heard her, and granted her this favour, she doubted not but that he would deliver his own son from death, and restore him to the inheritance of the land, where he might worship the Lord God of his fathers, of which he was now deprived.

Geneva Study Bible

For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. the inheritance of God] The nation of Israel. Cp. 1 Samuel 26:19; Deuteronomy 32:9.

2 Samuel 14:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Yea, the king will hear, to save his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son from the inheritance of God." אשׁר must be supplied before להשׁמיד: who is to destroy, i.e., who is seeking to destroy (vid., Gesenius, 132, 3). "The inheritance of God" was the nation of Israel (as in 1 Samuel 26:19; cf. Deuteronomy 32:9).