Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · 2 Samuel Capitolo 3

2 Samuel 3:9. So do God to Abner, and more also— We have here a clear discovery of the character of Abner. Instigated by revenge, he not only threatens to abandon his master, but acknowledges the injustice of the cause in which he had engaged, and the divine appointment of David to the throne. "Such," says Pellican, "is the character of many courtiers. Irritated upon slight occasions to the greatest contradictions, they are less the subjects of kings than their masters."

return to '

2 Samuel 3:13. One thing I require— David did right in making this stipulation; for, whatever may be said of his other wives, he had certainly a claim to this, as she was his first wife, and a king's daughter: and there was something of true generosity in this, both to her and to Saul, in that he received her after she had been another man's, remembering how once she loved him; knowing, probably, that she was without her consent separated from him, and to shew that he did not carry his resentment of Saul's cruel and unjust persecutions of him to any of his family; whereas many princes, for much less provocations of a wife's father, would have turned off their consorts, in revenge of them; and even put them to death for having been married to another. Chandler. Mr. Bayle considers it as cruelty in David to ravish Michal from a husband who loved her so well; see 2 Samuel 3:16.; that is, Mr. Bayle thinks it a great cruelty in David to disturb Phaltiel in an adultery which was agreeable to him, and to restore Michal to her only husband, the husband of her affection and her choice, for whom she had so much tenderness as to save his life at the hazard of her own. Phaltiel certainly is no proper object of pity; and yet his distress upon this occasion as one of the finest pictures of silent grief that any history has left us. Conscious that he had no right to complain, or molest Michal with his lamentations, he follows her at a distance, with a distress silent and self-confined, going and weeping behind her. However such fine paintings of nature pass unregarded in the sacred writings, I am satisfied that in Homer we should survey this with delight. The Jewish rabbies are unanimously of opinion, that Phaltiel was a strictly religious man, and had no nuptial commerce with Michal. Note; Polygamy had long received sanction from prevailing custom; but it is in itself evil, and no custom or authority can consecrate a bad practice. And could David, indeed, have foreseen how his children would have turned out, it would have abated his joy at their birth; for three of them at least lived to give him many a bitter pang. So often do we find our scourges in that wherein we promised ourselves the greatest comfort.

return to '

2 Samuel 3:27. For the blood of Asahel his brother— How empty and ill-founded are the purposes of vain man! Abner, who promises kingdoms, (2 Samuel 3:10.) cannot secure to himself one single hour of life. David had sent him away, and he departed in peace; but being called back by Joab, he fell. Envy, doubtless, and jealousy of Abner's merit with David in gaining over the tribes to him, were principal motives to this base action, as well as revenge for the blood of Asahel.

return to '

2 Samuel 3:29. Let it rest on the head of Joab— Houbigant very properly renders this in the future tense, but it shall, or will rest upon the head of Joab, and on all his father's house, and there will not fail, &c. by which rendering every thing doubtful in the text is removed. The king commanded a general mourning to be made for Abner; and it is remarkable, that the command begins with Joab. David wept over Abner, and buried him with all solemnity, himself attending the bier, which was not the custom of kings; and he added a lamentation (2 Samuel 3:33.) which every eye will discern to be truly poetic in the most literal translation, though none have pretended to determine the measure.

As dies the criminal, shall Abner die?— Thy hands not bound, Nor to the fetters were thy feet applied: As is their fate that fall Before the faces of the sons of guilt, So art thou fallen.

Josephus says, that David interred Abner magnificently, and that he wrote funeral lamentations to his honour; i.e. as some suppose, he raised a magnificent tomb for him, and engraved upon it an epitaph in his praise.

return to '

2 Samuel 3:35. All the people came to cause David to eat— When any one died among the Jews, it was customary with the friends of the family to resort to the house immediately after the funeral, and bring the best provisions they had along with them, to support and refresh their friends in afflictions to the utmost of their power, The presumption was, that the people in affliction forgot, or, it may be, neglected their proper refreshment, at a time when they most needed it; and therefore it was the business of friendship, and one of its kindest offices, to supply that care. Agreeably to this usage, all the people waited upon the king, to cause him to take meat, as the text express it, whilst it was yet day; but David absolutely refused to touch a morsel; and confirmed the refusal by an oath, that he would taste nothing till the sun went down. He was resolved to clear his innocence by all the tests of real sorrow; and, to satisfy the people that this was a just occasion of grief, he put them in mind of his dignity to whom he paid it: 2 Samuel 3:38.

return to '