2 Samuel 14:8 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Then the king said to the woman, "Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you."

NIV: The king said to the woman, "Go home, and I will issue an order in your behalf."

NASB: Then the king said to the woman, 'Go to your home, and I will issue orders concerning you.'

CSB: The king told the woman, "Go home. I will issue a command on your behalf."

NLT: Leave it to me,' the king told her. 'Go home, and I’ll see to it that no one touches him.'

KJV: And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee.

NKJV: Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.”

A widowed woman in a difficult situation has made her case before the king. She asked David to override cultural standards as well as the letter of the law: to declare that her clan may not execute her lone surviving son despite his murder of his brother. She's asking for a pardon for her son so that he may take care of her and carry on her husband's family line (2 Samuel 14:7).

David's first response is non-committal. He tells her to go home and wait. He will give orders about her situation, but he will not give them immediately.

Because the murder wasn't witnessed (2 Samuel 14:6), the city elders must have declared the man guilty. The clan has the responsibility to avenge a murder. However, the clan may also have something to gain: if the woman's last son dies, a kinsman will take her husband's land. And the Mosaic law is clear that murderers deserve death (Numbers 35:30–31). The woman is appealing to the highest earthly judge by petitioning the king.

It's possible David wants to find out more about her situation before he takes responsibility for such a breach of protocol. She says she can't wait that long, but the story is fake. Joab sent her with this fabricated account to convince David it would be good for everyone if he returned his own son, Absalom, from exile. The woman knows Joab wants an answer now, so she offers to take the blame if that's what it takes (2 Samuel 14:9).

But it's also possible that David's sin against Uriah and Bathsheba and God's pronouncement of judgment has shaken his confidence (2 Samuel 11:2–5, 14–17; 12:7–14).

Second Samuel 14:1–11 describes Joab's effort to convinces David to bring Absalom home. David is distracted by thoughts of Absalom, his son, currently in exile for killing his own brother. Joab believes this continued absence is bad for Israel. He arranges for a woman to tell David a story of family violence and murder. This ends with a lesson about the goodness of forgiveness. David agrees to her premise, and she challenges him to apply it to his own situation (2 Samuel 14:12–17).

Second Samuel 14 sets the scene for Absalom's rebellion against David. Joab wants David to forgive Absalom for murdering his brother and end his exile. Joab has a woman pretend to be a widow, who tells a story about a murderous son to convince David to pardon his own son. David brings Absalom home to Jerusalem, but not to the court or family. Joab eventually convinces David to see Absalom and the two are officially reconciled. With freedom, status, and ambition, Absalom starts a campaign to draw the people's hearts away from David and toward himself (2 Samuel 15:1–6).

Second Samuel 14 continues God's promise that tragedy will plague David's family. This is a curse for David's sin against Uriah and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:9–11). David's son Amnon raped his own half-sister Tamar. Tamar's full brother Absalom avenged her by killing Amnon, then fled to his maternal grandfather (2 Samuel 13). David thinks about Absalom, and Joab convinces David to bring him home and reconcile with him. Absalom wins the hearts of the people and takes the throne while David flees. Eventually, Absalom will be dead, and David will be a chastened man and wiser king. (2 Samuel 15–20).

Second Samuel continues the story of David, who will become king over Judah. The other tribes of Israel are resistant, eventually sparking a civil war. David wins and makes Jerusalem his capital. Early success is followed by moral failure and controversy in David's house. The book of 1 Kings will begin by detailing David's decline and death.