Bible Commentaries
2 Samuel 14

Verses 1-33

Chapter 14

So Joab realizing that David is proud and stubborn and really wants to see his son, but won't make the first move, got hold of a widow woman in Tekoah, and he said to her, Now you go and tell David this story. [Tell him that you had, tell him you had two sons, and they got in a fight, you're a widow, and your two sons got in a fight. And they were out in a field, and there was no one around to separate them, and one of your sons hit the other and killed him. Now the rest of the family is wanting to put your one son to death. But if he dies then you don't have anybody, there's no descendants, there's no one to carry on the family name, and it's just the end. And so tell them that they are not to take revenge against my one son.] So this woman came to David, and she told the story, My two boys they were out in the field fighting, and they were really going at it, no one to separate them, and the one killed the other, and now the avengers of blood are trying to kill the one son. But if he's gone I won't have anybody, I'll be left. [And so forth] And David said, Your son will be pardoned, he's forgiven. And so she said to him, Well why should it be to me, and not to my master's house ( 2 Samuel 14:1-9 )?

She brought the fact, the fact to David that much the same thing had happened, if he would forgive her son the avengers of blood because of the murder, then why wouldn't he forgive his own son, and bring him back. David realized he had been caught up in the same kind of a thing that Nathan caught him in, tell the story, and give a judgment. David's quite a guy; he sticks by his judgments.

So he said, one thing before you go, I want to ask you this, and I want you to tell me straight, is Joab behind this? And she said, O surely you have the knowledge of an angel no one can hide anything from you, yes Joab is behind it. And so Joab sent for Absalom to come back, but David refused to see him. He can go back to his house, but David still ( 2Sa 14:19-20 , 2 Samuel 14:23-24 ),

This pride thing and all, isn't it stupid this pride of ours? The thing we really want to do we won't do because we just, you know, we want to stop the fight, we don't want to go on. "But I'm not gonna say I'm sorry first! She's got to say it before I'm gonna say it!" I'm really miserable, and I really don't like this going on, and I really want it to be all over, but "I'm not gonna say it first, no way! She's got to come to me!" We do these stupid things, because of our stupid pride. We allow things to go on and simmer; we allow things to go on in turmoil just because of our own stupid pride!

So Absalom isn't the kind that you can just ignore, and he wanted Joab to come over, and to set up a meeting with his dad. But Joab wouldn't even come to see him. He sent several messages to Joab to come, and Joab refused to come. So he said to his servants, "Well, these barley fields are getting pretty dry, go over and set them on fire." So his servants set Joab's field on fire, and Joab came storming over, "What's the big idea your servants burning my field?"

He said, "Well I wanted to see you, I told you several times, you never would answer. So here you are."

And so he told Joab, I want you to make arrangements for me to see my father. And so Joab came, made the arrangements, and David saw Absalom ( 2 Samuel 14:32-33 ).

There was the forgiveness the weeping, the rekindling of love and so forth. Except that Absalom began at that point to conspire against his own father. "