Ver. 1. And it came to pass after this.] Two years after, saith Josephus: all which while, Absalom had been hammering and hatching this following insurrection; God raising up evil against David out of his own house, as he had threatened, 2 Samuel 12:11. That Absalom prepared him chariots and horses.] Pride buddeth, (Ezekiel 7:10) and ambition rideth without reins. Absalom will needs have a train and port like a prince and successor to the kingdom, so to dazzel the eyes of the common people, who are apt to judge of inward worth by outward gaiety, and to dote upon glittering shows, as they did upon Herod in his cloth of silver, (Acts 12:21,22) and upon Agrippa with his Bernice, when they came to the tribunal with a great deal of pomp. (Acts 25:23)
Ver. 2. And Absalom rose up early.] As ambition is restless, and like the crocodile, groweth as long as it liveth. Hereby, also, he would make the people believe that he was very solicitous of their good, since up so early for the purpose. That when any man that had a controversy.] So he showeth himself, as Jerome calleth Crates, Gloriae animal, popularis aurae vile mancipium, basely popular. Epist. ad Julian. Consolator.
Ver. 3. See, thy matters are good and right.] Right or wrong, he, to steal away their hearts, smoothed them up with fair words, which are light cheap: telling them that their cause was very good, and condemning the judges as corrupt, saith Josephus, who had given sentence against them. This was very taking with the rude multitude. But there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee.] This was a base slander, as appeareth from 2 Samuel 8:15. But that is a small matter with graceless ambitionists.
Ver. 4. Oh that I were made judge in the land.] It were pity else, you are so worthy a wight; let Pellican say for you. Absalom was an absolute villain, saith he, ungrateful, ambitious, arrogant, a hypocrite, a liar, a persecutor of his father, a subverter of the people, an example and monument of rebellious sons, and of all that persecute God’s servants. And was not this a fit man to make a supreme judge! Surely, such while they seek the greatest dignities, find the greatest shame; and like apes, when they be climbing, they do the more show their deformities.
Ver. 5. To do him obeisance.] But should men bow to a molten calf, because made of golden earrings? And took him, and kissed him.] By a counterfeit courtesy, which, in high degree, easily ailureth men’s minds, as do fair flowers, in the spring, the passengers’ eyes.
Ver. 6. And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel.] Courting them, and colloguing with them all alike, of what degree soever; so basely could this proud wretch stoop, that he might get into the throne. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel,] sc., From David the right owner; and this he did slyly and secretly, so as neither the people nor David himself did discover it. So Salvius Otho, of whom Tacitus saith, Adorare vulgus iacere oscula, et omnia serviliter pro imperio. -Hist. lib. i. One calleth him the Roman Absalom.
Ver. 7. And it came to pass after forty years.] Not after four years, as Josephus hath it, but after forty years, via, after David’s first anointing by Samuel, say some, (1 Samuel 16:13) seven or eight years before he began his reign in Hebron, and ending about seven years before his death. Others of good note begin the computation of these forty years at the time that Israel asked a king, as if it intimated thus much, -They would needs have a king. They shall now have so many kings that they know not well which to follow; and many of them shall perish in following the usurper. Samuel had foretold the people then—but they regarded not his words—that a king would “take their sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and some to run before his chariots.” (1 Samuel 8:11) Now they see it fulfilled in Absalom, who affected the kingdom; and by this passage, after forty years, are reminded of their sin, and what a heavy burden they had brought upon themselves. Codomannus gathereth, that for the time of the year, it was between the feasts of the passover and Pentecost; because Barzillai the Gileadite brought to David for a present “parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse.” (2 Samuel 17:28) Let me go and pay my vow.] Here religion is made a cloak to rebellion, as in the Papacy is ordinary. He knew well that his pious father would be full glad to hear that he was a votary, and would further him all that might be.
Ver. 8. Then I will serve the Lord,] viz., With gratulatory oblations and peace offerings; when in truth his design was, not to serve the Lord, but to serve himself upon the Lord, by pretending his worship to his own wicked practices, and by drawing together as guests at that feast of his—usual at such sacrifices—as many as he thought meet to join with him in his intended conspiracy.