What is the context?
Word of David’s mourning reaches the returning army. Instead of entering the city as victors, the soldiers come quietly and ashamed, while David continues crying for Absalom.
Joab confronts him, saying he has disgraced the people who saved him and his household. He accuses David of caring more for Absalom than for all his loyal servants and warns that they will abandon him if he does not speak to them.
David rises and sits in the gate, where the people come before him. He resumes his public responsibility without the account saying that his private grief has simply vanished.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry thinks David needed to respond to the people, but also criticizes the disrespect in Joab’s rebuke. A necessary point can be made in a way that deserves criticism itself.
Wesley explicitly treats Joab’s claim that David would prefer all his servants dead as an overstatement rather than an exact description of David’s wishes. The sharp language aims to awaken the king to how his behavior is affecting those who served him.
The scene presents a leader’s responsibilities during personal loss. It does not establish that grieving for a wayward child is itself wrong or that every bereaved person should respond on the same schedule.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.