2 Samuel 18:5-15
gently <0328> [Deal gently.]
army <05971> [all the people.]
forest ... Ephraim <0669 03293> [wood of Ephraim.]
The wood of Ephraim was evidently beyond Jordan, and apparently not far from Mahanaim; and it is supposed to be the place where the Ephraimites were slain by Jephthah.
army <05971> [the people.]
great <01419> [a great.]
20,000 <0505 06242> [twenty thousand men.]
[in the wood.]
That is, probably, many more were slain in pursuit through the wood than in the battle, by falling into swamps, pits, etc., and being entangled and cut down by David's men. Such is the relation of Josephus; but the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic state, that they were devoured by wild beasts in the wood.
consumed more ...... devoured <0398 07235> [devoured more. Heb. multiplied to devour.]
head <07218> [his head.]
Riding furiously under the thick boughs of a great oak, which hung low and had never been cropped, either the twisted branches, or some low forked bough of the tree, caught him by the neck, or, as some think, by the loops into which his long hair had been pinned, which had been so much his pride, and was now justly made a halter for him. He may have hung so low from the bough, in consequence of the length of his hair, that he could not use his hands to help himself, or so entangled that his hands were bound, so that the more he struggled the more he was embarrassed. This set him up as a fair mark to the servants of David; and although David would have spared his rebellious son, if his orders had been executed, yet he could not turn the sword of Divine justice, in executing the just, righteous sentence of death on this traitorous son.
suspended <05414> [taken up.]
receiving <08254> [receive, etc. Heb. weigh upon mine hand. in our hearing.]
Protect <08104> [Beware, etc. Heb. Beware, whosoever ye be, of the, etc.]
acted <06213> [wrought.]
nothing <01697> [for there is no.]
<06440> [with thee. Heb. before thee. thrust them.]
oak tree <0424> [midst. Heb. heart.]
