The enemies of my Lord the king be as that young man is A decent way this of informing him that Absalom was dead. And the king was much moved So that we do not find he made any inquiry concerning the manner of his death, or any of the particulars of the victory. And went up to the chamber over the gate That he might, in private, give vent to his distress; yet he could not refrain from tears and lamentations, even till he got thither; but was heard crying out as he went, O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! Words most passionate, and dictated by his excessive love to Absalom, and grief for his death; which made him vent himself in expressions which were very inconsiderate, especially in wishing he had died for him. “The king's command to spare Absalom,” says Delaney, “was an extraordinary instance of mercy, equalled only in Him who, dying, prayed for his murderers; yet it is to be accounted for from his fatherly fondness, and the benignity of his nature. But there is something astonishing in this excess of grief for such a reprobate; and I confess it is to me utterly unaccountable from any other principle than the sad and shocking reflection of his having died with all his sins upon his head, and gone down quick to perdition.” Certainly a deep sense of Absalom's eternal state, as dying in his sins, together with the consideration, that David himself by his sins had been the occasion of his death, might be the principal cause of the excessive sorrow which he felt, and thus expressed.
Related Commentaries of 2 Samuel 18:32
2 Samuel 18:32-33
32 And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is.
33 And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!