2 Samuel 19:3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The people gat them by stealth into the city Not openly and triumphantly, as conquerors use to do; but secretly, as if they thought themselves a kind of criminals, who had contravened the king's command, and were, on that score, in disgrace with him, and, therefore, were afraid and ashamed lest he should see them and look upon them with an evil eye, as persons that had had a hand in killing his beloved son. As people steal away when they flee in battle As if they had lost the day and not been victorious.