If thou be kind to this people. — A free paraphrase of, “If to-day thou become a servant to this people and serve them” (Kings) — words which may have seemed inappropriate to the redactor, in connection with the king, but which form a pointed antithesis to the last clause of the verse, “they will be thy servants for ever.”
And please them. — Be propitious to them, receive them graciously (raçah). (Genesis 33:10.) Kings, “answer them.”