Before the king. — Comp. the same phrase in 2 Samuel 20:8. In both cases “before” is, literally, before the face of, and is equivalent to saying “they went over Jordan to meet the king.” In their eagerness to prove their very doubtful allegiance, they dashed through the waters of the ford, and met the king on the eastern side of the Jordan.
Related Commentaries of 2 Samuel 19:17
2 Samuel 19:17
17 And there were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went over Jordan before the king.