2 Samuel 14:7 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

That we may kill him; according to the law, Numbers 35:19 Deuteronomy 19:12. We will destroy the heir also; so they plainly discover that their prosecution of him was not so much from love of justice, as from a covetous desire to deprive him of the inheritance, and to transfer it to themselves; which self-interest might justly render their testimony suspected. Or perhaps these words are not spoken as the expresswords of the prosecutors, (who can hardly be thought so directly to express a sinister design,) but as the woman's inference or comment upon what they were doing, (for this would be indeed the result of it, though they did not say so in express words,) thereby to represent her case as the more deserving pity. My coal which is left; the poor remainder of my light and comfort, by whom alone my hopes may be revived and repaired. To my husband; she names him rather than herself, because children bear the names of their fathers, not of their mothers.

2 Samuel 14:7

7 And, behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder uponb the earth.