So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
Ver. 23. And brought Absalom to Jerusalem.] Where, though he escaped the lash of the law, yet not the furies of his own conscience - as little as did Cain after his fratricide, or Orestes and Nero after their matricide - unless he were master of his conscience, and had muzzled it. Joab, by his Tekoitess, had sought to salve the business - which Papinian, the great lawyer, would not be drawn to do for Caracalla (who had slain his brother Geta) though he died for it - and now he had brought him to Jerusalem, who will soon show himseff to be flagellum Reip, flabellum seditionis, a desperate incendiary, a very viper.