Bible Strands
2 Samuel 14:32
“Look,” said Absalom, “I sent for you and said, ‘Come here. I want to send you to the king to ask: Why have I come back from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there.’ So now, let me see the king’s face, and if there is iniquity in me, let him kill me.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Absalom addresses Joab after ordering his field burned, demanding a private audience with King David to explain his return from Geshur and place himself under royal judgment.
The words — The Hebrew אֶל\־ ('el-) marks direction toward Joab, while לֵ/אמֹ֡ר (le./Mor) introduces the purpose clause that structures Absalom’s speech as a formal petition.
The thread — This conditional appeal to authority parallels the covenant loyalty plea in 1 Samuel 20:8, contrasts with the Exodus 14:12 refusal to submit to divine direction, and aligns with the Proverbs 28:13 principle of confession preceding mercy.
Why it lands — The text records Absalom’s offer to die if iniquity is found, requiring the reader to note the calculated submission without confirming its sincerity or outcome.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? it had been good for me to have been there still: now therefore let me see the king’s face; and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 20:8 Therefore show kindness to your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the LORD. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”
- Exodus 14:12 Did we not say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
- Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
- Genesis 3:12 And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
- Exodus 16:3 “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”
- Exodus 17:3 But the people thirsted for water there, and they grumbled against Moses: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt—to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
- 1 Samuel 15:13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said to him, “May the LORD bless you. I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.”
- Psalms 36:2 For his eyes are too full of conceit to detect or hate his own sin.
- Jeremiah 2:22 Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.
- Jeremiah 8:12 Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.