Bible Strands
2 Samuel 15:3
Absalom would say, “Look, your claims are good and right, but the king has no deputy to hear you.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Absalom addresses petitioners at the city gate who have come to King David with legal grievances. He speaks to them while they wait for royal judgment, positioning himself as an alternative authority figure.
The words — The Hebrew terms טוֹבִים (tovim, "good") and נְכֹחִים (nechochim, "right") describe the petitioners' claims as valid and just. Absalom uses these words to validate their grievances while contrasting them with the absent royal deputy.
The thread — The theme of honoring parental authority and the severe consequences of cursing it appears in Exodus 20:12 and 21:17, while Numbers 16:3 records a similar challenge to established leadership. Absalom’s critique of David’s governance mirrors the structural disputes over delegated authority in those texts.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of how political manipulation exploits legitimate grievances to undermine established authority. It requires the reader to observe how Absalom uses validation of others' rights to position himself as a necessary replacement for the king.
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 said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right; but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee.
Cross-references
- Exodus 20:12 Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
- Exodus 21:17 Anyone who curses his father or mother must surely be put to death.
- Numbers 16:3 They came together against Moses and Aaron and told them, “You have taken too much upon yourselves! For everyone in the entire congregation is holy, and the LORD is in their midst. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”
- Numbers 16:13 Is it not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? Must you also appoint yourself as ruler over us?
- 2 Samuel 8:15 Thus David reigned over all Israel and administered justice and righteousness for all his people:
- Psalms 12:2 They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
- Proverbs 12:2 The good man obtains favor from the LORD, but the LORD condemns a man who devises evil.
- Proverbs 30:11 There is a generation of those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers.
- Proverbs 30:17 As for the eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother, may the ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures devour it.
- Ezekiel 22:7 Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.