Matthew Henry on 2 Samuel 13:21-29
What Solomon says of the beginning of strife is as true of the beginning of all sin, it is as the letting forth of water; when once the flood-gates are plucked up, an inundation follows; one mischief begets another, and it is hard to say what shall be in the end thereof.
I. We are here told how David resented the tidings of Amnon's sin: He was very wroth, Sa2 13:21. So he had reason to be, that his own son should do such a wicked thing and draw him to be accessory to it. It would be a reproach to him for not giving him a better education; it would be a blot upon his family, the ruin of his daughter, a bad example to his kingdom, and a wrong to his son's soul. But was it enough for him to be…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Samuel 13:29
every man gat him up upon his mule--This had become the favorite equipage of the great. King David himself had a state mule (Kg1 1:33). The Syrian mules are, in activity, strength, and capabilities, still far superior to ours.
Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 13:26
Let my brother Amnon go - He urged this with the more plausibility, because Amnon was the first-born, and presumptive heir to the kingdom; and he had disguised his resentment so well before, that he was not suspected.
John Gill on 2 Samuel 13:29
And the servants of Absalom did unto Amnon as Absalom had commanded,.... They smote him, and killed him, when he gave the word:
then all the king's sons arose; from the feast, imagining they were all designed to be slain:
and every man gat him up upon his mule, and fled; creatures much used in Judea instead of horses, which, though they might not be bred, might be used (o).
(o) Vid. Misn. Celaim, c. 8. sect. 1.
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Samuel 13:29-30
The servants did as he commanded, whereupon the other king's sons all fled upon their mules. - Sa2 13:30. But whilst they were on the road, the report of what Absalom had done reached the ears of the king, and, as generally happens in such cases, with very great exaggeration: "Absalom hath slain all the king's sons, and there is not one of them left."
