Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 15:20
Whereas thou camest [but] yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren: mercy and truth [be] with thee.
20. I go whither I may ] Not knowing where he might find a home, as in the old days of his flight from Saul. Cp. 1Sa 23:13.
take back thy brethren: mercy and truth be with thee ] The Hebrew as it stands must be rendered: take back thy brethren with thee in mercy and truth: but the true text is probably preserved by the Sept. and Vulg. Take back thy brethren with thee: and the Lord shew thee [or, shall shew thee ] mercy and truth: to which some texts of the Vulg. add: because thou hast shewn kindness and faithfulness. Cp. ch. 2Sa 2:5-6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou camest but yesterday – Meaning, Thou art not a native Israelite, but only a sojourner for a few years, it is not reason therefore that thou shouldst share my calamities. Return to thy place, thy adopted home Jerusalem, and to the king, Absalom 2Sa 15:34-35.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. Mercy and truth be with thee.] May God ever show thee mercy, as thou showest it to me, and his truth ever preserve thee from error and delusion!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou camest but yesterday; by which it may be gathered that these were not the Israelitish soldiers which went with David to Gath, and came up with him from thence to Hebron, which was above thirty years before this time, but some proselytes which came from thence more lately. For though this word
yesterday be sometimes used of a time long before past, as 2Ki 9:26; Job 8:9; Isa 30:33; yet it seems to be here restrained to a shorter compass by the following words, and by the argument here used.
Go whither I may; I know not whither; having now no certain dwelling-place.
Thy brethren; thy countrymen and soldiers the Gittites, 2Sa 15:18.
Mercy and truth be with thee; since I am now unable to recompense thy kindness and fidelity to me, my hearty prayer to God is, that he would show to thee his mercy, in blessing thee with all sorts of blessings, and his faithfulness, in making good all those promises which he hath made, not to Israelites only, but in and with them to all true-hearted proselytes, such as thou art.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Whereas thou camest [but] yesterday,…. From Gath, or from an expedition he and his men had been on:
should I this day make thee, go up and down with us? wander up and down from place to place with David, when he was but just come off a journey, weary and fatigued:
seeing I go whither I may; where it will be most safe for me, I know not where; may be obliged to flee here and there, which would be very inconvenient to Ittai in his circumstances:
return thou, and take back thy brethren; the six hundred men under him, and whom David could ill spare at this time, and yet, consulting their ease, advises to return to Jerusalem with them:
mercy and truth [be] with thee; the Lord show mercy and kindness to thee, in that thou hast shown favour and respect to me, and make good all his promises to thee, who hast been true and faithful to me.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“Thy coming is yesterday (from yesterday), and should I disturb thee to-day to go with us, when I am going just where I go?” i.e., wherever my way may lie (I go I know not whither; Chald.: cf. 1Sa 23:13). The Chethib is a copyist’s error. The thought requires the Hiphil ( Keri), as in the Kal has the intransitive meaning, to totter, sway about, or move hither and thither. “Return and take thy brethren back; grace and truth be with thee.” It is evidently more in accordance with the train of thought to separate from the previous clause and connect it with , though this is opposed to the accents, than to adopt the adverbial interpretation, “take back thy brethren with thee in grace and truth,” as Maurer proposes. (For the thought itself, see Pro 3:3). The reference is to the grace and truth (faithfulness) of God, which David desired that Ittai should receive upon his way. In the Septuagint and Vulgate the passage is paraphrased thus: “Jehovah show thee grace and truth,” after 2Sa 2:6; but it by no means follows from this that has fallen out of the Hebrew text.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
20. Take back thy brethren These brethren are not to be regarded as identical with the six hundred Gittites mentioned above, but as a number of Ittai’s fellow-exiles, and perhaps blood relatives, who had been forced to leave their country for some cause now unknown.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Sa 15:20 Whereas thou camest [but] yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren: mercy and truth [be] with thee.
Ver. 20. Should I this day make thee go up and down with us? ] David had need enough of him; but yet would not do anything that had but a show of unwarrantableness in it.
Mercy and truth be with thee.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
mercy = lovingkindness, or grace.
truth = faithfulness. Septuagint and Syriac read “Jehovah will deal with thee in lovingkindness and faithfulness”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
go up and down: Heb. wander in going, Psa 56:8, Psa 59:15, Amo 8:12, Heb 11:37, Heb 11:38
seeing: 1Sa 23:13
mercy: 2Sa 2:6, Psa 25:10, Psa 57:3, Psa 61:7, Psa 85:10, Psa 89:14, Pro 14:22, Joh 1:17, 2Ti 1:16-18
Reciprocal: Rth 1:15 – return 2Sa 15:34 – return 2Ki 2:2 – Tarry here Psa 43:3 – send Pro 3:3 – mercy Joh 6:67 – Will 2Co 1:2 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
15:20 Whereas thou camest [but] yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy {m} brethren: mercy and {n} truth [be] with thee.
(m) Meaning, those of his family.
(n) God require of you your friendship and fidelity.