Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 15:22
And David said to Ittai, Go and pass over. And Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that [were] with him.
For being so deeply engaged for David, he durst not leave his little ones to Absaloms mercy.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And David said unto Ittai, go, and pass over,…. It being his resolution to abide with him, he urged him no more to depart, but bid him pass over the brook Kidron before him:
and Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men; the six hundred Gittites that were under his command:
and all the little ones that [were] with him; that belonged to him and his men, and no doubt their wives also.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
After this assurance of his devotedness, David let Ittai do as he pleased. , “go and pass on.” does not mean to pass by, but to go forward. Thus Ittai and his men and all his family that was with him went forward with the king. By “the little ones” ( taph ) we are to understand a man’s whole family, as in many other instances (see at Exo 12:37).
2Sa 15:22-23 The king crosses the Kidron, and sends the priests back with the ark to Jerusalem. – 2Sa 15:23. All the land (as in 1Sa 14:25) wept aloud when all the people went forward; and the king went over the brook Kidron, and all the people went over in the direction of ( lit. in the face of) the way to the desert. The brook Kidron is a winter torrent, i.e., a mountain torrent which only flows during the heavy rains of winter ( , Joh 18:1). It is on the eastern side of Jerusalem, between the city and the Mount of Olives, and derives its name from the appearance of the water when rendered muddy through the melting of the snow (cf. Job 6:16). In summer it is nothing more than a dry channel in the valley of Jehoshaphat (see Robinson, Pal. i. 396, and v. Raumer, Pal. p. 309, note 81). “The wilderness” ( midbar ) is the northern part of the desert of Judah, through which the road to Jericho and the Jordan lay.
2Sa 15:24 Zadok the priest and all the Levites (who were in Jerusalem) left the city with the fugitive king, bearing the ark of the covenant: “And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar came up, till all the people had come completely over from the city.” , , ascendit (lxx, Vulg .), may probably be accounted for from the fact that Abiathar did not come to join the fugitives till the procession halted at the Mount of Olives; so that , like , merely refers to his actually going up, and affirms that Abiathar joined them until all the people from the city had arrived. The rendering proposed by Michaelis and Bttcher (“he offered sacrifices”) is precluded by the fact that never means to sacrifice when written without , or unless the context points distinctly to sacrifices, as in 2Sa 24:22; 1Sa 2:28. The ark of the covenant was put down, because those who went out with the king made a halt, to give the people who were still coming time to join the procession.
2Sa 15:25-26 Then the king said to Zadok, “Take back the ark of God into the city! If I find favour in the eyes of Jehovah, He will bring me back and let me see Him (i.e., himself: the reference is to God) and His dwelling (i.e., the ark of the covenant as the throne of the divine glory in the tent that had been set up for it). But if He thus say, I have not delight in thee; behold, here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good to Him.” Thus David put his fate in believing confidence into the hand of the Lord, because he felt that it was the Lord who was chastising him for his sons through this rebellion.
2Sa 15:27-28 He also said still further to Zadok, “Thou seer! return into the city in peace.” , with interrog., does not yield any appropriate sense, as cannot stand for here, simply because it does not relate to a thing which the person addressed could not deny. Consequently the word must be pointed thus, (with the article), and rendered as a vocative, as it has been by Jerome and Luther. , seer, is equivalent to prophet. He applies this epithet to Zadok, as the high priest who received divine revelations by means of the Urim. The meaning is, Thou Zadok art equal to a prophet; therefore thy proper place is in Jerusalem (O. v. Gerlach). Zadok was to stand as it were upon the watch there with Abiathar, and the sons of both to observe the events that occurred, and send him word through their sons into the plain of the Jordan. “Behold, I will tarry by the ferries of the desert, till a word comes from you to show me,” sc., what has taken place, or how the things shape themselves in Jerusalem. Instead of , the earlier translators as well as the Masoretes adopted the reading , “in the steppes of the desert.” The allusion in this case would be to the steppes of Jericho (2Ki 25:5). But Bttcher has very properly defended the Chethib on the strength of 2Sa 17:16, where the Keri has again, though is the true reading (cf. 2Sa 19:19). The “ferries of the desert” are the places where the Jordan could be crossed, the fords of the Jordan (Jos 2:7; Jdg 3:28).
2Sa 15:29 Zadok and Abiathar then returned to the city with the ark of God.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
22. All his men The brethren of 2Sa 15:20.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Sa 15:22 And David said to Ittai, Go and pass over. And Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that [were] with him.
Ver. 22. Go and pass over. ] The river Kidron, 2Sa 15:23 since thou art resolved to live and die with me. This was some comfort to David, that strangers were thus stirred up to stick to him, when his own son lifted up his heel against him, and sought to get into the throne by making the dead carcass of his father a step to it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
and all the little: Sir John Chardin informs us,in a manuscript note on this place, that it is usual with the greatest part of the eastern people, especially the Arabs, to carry their whole family with them when they go to war. 2Sa 15:22
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Sa 15:22. Ittai the Gittite passed over The brook Kidron, as it follows in the next verse. And all the little ones that were with him This shows that his whole family were come to sojourn in Judea. And being so deeply engaged for David, he durst not leave his little ones to Absaloms mercy.