14:28 Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years without seeing the king’s face. 14:29 Then Absalom sent a message to Joab asking him to send him to the king, but Joab was not willing to come to him. So he sent a second message to him, but he still was not willing to come. 14:30 So he said to his servants, “Look, Joab has a portion of field adjacent to mine and he has some barley there. Go and set it on fire.” 3 So Absalom’s servants set Joab’s 4 portion of the field on fire.
14:31 Then Joab got up and came to Absalom’s house. He said to him, “Why did your servants set my portion of field on fire?” 14:32 Absalom said to Joab, “Look, I sent a message to you saying, ‘Come here so that I can send you to the king with this message: 5 “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there.”’ Let me now see the face of the king. If I am at fault, let him put me to death!”
14:33 So Joab went to the king and informed him. The king 6 summoned Absalom, and he came to the king. Absalom 7 bowed down before the king with his face toward the ground and the king kissed him. 8
15:1 Some time later Absalom managed to acquire 9 a chariot and horses, as well as fifty men to serve as his royal guard. 10 15:2 Now Absalom used to get up early and stand beside the road that led to the city gate. Whenever anyone came by who had a complaint to bring to the king for arbitration, Absalom would call out to him, “What city are you from?” The person would answer, “I, your servant, 11 am from one of the tribes of Israel.” 15:3 Absalom would then say to him, “Look, your claims are legitimate and appropriate. 12 But there is no representative of the king who will listen to you.” 15:4 Absalom would then say, “If only they would make me 13 a judge in the land! Then everyone who had a judicial complaint 14 could come to me and I would make sure he receives a just settlement.”
1 tn Heb “and there were born.”
2 tc The LXX adds here the following words: “And she became a wife to Rehoboam the son of Solomon and bore to him Abia.”
3 tc The LXX adds here the following words: “And the servants of Absalom burned them up. And the servants of Joab came to him, rending their garments. They said….”
4 tn The word “Joab’s” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
5 tn Heb “saying.”
6 tn Heb “he.” Joab, acting on behalf of the king, may be the implied subject.
7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Absalom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Heb “Absalom.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.
9 tn Heb “acquired for himself.”
10 tn Heb “to run ahead of him.”
11 tn Heb “your servant.” So also in vv. 8, 15, 21.
12 tn Heb “good and straight.”
13 tn Heb “Who will make me?”
14 tn Heb “a complaint and a judgment.” The expression is a hendiadys.