After this, Absalom prepared a chariot and horses for himself, and fifty men to run before him.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 1. Before him. Romulus instituted the 300 guards, whom he called Celeres, for the like purpose. Calmet.—Absalom’s ambition could not wait patiently for the death of his father, who was not yet sixty years old, and had been first anointed forty years before, verse 7. He looked upon himself as the heir apparent, Amnon being now slain, and Cheliab (or Daniel) either dead, as it is thought, or unfit for government, while Solomon was only eight years old. Salien.—The quality of his mother, and his own personal qualifications, made him despise his brethren, and he began to assume the equipage of a king. Calmet.—David considered this as only the effect of juvenile vanity, and he had not a mind to irritate him, without the utmost necessity. Salien.—Hebrew “Absalom prepared for himself a chariot, (Prot. chariots) and horses,” and so forth Bible.—It is not certain whether he had any other horsemen but those who mounted the chariots. Horses were then very scarce in Israel. Calmet.—Adonias afterwards imitated his brother’s ambition, during his father’s life; (3 Kennicott. 1:5) so that evil was continually raised up against David, out of his own house. Calmet. 12:11.