2 Samuel 18:20
The day the king's son died
- The gospel’s word בְּשֹׂרָה besorah · good news
- The gospel’s word בָּשַׂר basar · to bear tidings
Original
Translations
But Joab replied, “You are not the man to take good news today. You may do it another day, but you must not do so today, because the king’s son is dead.”
And Joab said unto him, Thou shalt not bear tidings this day, but thou shalt bear tidings another day: but this day thou shalt bear no tidings, because the king’s son is dead.
and Joab says to him, “You are not a man of tidings this day, but you have borne tidings on another day, and this day you do not bear tidings, because the king’s son [is] dead.”
요압이 저에게 이르되 너는 오늘 소식을 전하는 자가 되지 말고 다른 날에 전할 것이니라 왕의 아들이 죽었나니 네가 오늘날 소식을 전하지 못하리라 하고
요압이 그에게 이르되, 너는 이 날에 소식을 전하지 말고 다른 날에 전할지니라. 왕의 아들이 죽었으므로 이 날에는 네가 소식을 전하지 말지니라, 하고
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on 2Sam 18:19-33 as a whole
By directing David to give God thanks for his victory, Ahimaaz prepared him for the news of his son's death. The more our hearts are fixed and enlarged, in thanksgiving to God for our mercies, the better disposed we shall be to bear with patience the afflictions mixed with them. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley
Nothing on this verse itself.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
Joab stops Ahimaaz: today is not his day to carry news. In one verse the noun appears once and the verb twice, and the reason for the refusal comes in the last words: the king's son is dead.
David's men had won. But Joab knew what the king had ordered about Absalom; one soldier had refused to touch the young man for that very reason, saying, "we heard the king command you and Abishai and Ittai" (2 Samuel 18:12), and Joab had then driven the spears in himself. He knew better than anyone that the army's day of victory would be David's day of bereavement. The book has also shown, twice already, what became of men who brought David news of a death as if it were welcome (2 Samuel 1:15; 2 Samuel 4:12). So Joab sends a Cushite instead (2 Samuel 18:21).
Joab's first words, taken word for word, are "You are not a man of news today." A man of news, ish besorah, is a messenger, a runner whose job is to carry word. Then the verb comes twice. "You will bear news another day" is the piel perfect with the conjunction, pointing to the future; "today you shall not bear news" is the piel imperfect with the negative. Joab divides the days. The same victory, on another day, would have been glad news. The verse shows that whether news is good depends not only on what happened but on the one who must hear it.
The translations handle the noun phrase differently. The KJV turns it into a verb, "Thou shalt not bear tidings this day," and the 흠정역 follows it. The LSV keeps the Hebrew shape: "You are not a man of tidings this day." The BSB writes "You are not the man to take good news today" (2 Samuel 18:20), adding the word good, and the addition catches Joab's point: whatever the facts, this report will not be heard as good news today. The 개역한글, like the LSV, keeps the man: do not be the one who brings the news today.
Matthew Henry, who blames David for his fondness toward a rebellious son, puts his finger on the human heart in the scene: "we are apt to over-grieve for what we over-loved" Matthew Henry. That grief was what Joab foresaw. When it came, David wept so bitterly that his victorious army slipped back into the city like troops ashamed after a defeat (2 Samuel 19:1–6).
For Joab, the death of the king's son was the reason good news had to wait. In the gospel, the death of the King's Son stands at the very centre of the good news. Paul writes that "when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son" (Romans 5:10). A day that looks like nothing but a day of mourning becomes the day of good news. That is what the gospel adds to this old word.