2nd Samuel Chapter 14 verse 1 Holy Bible
Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom.
read chapter 14 in ASV
Now it was clear to Joab, the son of Zeruiah, that the king's heart was turning to Absalom.
read chapter 14 in BBE
And Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom.
read chapter 14 in DARBY
Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom.
read chapter 14 in KJV
Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was towards Absalom.
read chapter 14 in WBT
Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom.
read chapter 14 in WEB
And Joab son of Zeruial knoweth that the heart of the king `is' on Absalom,
read chapter 14 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 1. - The king's heart was toward Absalom. Again there is a diversity of view as to the right rendering. The preposition does not usually mean "toward," but "against," and is so rendered in ver. 13. The whole phrase occurs again only in Daniel 11:28, and certainly there implies enmity. The whole attitude of David towards Absalom is one of persistent hostility, and, even when Joab had obtained his recall, for two full years he would not admit him into his presence. What has led most commentators to force the meaning here and in 2 Samuel 13:39 is the passionate burst of grief when news was brought of Absalom's death following upon the anxious orders given to the generals to be careful of the young man's life. But David was a man of very warm affections, and while this would make him feel intense sorrow for the death of a son by his brother's hand, and stern indignation towards the murderer, there would still lie deep in the father's heart true love towards his sinning child, and Absalom's fall was sad enough to cause a strong revulsion of feeling. David's grief would be not merely for the death of his son, but that he should have died so miserably, and in an attempt so shameful. Was not, too, the natural grief of a father made the more deep by the feeling that this was the third stage of the penalty denounced on his own sin, and that the son's death was the result of the father's crime?
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersXIV.(1) Was toward Absalom.--This, like the last verse of the previous chapter, may be understood in either of two opposite senses: either David's heart yearned for Absalom (as the Authorised Version, Vulg., LXX., Syr.), or it was hostile to him. The Hebrew preposition is used in both senses, though more frequently in the latter, and unquestionably expresses hostility in the only other place (Daniel 11:28) in which this form of the phrase occurs. The verse would then be translated, "And Joab the son of Zeruiah knew that the king's heart was against Absalom." Hence his stratagem to obtain his recall, which would otherwise have been quite unnecessary.
