Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And Ittai answered the king, and said,.... With an oath, as follows:

as the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth; which he took to confirm what he after says, and to put an end to the debate between them:

surely, in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be; signifying that he would attend him wherever he went, hazard his life in his cause, and live and die with him.

Keil & Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

But Ittai replied with a solemn oath, “Assuredly at the place where my lord the king shall be (stay), whether for death or life, there will thy servant be.” אם כּי means “only,” as in Genesis 40:14, Job 42:8; here, in a declaration on oath, it is equivalent to assuredly (vid., Ewald, §356, b .). The Chethib is therefore correct, and the erasure of אם in the Keri is a bad emendation. The כּי in the apodosis is either an emphatic declaration, yea, or like ὅτι merely introduces a distinct assertion.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.

Will thy servant be — He is a friend indeed, who loves at all times, and will cleave to us in adversity. Thus should we cleave to the Son of David, that neither life, nor death may separate us from his love.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

2 Samuel 15:21 And Ittai answered the king, and said, [As] the LORD liveth, and [as] my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.

Ver. 21. Even there also will thy servant be.] Such fast and faithful friends are gone on pilgrimage; and their return is uncertain.

Sermon Bible Commentary

2 Samuel 15:21

Foremost among the little band who followed David from Jerusalem came six hundred men from Gath—Philistines from Goliath's city. These men, singularly enough, the king had chosen as his bodyguard; perhaps he was not altogether sure of the loyalty of his own subjects, and possibly felt safer with foreign mercenaries who could have no secret leanings to the deposed house of Saul. At all events, here they are, "faithful among the faithless," as foreign soldiers surrounding a king often are, notably the Swiss guard in the French Revolution. David's generous nature shrinks from dragging down Ittai with himself. Generosity breeds generosity, and the Philistine captain breaks out into a burst of passionate devotion, garnished, in soldier fashion, with an unnecessary oath or two, but ringing very sincere and meaning a great deal. As for him and his men, they have chosen their side.

I. Look at the picture of this Philistine captain, as teaching us what grand, passionate self-sacrifice may be evolved out of the roughest natures. Ringing in his words we hear three things which are the seed of all nobility and splendour in human character: (1) a passionate personal attachment, (2) love issuing in willing sacrifice that recks not for a moment of personal consequences, and (3) a supreme, restful delight in the presence of him whom the heart loves. This capacity, which lies dormant in all of us, will make a man blessed and dignified" as nothing else will. The joy of unselfish love is the purest joy that man can taste.

II. These possibilities of love and sacrifice point plainly to God in Christ as their true object. We are made with hearts that need to rest upon an absolute love, with understandings that need to grasp a pure, a perfect, and a personal truth.

III. Observe the terrible misdirection of these capacities in the sin and the misery of the world. There is nothing more tragic than the misdirection of man's capacity for love and sacrifice. We must lay ourselves on Christ's altar, and that altar will sanctify both the giver and the gift

A. Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, p. 145.

References: 2 Samuel 15:21.—J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iii., p. 420; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1512. 2 Samuel 15:23.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 152. 2 Samuel 15:30.—J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 463. 2 Samuel 16:10.—Expositor, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 244. 2 Samuel 16:12.—Parker, vol. vii., p. 239. 2 Samuel 16:13.—Ibid., p. 240. 2 Samuel 16:15.—W. M. Taylor, David King of Israel, p. 238. 2 Samuel 16:16.—R. Lee, Penny Pulpit, No. 491.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

21.Ittai answered — This answer, so solemn and so full of loyalty to David, won for him such a place in the king’s heart that he subsequently advanced him to the command of a third part of his army, and made him a peer of Joab and Abishai. See 2 Samuel 18:2.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

2 Samuel 15:21. Ittai answered, Surely in what place, &c. — Admirable and noble fidelity this in a stranger, when a son was a rebel against the father! He is a friend indeed, who loves at all times, and will cleave to us in adversity. Thus should we cleave to the Son of David, so that neither life nor death may separate us from him. Reader, is this the resolution of thy heart? Dost thou belong to Christ, and is it thy disposition never to leave him?

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

As the Lord

1 Samuel 20:3; 25:26; 2 Kings 2:2,4,6; 4:30

surely

Ruth 1:16,17; Proverbs 17:17; 18:24; Matthew 8:19,20; John 6:66-69; Acts 11:23; Acts 21:13; 2 Corinthians 7:3