SEV Biblia, Chapter 12:23
Mas ahora que ya es muerto, ¿para qué tengo de ayunar? ¿Podré yo hacerle volver? Yo voy a él, mas él no volverá a mí.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 2 Samuel 12:23
Verse 23. I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.] It is not clear whether David by this expressed his faith in the immortality of the soul; going to him may only mean, I also shall die, and be gathered to my fathers, as he is. But whether David expressed this or not, we know that the thing is true; and it is one of the most solid grounds of consolation to surviving friends that they shall by and by be joined to them in a state of conscious existence. This doctrine has a very powerful tendency to alleviate the miseries of human life and reconcile us to the death of most beloved friends. And were we to admit the contrary, grief, in many cases, would wear out its subject before it wore out itself. Even the heathens derived consolation from the reflection that they should meet their friends in a state of conscious existence. And a saying in Cicero Deuteronomy Senectute, which he puts in the mouth of Cato of Utica, has been often quoted, and is universally admired:- O praelarum diem, cum ad illud divinum animorum concilium coetumque proficiscar, cumque ex hac turba et colluvione discedam! Proficiscar enim non ad eos solum viros de quibus ante dixi; sed etiam ad Catonem meum quo nemo vir melior natus est, nemo pietate praestantior: cujus a me corpus crematum est; quod contra decuit ab illo meum. Animus vero non me deserens, sed respectans, in ea profecto loca discessit, quo mihi ipsi cernebat esse veniendum: quem ego meum catum fortiter ferre visus sum: non quod aequo animo ferrem: sed me ipse consolabar, existimans, non longinquum inter nos digressum et discessum fore. CATO MAJOR, Deuteronomy Senectute, in fin. "O happy day, (says he,) when I shall quit this impure and corrupt multitude, and join myself to that divine company and council of souls who have quitted the earth before me! There I shall find, not only those illustrious personages to whom I have spoken, but also my Cato, who I can say was one of the best men ever born, and whom none ever excelled in virtue and piety. I have placed his body on that funeral pyre whereon he ought to have laid mine. But his soul has not left me; and, without losing sight of me, he has only gone before into a country where he saw I should soon rejoin him. This my lot I seem to bear courageously; not indeed that I do bear it with resignation, but I shall comfort myself with the persuasion that the interval between his departure and mine will not be long." And we well know who has taught us not to sorrow as those without hope for departed friends.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 23. But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast ? etc.] And pray; it is to no purpose, no end can be thought to be answered by it: can I bring him back again ? from the state of the dead, bring him to life by fasting, and praying, and weeping; that is not to e expected: I shall go to him ; to the state of the dead, to the grave, where his body was, or would be; to heaven and eternal happiness, where his soul was, as he comfortably hoped and believed: from whence it appears, that the Old Testament saints did not suppose an annihilation at death; but believed the immortality of the soul, a future state after death of eternal life and bliss: but he shall not return to me ; in the present mortal state, though at the resurrection they should meet again.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 15-25 - David now penned the 51st Psalm, in which, though he had been assure that his sin was pardoned, he prays earnestly for pardon, and greatl laments his sin. He was willing to bear the shame of it, to have it ever before him, to be continually upbraided with it. God gives u leave to be earnest with him in prayer for particular blessings, from trust in his power and general mercy, though we have no particula promise to build upon. David patiently submitted to the will of God in the death of one child, and God made up the loss to his advantage, in the birth of another. The way to have creature comforts continued of restored, or the loss made up some other way, is cheerfully to resig them to God. God, by his grace, particularly owned and favoured tha son, and ordered him to be called Jedidiah, Beloved of the Lord. Ou prayers for our children are graciously and as fully answered when some of them die in their infancy, for they are well taken care of, and when others live, "beloved of the Lord."
Original Hebrew
ועתה 6258 מת 4191 למה 4100 זה 2088 אני 589 צם 6684 האוכל 3201 להשׁיבו 7725 עוד 5750 אני 589 הלך 1980 אליו 413 והוא 1931 לא 3808 ישׁוב 7725 אלי׃ 413
