C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on 2 Samuel 14:18-19

2Sa 14:18-19

These words of the woman were so well considered and so crafty, that the king could not fail to see both what she really meant, and also that she had not come with her petition of her own accord. He therefore told her to answer the question without disguise: whether the hand of Joab was with her in all this. She replied,“Truly there is not (אם) anything to the right hand or to the left of all that my lord the king saith,” i.e., the king always hits the right point in everything that he said. “Yea, thy servant Joab, he hath commanded me, and he hath put all these words into thy servant’s mouth.” אשׁ is not a copyist’s error, but a softer form of ישׁ, as in Mic 6:10 (vid., Ewald, §53 c, and Olshausen, Gramm. p. 425).