C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on 2 Samuel 19:8

2Sa 19:8

Nevertheless David was obliged to yield to his representations. “The king rose up, and sat in the gate, and ... all the people came before the king,” i.e., the troops marched before the king, who (as we may supply from the context) manifested his good-will in both looks and words. But Israel, i.e., that portion of the people which had followed Absalom, had returned to its tents (i.e., gone home: cf. 2Sa 18:17). This sentence forms the transition to the account which follows.