Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Samuel 14:7

7 And behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him , for the life of his brother whom he slew, and we will destroy the heir also : and so they shall quench my coal which is left , and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth.

According to the Law, Numb. 35. 19. Deut. 19. 12.

So they plainly discover, that their prosecution of him was not so much from love of Justice, as from a covetous desire to deprive him of the Inheritance, and to transfer it to themselves; which self-interest might justly render their Testimony suspected. Or, perhaps these words are not spoken as the express words of the prosecutors (who can hardly be thought so directly to express a sinister design) as the Womans Inference or Comment upon what they were doing: (for this would be indeed the result of it, though they did not so in express words) thereby to lie to represent her case as the more deserving pity.

The poor remainder of my light and comfort, by whom alone my hopes may be revived and repaired.

She names him rather than her self, because Children bear the names of their Fathers, not of their Mothers.

Marginal references: Heb. upon the face of the earth.