1 Kings 2:34

So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:26-34 Solomon's words to Abiathar, and his silence, imply that some recent conspiracies had been entered into. Those that show kindness to God's people shall have it remembered to their advantage. For this reason Solomon spares Abiathar's life, but dismisses him from his offices. In case of such sins as the blood of beasts would atone for, the altar was a refuge, but not in Joab's case. Solomon looks upward to God as the Author of peace, and forward to eternity as the perfection of it. The Lord of peace himself gives us that peace which is everlasting.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Retribution overtook Joab on the very scene (Gibeon) of the most treacherous of his murders. It was at the "great stone which is in Gibeon" that Joab killed Amasa 2 Samuel 20:8-10.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

1Ki 2:34-46. Shimei Put to Death.

34. Benaiah … went up, and fell upon him—According to the terms of the statute (Ex 21:14), and the practice in similar cases (2Ki 11:15), the criminal was to be dragged from the altar and slain elsewhere. But the truth is, that the sanctity of the altar was violated as much by the violence used in forcing the criminal from the place as in shedding his blood there; the express command of God authorized the former and therefore by implication permitted the latter.

was buried in his own house—or family vault, at his property in the wilderness of Judah. His interment was included in the king's order, as enjoined in the divine law (De 21:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Places which have but few houses and inhabitants are oft so called in Scripture, as Isaiah 42:11 Jeremiah 25:24 Ezekiel 34:25.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up,.... To Gibeon, which was a great high place, 1 Kings 3:4;

and fell upon him, and slew him; at the altar; or, dragging him from it at some distance, drew his sword and slew him:

and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness; not in his dwelling house strictly taken, but in a garden or field adjoining to it, which house in the wilderness; not a waste place uninhabited; for, as Kimchi observes, this word sometimes signifies a place uninhabited, though not tilled, but left for pasture of cattle; and in such a place might Joab's house be, at least his country house, where he might have a farm, and fields, and cattle, as it is plain he had, 2 Samuel 14:30.

Geneva Study Bible

So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34. went up] i.e. To the Tent of the Lord, which probably stood on a higher part of Mt. Zion than did Solomon’s own house.

buried in his own house] i.e. In the ground around his home. He appears to have had a home far out in the open country.

in the wilderness] Probably that district known as the wilderness of Judah. Wilderness, or desert, gives however an insufficient idea of the kind of country that is meant. It was land under no regular cultivation, but yet to which cattle might be driven for pasturage. So in the narrative of the feeding of the Five Thousand where St Matthew (1 Kings 14:15) speaks of ‘a desert place,’ St John (1 Kings 6:10) says ‘now there was much grass in the place.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 34. - So Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up [not because the altar" stood higher up Mount Zion than Solomon's house" (Keil), but because Gibeon, where the tabernacle and brazen altar then were, stood higher than Jerusalem. It is remarkable that retribution thus overtook Joab on the very scene of his last murder, for it was "at the great stone which is in Gibeon" (2 Samuel 20:8), that he slew Amasa. Cf. 2 Kings 9:26: "I will requite thee in this plat, saith the Lord"], and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house [possibly in the courtyard: hardly in the garden. The same is recorded of Samuel (1 Samuel 25:1). It was evidently an exceptional occurrence. Remembering the estimation in which the Jew held the corpse and the grave (Numbers 19:11, 16, 22; cf. Matthew 23:27), it must have been a singular honour to make of the house a mausoleum. No doubt it was designed to be such in Joab's case. Whatever his crimes, his services had deserved well of his country. Possibly his friends were led to pay him this special honour as a kind of counterpoise to the ignominy of his death] in the wilderness [i.e., of Judah. Joab's mother was of Bethlehem, which was on the border of the desert. The "wilderness of Tekoah" (2 Chronicles 20:20), according to Jerome, was visible from Bethlehem, being but six Roman miles distant. 1 Kings 2:34

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Benaiah went up (ויּעל), inasmuch as the altar by the ark of the covenant stood higher up Mount Zion than Solomon's house. Joab was buried "in his house" (i.e., in the tomb prepared in his house, either in the court or in the garden: cf. 1 Samuel 25:1), "in the desert," probably the wilderness of Judah, as Joab's mother was a step-sister of David, and therefore probably dwelt in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem.