And the king said, Let him {o} turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, and saw not the king's face.

(o) Covering by this his affection, and showing some part of justice to please the people.

Scofield Reference Notes

[1] saw not the king's face

Not Song had God taught David to forgive. Legalists have thought Absalom's wilfulness to have been due to over-indulgence on the part of David. There is no such intimation in Scripture. Rather it would seem that had David at this time taken Absalom into intimacy, the rebellion might have been averted.2 Samuel 14:24 Parallel Commentaries

The Hebrew Sages and their Proverbs
[Sidenote: Role of the sages in Israel's life] In the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jer. xviii. 18; Ezek. vii. 26) three distinct classes of religious teachers were recognized by the people: the prophets, the priests, and the wise men or sages. From their lips and pens have come practically all the writings of the Old Testament. Of these three classes the wise men or sages are far less prominent or well known. They wrote no history of Israel, they preached no public sermons, nor do they appear …
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament

Samuel
Alike from the literary and the historical point of view, the book[1] of Samuel stands midway between the book of Judges and the book of Kings. As we have already seen, the Deuteronomic book of Judges in all probability ran into Samuel and ended in ch. xii.; while the story of David, begun in Samuel, embraces the first two chapters of the first book of Kings. The book of Samuel is not very happily named, as much of it is devoted to Saul and the greater part to David; yet it is not altogether inappropriate, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament