2Sa 15:1 | JFB | STEP | 1. Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him —This was assuming the state and equipage of a prince. The royal guards, called runners, avant couriers, amounted to fifty ( ). The chariot, as the Hebrew indicates, was of a magnificent style; and the horses, a novelty among the Hebrew people, only introduced in that age as an appendage of royalty ( ), formed a splendid retinue, which would make him "the observed of all observers."

2 Samuel 15:1

1. Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him—This was assuming the state and equipage of a prince. The royal guards, called runners, avant couriers, amounted to fifty (1Ki 1:5). The chariot, as the Hebrew indicates, was of a magnificent style; and the horses, a novelty among the Hebrew people, only introduced in that age as an appendage of royalty (Ps 32:9; 66:12), formed a splendid retinue, which would make him "the observed of all observers."