great personages in those days attended to husbandry: and he hath barley there, go and set it on fire; it being ripe, and so capable of being fired, and therefore must be some time in March or April, when barley harvest began; he served Joab as Samson did the Philistines, Jdg 15:4 ; which shows him to be a bold, and revengeful, and ungrateful man, to use his friend, and the general of the king's army, after this manner: and Absalom's servants set the field on fire; as their master had bid them, and which is no wonder; for as they murdered Ammon at his command, they would not stop at burning Joab's field, when he bid them do it; see Sa2 13:28 .