Absalom

Absalom was the third son of David, born at Hebron to Maacah, daughter of Talmai king of Geshur (2 Samuel 3:3). He had a sister, Tamar, of beautiful countenance, and a name — avi-shalom, father of peace — whose meaning his life would render bitterly ironic.

I. Feud and Reconciliation. The trigger is in 2 Samuel 13. Amnon — David's firstborn, half-brother to Absalom and full-brother by paternal line — rapes Tamar and casts her out. David is very wroth but takes no action; whether from paternal favoritism toward his heir or sheer paralysis, the text does not say. Absalom takes Tamar into his house and bides his time for two full years. Then, at a sheep-shearing feast at Baal-hazor, his servants kill Amnon while the prince is drunk. Absalom flees to his maternal grandfather Talmai in Geshur and stays there three years.

Joab eventually intervenes — sending the wise woman of Tekoa with a parable that parallels David's situation, leading the king to commute Absalom's exile. Absalom returns to Jerusalem but is not permitted into David's presence for another two years. Frustrated, Absalom sets Joab's barley field on fire to get his attention; Joab brings him to David and a formal reconciliation kiss takes place (2 Samuel 14:33). It is the kiss of a peace that will not hold.

II. Absalom's Rebellion. Within four years of his return, Absalom begins systematically undermining David. He rises early to sit at the city gate, intercepting petitioners, telling each one his case is good but that David has no judges appointed — Oh that I were made judge in the land! He kisses petitioners and *stole the hearts of the men of Israel* (2 Samuel 15:1-6).

After four years (the textual variant forty almost certainly being a copyist error), Absalom asks David's permission to go to Hebron to fulfill a vow. There he is anointed king. The conspiracy that erupts forces David to flee Jerusalem barefoot and weeping in the most shameful retreat of his reign. Ahithophel, David's chief counselor, defects to Absalom. Shimei curses David as he crosses the Kidron. Ziba lies about Mephibosheth. The whole kingdom shudders.

Absalom enters Jerusalem and, on Ahithophel's counsel, publicly sleeps with David's ten concubines on the palace roof — claiming the throne and inadvertently fulfilling Nathan's prophecy that David's sin with Bathsheba would come back in similar form (2 Samuel 12:11-12). Ahithophel counsels immediate pursuit; David's hidden agent Hushai counsels delay. Absalom takes Hushai's advice — fatally — buying David time to cross the Jordan and regroup.

**III. Death and Burial.** David's army meets Absalom's at the forest of Ephraim. The wood, the text says, devoured more people than the sword that day. Absalom, fleeing on his mule, catches his long hair in the boughs of a great oak. His mule keeps going; he is left dangling. A soldier finds him and reports to Joab — I saw Absalom hanged in an oak. Joab, against David's explicit charge to deal gently for my sake with the young man, drives three darts through Absalom's heart while he is still alive, and ten of Joab's armor-bearers finish him. He is thrown into a pit in the wood and a great heap of stones laid over him (2 Samuel 18:9-17).

When the runner Ahimaaz comes with the news of victory, David asks only — Is the young man Absalom safe? The Cushite messenger who follows reports the death. David weeps the words that have echoed through every parent's worst loss: O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! (2 Samuel 18:33). Joab confronts the king's grief as a betrayal of the men who fought for him; David composes himself enough to sit at the gate.

IV. Absalom's Monument. Earlier in his life, Absalom had set up a pillar for himself in the King's Vale, for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name; and it is called unto this day, Absalom's place (2 Samuel 18:18). The verse is poignantly ironic given his actual end. (2 Samuel 14:27 records that Absalom had three sons and a daughter; these sons evidently died young, which is why Absalom set up the pillar.)

A traditional landmark called Yad Avshalom — *the Hand of Absalom,* a tomb-monument in the Kidron Valley east of the Old City of Jerusalem — has been popularly identified with this pillar since at least the medieval period. Archaeologists now date the existing structure to the 1st century BC or 1st century AD, far too late to be Absalom's actual monument. The biblical pillar's true location is unknown.