2 Samuel 17
Butler24. THEN David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of
25. Israel with him. And Absalom set Amasa over the host instead of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man, whose name was Ithra the Israelite, that went in to Abigal the daughter of Na-
26 hash, sister to Zeruiah Joab’s mother. And Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead.
27. And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai
28 the Gileadite of Rogelim, brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and
29 barley, and meal, and parched corn, and beans, and lentils, and parched pulse, and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat : for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.
1. And David numbered the people that were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. And David sent forth the people, a third part under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said unto the peo-
3 ple, I will surely go forth with you myself also. But the people said, Thou shalt not go forth : for if we flee away, they will not care for us ; neither if half of us die, will they care for us : but thou art worth ten thousand of us : therefore now it is better that thou be ready to succor
4 us out of the city. And the king said unto them, What seemeth you best I will do. And the
5 king stood by the gate side, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. And the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge
6 concerning Absalom. So the people went out into the field against Israel : and the battle
7 was in the forest of Ephraim. And the people of Israel were smitten there before the servants
8 of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men. For the battle was there spread over the face of all the country : and the forest devoured more people
9 that day than the sword devoured. And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth ;
10 and the mule that was under him went on. And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and
11 said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak. And Joab said unto the man that told him, And, behold, thou sawest it, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground ? and I
12 would have given thee ten pieces of silver, and a girdle. And the man said unto Joab, Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in mine hand, yet would I not put forth mine hand against the king’s son : for in our hearing the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, saying,
13. Beware that none touch the young man Absalom. Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there is no matter hid from the king), then thou thyself wouldest have stood aloof.
14. Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and
15 thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. And ten young men that bare Joab’s armor compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him.
16. And Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel : for Joab
17 held back the people. And they took Absalom, and cast him into the great pit in the forest,
18 and raised over him a very great heap of stones : and all Israel fled every one to his tent. Now Absalom in his life time had taken and reared up for himself the pillar, which is in the king’s dale : 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 Absalom’s monument, unto this day.
19. Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear the king tidings, how that
20 the LORD hath avenged him of his enemies. And Joab said unto him, Thou shalt not be the bearer of tidings this day, but thou shalt bear tidings another day : but this day thou shalt
21 bear no tidings, because the king’s son is dead. Then said Joab to the Cushite, Go tell the
22 king what thou hast seen. And the Cushite bowed himself unto Joab, and ran. Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab, But come what may, let me, I pray thee, also run after the Cushite. And Joab said, Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou wilt have
23 no reward for the tidings? But come what may, said he, I will run. And he said unto him, Run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and overran the Cushite.
24. Now David sat between the two gates : and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate
25 unto the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, a man running alone. And the watchman cried, and told the king. And the king said, If he be alone, there is tidings in his
26 mouth. And he came apace, and drew near. And the watchman saw another man running : and the watchman called unto the porter, and said, Behold, another man running alone. And
27 the king said, He also bringeth tidings. And the watchman said, Me thinketh the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok. And the king said, He is a
28 good man, and cometh with good tidings. And Ahimaaz called, and said unto the king, All is well. And he bowed himself before the king with his face to the earth, and said, Blessed be the LORD thy God, which hath delivered up the men that lifted up their hand against my lord
29 the king. And the king said, Is it well with the young man Absalom? And Ahimaaz answered, When Joab sent the king’s servant, even me thy servant, I saw a great tumult, but I
30 knew not what it was. And the king said, Turn aside, and stand here. And he turned aside,
31 and stood still. And, behold, the Cushite came ; and the Cushite said, Tidings for my lord
32 the king : for the LORD hath avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee. And the king said unto the Cushite, Is it well with the young man Absalom? And the Cushite answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise up against thee to do thee hurt, be
33 as that young man is. And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept : and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom ! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son !
David, warned of danger, crossed the Jordan, and went northward to Mahanaim, Ishbosheth’s former capital, among the hills of Gilead. Here at once he raised and organized an army to meet the host of Absalom. An interval occurred during which both armies were gathered, and Absalom’s army was transferred across the Jordan to the country of Gilead. Here the battle took place. Joab directed the army of David, with Abishai and Ittai as division leaders, each of whom had been solemnly and publicly charged to “deal gently with Absalom.” In the conflict the rebel army was enticed into the wood of Ephraim, and great multitudes were slaughtered—twenty thousand—by “the wood” and by “the sword.” By a strange Providence, Absalom himself, while fleeing, was caught from his mule by “thick boughs of a great oak,” and left hanging by the head. Spared by a common soldier from reverence to David’s command, notwithstanding that command he was thrust through the heart by Joab and his armor-bearers. His body was afterward taken down, cast into a pit, and covered with “a very great heap of stones.” B.
The rebellion under Absalom probably lasted two or three months. For there was time for Absalom to gather and organize a great army from all the tribes. There was time for David to number and grade and officer his broken followers, and to put them under division commanders. There was time to transfer Absalom’s army across the Jordan, and for the two armies to pitch in camp in the land of Gilead.
17 : 24-26. Absalom assumed the royal state and was solemnly anointed as king. Joab’s office of captain of the host was conferred by him upon Amasa, the son of Ithra by Abigail, the daughter of Nahash, stepdaughter to Jesse, and sister to Zeruiah: he was half-cousin to David, and own cousin to Joab and Abishai. Absalom then crossed the Jordan in pursuit of David, and pitched his camp in Mount Gilead. P. S.
27-29. The district where David now was, “the other side of Jordan,” lay far apart from Jerusalem and the more frequented places in the country, and, in all probability, it was but little affected by the arts of Absalom. The inhabitants lay under strong obligations to David; in former times they had suffered most from their neighbors, Moab, Ammon, and especially Syria; and now they enjoyed a very different lot, owing to the fact that those powerful nations had been brought under David’s rule. It was a fertile district, abounding in all kinds of farm and garden produce, and therefore well adapted to support an army that had no regular means of supply. The people of this district seem to have been friendly to David’s cause. The little force that had followed him from Jerusalem would now be largely recruited; and, even to the outward sense, he would be in a far better condition to receive the assault of Absalom than on the day when he left the city. W. G. B.
David was secure in the fortress of Mahanaim, the ancient Trans-Jordanic sanctuary, which had formerly sheltered the rival house of Saul. Three potentates of that pastoral district came forward at once to his support. Shobi, the son of David’s ancient friend Nahash, king of Ammon, perhaps put by David in his brother Hanun’s place; Machir, the son of Ammiel, the former protector of Mephibosheth; Barzillai, an aged chief of great wealth and influence. Their connection with David’s enemies, whether of the house of Saul or of Ammon, was overbalanced by earlier alliances with David, or by their respect for himself personally. They brought, with the profuse liberality of Arabs, the butter, cheese, wheat, barley, flour, parched corn, beans, lentils, pulse, honey, sheep, with which the forests and pastures of Gilead abounded, and on which the historian dwells as if he had been himself one of “the hungry and weary and thirsty” who had revelled in the delightful stores thus placed before them. Stanley.—No sooner is David come to Mahanaim, than Barzillai, Machir, and Shobi refresh him with provisions Who ever saw any child of God left utterly destitute? Whosoever be the messenger of our aid, we know whence he comes. Heaven shall want power and earth means, before any of the household of faith shall want maintenance. Bp. H.
18: 1-4. All the arrangements for the inevitable encounter were made with prudence, while every movement of his opponents seems to have been a blunder. It was wise in David to cross the Jordan and retire into Gilead; it was wise in him to make Mahanaim his headquarters; it was wise to divide his army into three parts, because of his inferiority of numbers; and it was wise to have a wood in the neighborhood of the battle-field, though it could not have been foreseen how this was to bear on the individual on whose behalf the insurrection had taken place. W. G. B.—David prepared to receive the attack with his usual skill. He divided his forces into three bodies, under Joab, Abishai, and Ittai; and yielding to the people’s entreaties, he himself remained to hold out the city in case of a defeat. P. S.
3. The king was prepared to take part in the battle, believing that his presence would be helpful to his men; but the people would not allow him to run the risk. Aged and somewhat infirm as he seems to have been, wearied with his flight, and weakened with the anxieties of so distressing an occasion, the excitement of the battle might have proved too much for him, even if he had escaped the enemy’s sword. Besides, everything depended on him; if his place were discovered by the enemy, their hottest assault would be directed to it; and if he should fall, there would be left no cause to fight for. W. G. B.
5. Absalom would have David only smitten, David would have Absalom only spared. What foils are these to each other! Never was unnatural hatred to a father more strong than in Absalom; nor was ever natural affection to a child more strong than in David; each showed how bad it is possible for a child to be to the best of fathers, and how good it is possible for a father to be to the worst of children; as if it were designed to be a resemblance of man’s wickedness toward God, and God’s mercy toward man, of which it is hard to say which is more amazing. “Deal gently,” says David, “by all means, with the young man, even with Absalom, for my sake.” This charge supposes David’s strong expectation of success, having a good cause and a good God: he doubts not but Absalom would lie at their mercy, and therefore bids them deal gently with him, spare his life, and reserve him for his judgment. H.
6. We read that the battle took place “in the wood of Ephraim.” This could not be a wood in the tribe of Ephraim, for that was on the other side of Jordan, but a wood in Gilead, that for some reason unknown to us had been called by that name. The whole region is still richly wooded, and among its prominent trees is one called the prickly oak. W. G. B.—All the circumstances are in favor of supposing the battle to have been fought on the eastern side of the Jordan. Absalom marched into Gilead and encamped there; David was at Mahanaim; and there is not the slightest hint that either army crossed the Jordan. It is implied beforehand that the battle would be in the neighborhood of Mahanaim (verse 3). The return of the army to Mahanaim on the same day (19 : 2-5), would scarcely have been possible had the battle been fought on the west of the Jordan. These considerations make it all but certain that “the wood of Ephraim” was some part of the great forests of Gilead. The origin of the name can only be conjectured. It may possibly have been derived from the connection of Ephraim with the trans-Jordanic Manasseh, or from some incident, such as the slaughter of the Ephraimites by Jephthah (Ju. 12 : 6). A. F. K.
7. 8. The God of Hosts, with whom it is all one to save with many or with few, takes part with justice; and lets Israel feel what it is to bear arms for a traitorous usurper. The sword devours twenty thousand of them; and the wood devours more than the sword. Bp. H.
9. With Absalom’s tragic end the bolt of retribution flew right home. Riding on the royal mule, of which he had robbed his father, he fled from the victorious army of Joab only to be caught in the thick boughs of “the great terebinth,”—caught by “the head,” says Scripture; caught, says Josephus, by the flowing locks which had been his crown and pride; and there he was hacked to death by pike and sword. And there we must leave him, an emblem of the fate which sooner or later overtakes all who put their trust in themselves,—in health, in beauty, in strength of will, in any of the natural gifts they have received from a God whom they have forgotten or disobeyed. Cox.—There hangs Absalom between heaven and earth, as one that was hated and abandoned both of earth and heaven. As if God meant to prescribe this punishment for traitors, Absalom, Ahithophel, and Judas die all one death. Bp. H.—This was a very surprising, unusual thing; it was fit that it should be so, his crime being so monstrous. God will here, as in the case of those other rebels, Dathan and Abiram, create a new thing, that it may be understood how much this man has provoked the Lord (Nu. 16 : 29, 30). H.
When the hour of calamity came to Absalom it found him alone. Even Saul had his armor-bearer at his side when he fled over Gilboa; but neither armor-bearer nor friend attended Absalom as he fled from the battle of the wood of Ephraim. An hour ago, with thousands eager to obey him, and a throne before him, apparently secure from danger, now he hangs helpless between earth and heaven, with no companion but an evil conscience, and no prospect but the judgment of an offended God. W. G. B.
14. 15. Seizing three darts, Joab rushes to the place and thrusts them through Absalom’s heart. And his ten armor-bearers finish the business with their swords. We need not suppose that he was altogether indifferent to the feelings of David; but he may have been seized by an overwhelming conviction that Absalom’s death was the only effectual way of ending this most guilty and pernicious insurrection, and so preserving the country from ruin. Absalom living, whether banished or imprisoned, would be a constant and fearful danger. Absalom dead, great though the king’s distress for the time might be, would be the very salvation of the country. W. G. B.—There was probably a true regard for the king and kingdom in this act of Joab. He knew that Absalom could not with safety be suffered to live; and that now a just right to slay him had been earned in open battle. Nothing can be alleged against him in this matter but his disobedience to the king: but he, in his position, felt that he dared to disobey him for his own good; and he was quite prepared to vindicate and maintain this deed. As Joab had been on good terms with Absalom, and had taken pains to bring about a reconciliation between him and his father, we may set the higher value upon his firm adhesion to David when Absalom revolted, and upon his stern sense of duty to the king—from whom he expected no thanks—displayed in putting an end to the war by the slaughter of his favorite son, when all others shrunk from the responsibility of doing the king a service against his own will. Kit.
16. Joab, hereupon, sounds a retreat; the danger is over now that Absalom is slain; the people will soon return to their allegiance to David, and therefore no more blood shall be spilt; no prisoners are taken, to be tried as traitors and made examples: let every man return to his tent; they are all the king’s subjects, all his good subjects again.
17. 18. His body is cast into a great pit in the wood; they would not bring it to his father (for that would but have added to his grief), nor would they preserve it to be buried, according to his order, but threw it into the next pit with indignation. Now where is the beauty he had been so proud of and for which he had been so much admired? Where are his aspiring projects? His thoughts perish, and he with them. And, to signify how heavy his iniquity lay upon his bones, as the prophet speaks (Ez. 32 : 27), they raised a great heap of stones upon him, to be a monument of his villainy, and to signify that he ought to have been stoned as a rebellious son (De. 21 : 21). Travellers say that the place is taken notice of to this day, and that it is common for passengers to throw a stone to this heap, with words to this purport: Cursed be the memory of rebellious Absalom, and cursed forever be all wicked children that rise up in rebellion against their parents. To aggravate the ignominy of Absalom’s burial, the historian takes notice of a pillar he had erected in the valley of Kidron, near Jerusalem, to be a monument for himself, and keep his name in remembrance, at the foot of which, it is probable, he designed to be buried. His care was to have his name kept in remembrance, and it is so to his everlasting dishonor. The pillar shall bear his name, but not to his credit; it was designed for Absalom’s glory, but proved Absalom’s folly. H.
Self-seekers are self-losers and self-destroyers. Absalom and Judas seek themselves, and hang themselves. Saul seeks himself, and kills himself. Haman sought himself, and lost himself. That which self-seekers think should be a staff to support them, becomes, by the hand of justice, an iron rod to break them; that which they would have as springs to refresh them becomes a gulf utterly to destroy them. T. Brooks.
19-23. Ahimaaz, Zadok’s son, who had brought the news from Hushai, was present, and wished to carry this news to David. Joab preferred a blunter Cushite or Ethiopian slave, but after he had gone, he permitted Ahimaaz to follow. Knox.
24-27. David, at the gate of Mahanaim, awaits tidings of the battle. We can almost see the anxious, sad-hearted king, and hear his colloquy with the watchman on the top of the outer tower, so graphic is the narrative. Between the two main gates of the double-walled city, in a court used as a place of public resort, for the administration of justice, or for audience with kings or governors, David has been long sitting anxiously awaiting intelligence, with heart burdened most of all by his concern for the fate of Absalom. One man is seen running, and then another, toward the gate. Then the watchman reports the foremost to be Ahimaaz, from which the king infers the tidings to be good.
28-30. The report of Ahimaaz, and his avoidance of David’s question concerning Absalom. “All is well!” he calls aloud before reaching the king. Then reverently bowing, he devoutly declares that God had destroyed the rebellious host. But David has no heart to join in the praise to which the words of Ahimaaz designedly turn his thought. He forgets his endangered and now delivered throne. He is insensible even to the Divine goodness which has interposed to restore his kingdom. All his thought is upon Absalom, all his heart goes out in yearning to know the safety of this relentless, parricidal son. “Is the young man Absalom safe?” And when Ahimaaz, respecting his grief, again seeks further to prepare his mind for the news, by a general reference to some great scene of confusion or catastrophe, he is bidden to stand aside.
31,32. The tidings of Cushi, and his announcement of Absalom’s death. In explicit language, he bluntly declares that “the Lord hath avenged the king” of all his enemies. And when the one question upon the king’s heart springs to his lips, the Ethiopian answers as bluntly, “The enemies of my lord the king be as that young man!” There is no description of his fate, no aggravation of the king’s feelings by telling the fearful manner of his destruction; but simply, he can no more “rise against thee to do thee hurt”—he is dead! There is no doubt on the king’s mind, no hope upon which to propose a further question. Absalom is dead!
33. Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son! Strange depth and intensity of affection for one who had scarce any other recommendation save personal beauty, who had not a single excellence; whose whole career had been one of relentless cruelty and monstrous enormities! And yet, knowing David’s history, we cannot but find in these words some feeling deeper and more intense, which was only quickened and aggravated by his strong natural affection. That which made it so overwhelming and unparalleled was the enormous weight of self-reproach thrown back upon his heart by the memories of paternal neglect, and of his own terrible sins. His beautiful but corrupt son, foolishly indulged, was now lost forever in his unrepented guilt! God’s predicted chastisement upon himself, now fallen upon this object of his strongest affection, crushed his heart with fearful force of anguish! Had he only been faithful and pure, it would not have been thus. Reason enough then, for his wild, agonizing lament! Cause enough for that wailing cry that has sounded down the centuries, “Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son!” B.
The elements of David’s intense agony were mainly three. There was the loss of his son, whom with all his faults he loved still. There was the terrible fact that Absalom had died in rebellion, without expressing one word of regret, without one request for forgiveness, without one act or word that it would be pleasant to recall in time to come, as a foil to the bitterness caused by his unnatural rebellion. And there was the fact that in this rebellious condition he had passed to the judgment of God. What hope could there be for him? W. G. B.
David professes to desire that he had died for Absalom, but that was a vain wish. He ought to have lived more for Absalom. I. T.—The whole scene of David’s lamentation over Absalom speaks with an immediate and awful voice to parents, and urges them to make the training and commanding of their children earnest work, and especially to beware of looking tenderly upon their disobedience, or of only feebly and hesitatingly restraining them in their wickedness. Not a little of the foolish indulgence which parents show to their children is the simple effect of an aversion to be troubled, and is, therefore, with all its look of amiable, but fatal weakness, just “self-indulgence under an alias.” Much of it also is affection grievously misdirected, the fruit of simple unwillingness to give present pain. Thomson.
There are many Absaloms in the world who despise parental authority, jeer at all proper and needful advice, give heed to the poisoned whispers of the worst of companions, cause aching hearts and tearful eyes in the old house at home, and at last run riot to their hearts’ content, but to their souls’ utter damnation. H. C. Nunn.
—Let those who have begun to spurn parental authority and to laugh at the remonstrances of a father, read in the career and end of Absalom in what direction and to what certain issues their course is leading them. The growing wickedness of this favorite son brought him to an untimely grave, dimmed to his father’s vision even the glories of the everlasting covenant, and made him descend to his royal sepulchre mourning that “his house was not so with God,” Thomson.
Other suggestions of truth and duty that will repay our thought.
1. In Absalom were united a beautiful person and a monstrously deformed soul. His beauty of person was (and it always is) a double temptation and snare to parent and child. In the one, it leads to an infatuation of excessive indulgence. In the child and the youth, it stimulates natural vanity, pride, and self-seeking; and to gratify these, prompts to every form of accessible sin. As signally illustrating and sharply pointing this double warning, bear in mind that so monstrous a character as Absalom’s is not found elsewhere in the Scripture. It is scarcely paralleled in profane history. Without natural affection, with an amazing hardness of heart and relentlessness of hate, yet vain-glorious, prodigal, seductive, and hypocritical in word and deed, a deliberate fratricide, a traitor against an indulgent father, for years at heart a parricide—all this was the outcome of his misuse of God’s manifold and special gifts, and of parental neglect and infatuation.
2. The consequences of such a career do but add depth and force to this double warning. The end of a character so monstrous is plainly set forth in the inspired proverb: “He that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own death.” Not merely as elsewhere declared, “Evil pursueth sinners,” “Be sure your sin will find you out,” but the wilful transgressor punishes himself. “His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, he shall die without instruction.”
3. In contrast with the parental neglect of David and the unfilial disobedience of Absalom, are here forcibly commended, on the one hand parental fidelity in restraint and example, and on the other, a filial spirit of affectionate obedience. Where there is mutually responsive truth, affection, and faithfulness, the family becomes, as ordained of God, the best and surest of human agencies for the right development of character, and for the greatest helpfulness and happiness in living.
4. Very suggestive, further, is the fact that, though Absalom had no relentings toward the father who loved him, David had no resentment, only a deeper affection toward the son who hated and would destroy him. In this, at least, like God in his love to sinners, and like Christ in his willingness to die for enemies. With all that was earthly in his feeling, he yet came nearer than any earthly being ever came to the illustration of that love by which “God commendeth himself to us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” From David’s imperfect example of willing love, let us turn to the love that died upon the cross for us!
5. Is it well with the young man? Touching, tender question of affection! How many and varied its applications! Every true heart for some other heart must cherish the spirit which prompts it. Let the earnest prayer, the consistent example, and the loving word daily respond to this spirit of yearning desire for our child, our friend, our life-companion! B.