2 Samuel 18

Chap. XVIII. Ver. 1—33. David’s army is victorious, but Absalom is slain.—Notwithstanding the disaffection which Absalom had excited among the people, it is plain that David was still much beloved, from the presents which were brought to him in the wilderness, as mentioned in the close of the preceding chapter. Not only so, but the people gathered around him so rapidly, that he soon mustered a numerous army, with captains over hundreds and over thousands. This army he prepares himself to accompany them, in which design one of his motives undoubtedly was, to watch over the personal safety of his son; but the people, knowing that his own life was aimed at, persuaded him to stop behind.

“Thou art worth (say they) ten thousand of us: therefore now it is better that thou” stop behind, and, if need be, “succour us” with supplies of provisions or of men, “out of the city,” that is, Mahanaim, a town on the border of the wilderness. To this the king at length accedes; but, with the heart of a father, gives to Joab and the army, a special charge to be careful of the life of Absalom, his darling though rebellious son. We cannot but here observe the difference between this conduct and that of Absalom himself, who, when Ahithophel proposed to “smite the king only,” ((2 Samuel 17:2).) gave no such charge respecting David. Rebellion, we are told, is as the sin of witchcraft, ((1 Samuel 15:23).) not only as to its magnitude, but its progress, leading on from one sin to another, till it reaches the height of criminality. For, as in the latter, many who begin only with a superstitious regard to signs and omens, go on from step to step till they hold, or pretend to hold, communion with infernal spirits; so in popular insurrections, many look no farther than to the reform of abuses, which may, in deed, need reform; but are led on insensibly into acts of sedition, treason, and murder of the deepest dye.

It pleased God to give the victory to David and his servants, with the loss to Absalom of 20,000 men, and himself was found hanging in an oak tree. Whether, as painters represent it, he was caught in the boughs by the tresses of his hair, is not said, though it is most probable, (see note, ver. 9.;) but it is very certain, that many men have been brought to ruin by things in which they have taken most pride and pleasure, as did this unhappy youth in his beautiful head of hair. One of the soldiers seeing him, probably would not take him down for fear of Joab, and dared not smite him from regard to the charge of David; but went and told Joab, who immediately hasted and thrust three arrows into the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive: then his ten armour-bearers, following the example of their master, all struck at him, though dead; and when they had taken him down, buried him in the wood, the wood of Ephraim, which, it is said, “devoured more people that day than the sword.”

The Chaldee, Syriac and Arabic say, that they were devoured by wild beasts; and others that they perished in pits and swamps: but we have no need to be wise above what is written. The victory was, however, complete. Two messengers ran eagerly to bring the tidings to the king, who was waiting anxiously the event. They thought themselves the bearers of good news, but, alas! all our triumphs here are liable to be damped with adversity. The king was delivered from all danger; but when he heard that his darling Absalom was slain, instead of rejoicing in the victory, he lamented for him in this pathetic language: “O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

Notes on the verses

Chap. XVIII. Ver. 4. By hundreds.—[David’s small company, by this time, was greatly recruited; but what its number was we cannot tell. Josephus says it amounted only to 4000 men.]—Bagster.

Ver. 8. Devoured.—See Margin. [That is, probably, many more were slain in pursuit through the wood than in the battle; by falling into swamps, pits, &c. and being entangled and cut down by David’s men. Such is the relation of Josephus; but the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic state, that they were devoured by wild beasts in the wood.]—Bagster.

Ver. 9. His head caught.—[Some suppose that Absalom was caught by the hair; but it seems more probable that his head and neck were caught in the forks of a strong bough, as he was nearly dead when Joab found him (ver. 14).]—B.

Ver. 11. And a girdle.—See (1 Samuel 18:4). and note.

Ver. 17. Heap of stones.—[This was the ancient method of burying, whether heroes or traitors; the heap of stones being designed to perpetuate the memory of the event whether good or bad. The Arabs in general make use of no other monument than a heap of stones over a grave. Thus, in an Arabic poem, it is related, that Hatim the father, and Adi the father of Kais—having been murdered, at a time before Kais was capable of reflection, his mother kept it a profound secret; and in order to guard him against having any suspicion, she collected a parcel of stones on two hillocks in the neighbourhood and told her son, that the one was the grave of his father, and the other of his grandfather.

The ancient cairns in Ireland and Scotland, and the tumuli in England, are of this kind.]—Bagster.

Ver. 18. A pillar.—See (1 Samuel 15:12). and note. A pillar is shown to this day under the name of Absalom, which is evidently an imposition. But see Fragments to Calmet, No. 218.

—I have no son.—Yet by (2 Samuel 14:27). he had three sons; it is very possible they might have all died in infancy. His daughter only is mentioned as a woman grown up, and “of a fair countenance.”

—Absalom’s place.—[Josephus says, there was in his time, about two furlongs from Jerusalem, a marble pillar called Absalom’s hand, as it is in the Hebrew, (see note on (1 Samuel 15:18)); and there is one shown to the present day, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, which though comparatively a modern structure, pro-]