Absalom, with all his faults, was eminently dear to his father. David mourned every day after the ban- ished fratricide, whom a regard for public opinion and a just horror of his crime forbade him to recall. His secret wishes to have home his beloved though guilty son were, however, discerned by Joab, who employed a clever woman of Tekoah to lay a supposed case be- fore him for judgment; and she applied the antici- pated decision so adroitly to the case of Absalom, that the king discovered the object and detected the inter- position of Joab. Regarding this as in some degree expressing the sanction of public opinion, David glad- ly commissioned Joab to "call home his banished." Absalom returned ; but David controlled his feelings, and declined to admit him to his presence. After two years, however, Absalom, impatient of his disgrace, found means to compel the attention of Joab to his case; and through him a complete reconciliation was thus effected, and the father once more indulged him- self with the presence of his son (2 Sam. xiii, 39 ; xiv, 33), B.C. cir. 1027. Scarcely had he returned when he began to cherish aspirations to the throne, which he must have known was already pledged to another (see 2 Sam. vii, 12). His reckless ambition was probably only quickened by the fear lest Bath- sheba's child should supplant him in the succession, to which he would feel himself entitled, as of royal birth on his mother's side as well as his father's, and as be- ing now David's eldest surviving son, since we may infer that the second son, Chileab, was dead, from no mention being made of him after 2 Sam. iii, 3. It is harder to account for his temporary success, and the imminent danger which befell so powerful a govern- ment as his father's. The sin with Bathsheba had probably weakened David's moral and religious hold upon the people; and as he grew older he may have become less attentive to individual complaints, and that personal administration of justice which was one of an Eastern king's chief duties. The populace were disposed to regard Absalom's pretensions with favor ; and by many arts he so succeeded in winning their affections that when, four years (the text has erro- neously -10 years; comp. Josephus, Ant. vii, 9, 1 ; see Kennicott, Diss. p. 367 ; Ewald, Isr. Gesch. ii, 637) after his return from Geshur, he repaired to Hebron, and there proclaimed himself king, the great body of the people declared for him. It is probable that the great tribe of Judah had taken some offence at David's government, perhaps from finding themselves com- pletely merged in one united Israel ; and that they hoped secretly for pre-eminence under the less wise and liberal rule of his son. Thus Absalom selects Hebron, the old capital of Judah (now supplanted by Jerusalem), as the scene of the outbreak ; Amasa, his chief captain, and Ahithophel of Giloh, his principal counsellor, ai-e both of Judah, and, after the rebellion was crushed, Ave see signs of ill-feeling between Judah and the other tribes (xix, -11). But whatever the causes may have been, the revolt was at first com- pletely successful. David found it expedient to quit Jerusalem and retire to Mahanaim, beyond the Jordan. "When Absalom heard of this, he proceeded to Jeru- salem and took possession of the throne without oppo- sition. Among those who had joined him was Ahith- ophel, who had been David's counsellor, and whose profound sagacity caused his counsels to be regarded like oracles in Israel. This defection alarmed David more than any other single circumstance in the affair, and lie persuaded his friend Hushai to go and join Ab- salom, in the hope that he might be made instrumen-
ABSALOM
tal in turning the sagacious counsels of Ahithophel to foolishness. The first piece of advice which Ahitho- phel gave Absalom was that he should publicly take possession of that portion of his father's harem which had been left behind in Jerusalem; thus fulfilling Na- than's prophecy (2 Sam. xiii, 11). This was not only a mode by which the succession to the throne might be confirmed [see Abisiiag ; comp. Herodotus, iii, 68], but in the present case, as suggested by the wily counsellor, this villanous measure would dispose the people to throw themselves the more unreservedly into his cause, from the assurance that no possibility of reconcilement between him and his father remain- ed. But David had left friends who watched over his interests. Hushai had not then arrived. Soon after he came, when a council of war was held to con- sider the course of operations to be taken against Da- vid. Ahithophel counselled that the king should be pursued that very night, and smitten while he was " weary and weak handed, and before he had time to recover strength." Hushai, however, whose object was to gain time for David, speciously urged, from the known valor of the king, the possibility and disas- trous consequences of a defeat, and advised that all Israel should be assembled against him in such force as it would be impossible for him to withstand. Fa- tally for Absalom, the counsel of Hushai was pre- ferred to that of Ahithophel ; and time was thus af- forded for the king, by the help of his influential fol- lowers, to collect his resources, as well as for the peo- ple to reflect upon the undertaking in which so many of them had embarked. David soon raised a large force, which he properly organized and separated into three divisions, commanded severally by Joab, Abish- ai, and Ittai of Gath. The king himself intended to take the chief command ; but the people refused to allow him to risk his valued life, and the command then devolved upon Joab. The brttle took place in the borders of the forest of Ephraini ; and the tactics cf Joab, in drawing the enemy into the wood, and there hemming them in, so that they were destroyed with ease, eventually, under the providence of God, decided the action against Absalom. Twenty thou- sand of his troops were slain, and the rest fled io their homes. Absalom himself fled on a swift mule ; but as he went, the boughs of a terebinth (or oak ; see Thomson's Land and Look, i, 374 ; ii, 234) tree caught the long hair in which he gloried, and he was left suspended there (comp. Josephus, Ant. vii, 10, 2; Celsii llierob. i, 43). The charge which David had given to the troops to respect the life of Absalom pre- vented any one from slaying him ; but when Joab heard of it, he hastened to the spot and pierced him through with three darts. His bed}' was then taken down and cast into a pit there in the forest, and a heap of stones was raised upon it as a sign of abhor- rence (see Thomson, ibid, ii, 231). David's fondness for Absalom was unextinguished by all that had pass- ed; and as he sat, awaiting tidings of the battle, at the gate of Mahanaim, he was probably more anx- ious to learn that Absalom lived than that tie battle was gained ; and r.o sooner did he hear that Absalom was dead, than he retired to the chamber above the gate, to give vent to his paternal anguish. The victors, as they returned, slunk into the town like criminals when they heard the bitter wailings of the king: "0 my son Absalom ! my son, my son Absa- lom ! would God 1 had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" The consequences of this weakness might have been most dangerous, had nit Joab gone up to him, and, after sharply rebuking him for thus discouraging those who had risked their lives in his cause, induced him to go down and cheer the return- ing warriors by his presence (2 Sam. xv, 1 ; xix, * ; comp. Psa. iii, title), B.C. cir. 1023.— Kitto, s. v.