The King’s Son

In context

Absalom “stole the hearts of the men of Israel” by meeting people at the city gate and promising them justice (2 Samuel 15:1–6). Then he has himself proclaimed king in Hebron, the town where David was first made king (2:4; 15:10). David flees Jerusalem with his household, crossing the brook Kidron and climbing the Mount of Olives barefoot, weeping as he went (15:14–30).

Friends stand by him: Ittai, a foreigner from Gath, who will be with the king “whether for death or for life” (2 Samuel 15:19–21); Hushai, who goes back to Jerusalem to defeat Ahithophel’s advice (15:32–37; 17:14); and, at Mahanaim across the Jordan, Shobi, Barzillai and Machir of Lodebar, in whose house Mephibosheth had lived, who bring food for the hungry and tired people (17:27–29; 9:4).

The reading is hard in places: twenty thousand die in the forest of Ephraim, Ahithophel takes his own life, and Joab and his armor bearers kill Absalom as he hangs in an oak, against the king’s order (17:23; 18:5–15). When the news comes, David weeps: “I wish I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son” (18:33).