The King’s Son

He had not always been welcome at his father’s court. Years before, his half-brother Amnon had attacked and disgraced Absalom’s sister Tamar. Absalom waited two full years, then had Amnon killed at his sheep-shearing, and fled to Geshur. He stayed there three years. Even after Joab brought him home, two more years passed before the king would see his face. At last Absalom came before his father and bowed with his face to the ground, and the king kissed him.

After this, Absalom got a chariot and horses for himself, and fifty men to run in front of him.

He made a habit of getting up early and standing beside the road into the city gate. Whenever a man came with a case for the king to judge, Absalom called him over. “What city are you from?”

“I’m from one of the tribes of Israel,” the man would say.

“Look,” Absalom would tell him, “your case is good and right, but the king has no one to hear you.” And he would add, “If only I were made judge in the land! Anyone with a case or a complaint could come to me, and I would see that he got justice.”

When anyone came near to bow down to him, Absalom reached out, took hold of him, and kissed him. He did this with everyone in Israel who came to the king for judgment. And so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

“Go in peace,” said the king. So Absalom went to Hebron.

But Absalom sent spies through all the tribes of Israel with a message: “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, shout, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron!’”

Two hundred men from Jerusalem went with him as invited guests. They went along innocently, knowing nothing about the plan.

While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel, David’s own counselor, to come from his hometown of Giloh. The plot grew strong, and the crowd around Absalom kept growing.

David didn’t wait. “Get up!” he told the officials around him. “We have to run, or none of us will escape from Absalom. Hurry, before he catches up with us, brings disaster on us, and attacks the city with the sword.”

“Whatever our lord the king decides,” they said, “we are ready.”

So the king set out, and his whole household followed him. He left ten concubines behind to look after the palace. At the last house on the edge of the city he stopped, and his people passed by him: his officials, his bodyguard of Cherethites and Pelethites, and six hundred men who had followed him from Gath.

Among them was Ittai, a foreigner from Gath. David tried to send him home. “Why are you coming with us? You only got here yesterday. Should I make you wander from place to place with us today, when I have no idea where I’m going? Go back, and take your own people with you. May kindness and faithfulness go with you.”

But Ittai answered, “I swear by the living Lord, and by the life of my lord the king: wherever my lord the king is, I will be there too, whether that means death or life.”

So David told Ittai to go on, and Ittai crossed over with all his men and all the children who were with them. The whole countryside wept aloud as the people went by. The king crossed the Kidron brook, and everyone crossed with him, onto the road toward the wilderness.

The priests Zadok and Abiathar came too, and all the Levites with them, carrying God’s ark of the covenant. They put it down and waited until all the people had come out of the city. But David told Zadok to take it back. “If the Lord is pleased with me,” he said, “he will bring me home again and show me the ark and the place where it stays. If instead he says, ‘You don’t please me,’ then here I am. Let him do with me whatever he thinks is best.”

He sent the priests back to the city with their sons, Ahimaaz and Jonathan. “I will wait by the river crossings out in the wilderness,” he said, “until I get word from you.” So Zadok and Abiathar took God’s ark back into Jerusalem, and they stayed there.

David went up the road that climbs the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went. He kept his head covered and walked barefoot. Everyone with him covered their heads too, and they climbed, weeping as they went.

Someone told him, “Ahithophel is one of the men plotting with Absalom.”

David prayed, “Lord, please turn Ahithophel’s advice into foolishness.”

At the top of the hill, a place where people worshiped God, Hushai the Archite came out to meet him. His robe was torn, and there was dirt on his head. David gave him a harder task than coming along. “If you come with me, you will only be a burden to me,” he said. “But if you go back to the city and tell Absalom, ‘King, I will be your servant. I served your father before, and now I will serve you,’ then you can defeat Ahithophel’s advice for me.

“Zadok and Abiathar will be there with you. Tell them everything you hear in the palace, and send their sons to me with the news.” So Hushai, David’s friend, went back into the city, just as Absalom was coming into Jerusalem.

“The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride,” said Ziba. “The bread and fruit are food for the young men, and the wine is for anyone who feels faint out in the wilderness.”

“And where is your master’s grandson?” the king asked.

“He is staying in Jerusalem,” said Ziba. “He says, ‘Today the people of Israel will give me back my grandfather’s kingdom.’”

“Then everything that belonged to Mephibosheth is yours,” said the king. Ziba bowed low. “May you always look kindly on me, my lord the king.”

When King David came to Bahurim, a man from Saul’s family came out, cursing as he came. His name was Shimei son of Gera. He threw stones at David and his officials, even though the king’s soldiers and fighting men were all around David on both sides.

“Get out, get out, you murderer, you good-for-nothing!” Shimei shouted. “The Lord has made you pay for all the blood of Saul’s family, whose throne you took! The Lord has handed the kingdom to your son Absalom. Your own evil has caught up with you, because you are a murderer!”

Abishai, Joab’s brother, said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go across and cut his head off.”

But the king said, “You sons of Zeruiah, what do you and I have in common? If he curses because the Lord told him, ‘Curse David,’ who can ask him why?” Then he said to Abishai and all his officials, “Look, my own son, my own flesh and blood, wants to kill me. So this man from the tribe of Benjamin has even more reason to. Leave him alone. Let him curse, because the Lord told him to. Maybe the Lord will see the wrong done to me and pay me back with good for the cursing I get today.”

So David and his men went on down the road. Shimei kept pace with them along the hillside across the way, cursing as he went, throwing stones and flinging dust. The king and all the people with him arrived worn out, and there David rested.

“Is this how you show loyalty to your friend?” Absalom asked. “Why didn’t you go with him?”

“No,” said Hushai. “I belong to the one the Lord has chosen, the one these people and all the men of Israel have chosen, and I will stay with him. Besides, who should I serve, if not his son? I served your father, and now I will serve you.”

Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “What do you advise us to do?”

Ahithophel answered, “Your father left ten of his concubines to look after the palace. Take them as your own. All Israel will hear that you have made your father hate you, and that will give courage to everyone on your side.”

So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the palace roof, and there, in front of all Israel, Absalom took his father’s concubines for himself.

Years before, after David had taken Bathsheba and had her husband killed, the prophet Nathan had brought David a message from the Lord: “While you watch, I will take your wives from you and hand them to another man. You acted in secret, but I will do this in front of all Israel, in broad daylight.”

In those days people treated Ahithophel’s advice as if it were a word from God himself. That was how both David and Absalom valued it.

Next Ahithophel told Absalom, “Let me pick twelve thousand men and go after David tonight. I’ll attack him while he is tired and worn out, and throw him into a panic. All the people with him will run away, and I will strike down only the king. Then I will bring all the people back to you. Getting the one man you are after is as good as having everyone return. All the people will be at peace.”

The plan pleased Absalom and all the elders of Israel. But Absalom said, “Call Hushai the Archite too. Let’s hear what he has to say.”

When Hushai came, Absalom told him Ahithophel’s plan. “Should we do it? If not, tell us.”

“This time,” said Hushai, “the advice Ahithophel has given is not good. You know your father and the men with him: they are great fighters, and right now they are as fierce as a bear in the wild when someone has stolen her cubs. Your father knows all about war. He won’t camp for the night with his soldiers. By now he is hiding in some pit or some other place. If some of our men fall in the first attack, whoever hears about it will say, ‘Absalom’s army is being slaughtered!’ Then even the bravest man, with a heart like a lion’s, will melt with fear. Everyone in Israel knows your father is a great warrior, and that the men with him are brave.

“So this is my advice. Gather all Israel to you, from Dan to Beersheba, as many as the grains of sand by the sea, and lead them into battle yourself. Wherever he is, we will come down on him like the dew falling on the ground, and not one of them will be left, not him and not any of his men. And if he goes into a city, all Israel will bring ropes, and we will pull that city into the river until not even a pebble is left.”

Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “Hushai’s advice is better than Ahithophel’s.” This was because the Lord had decided to defeat Ahithophel’s good advice, so that he could bring disaster on Absalom.

Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En Rogel, because they could not risk being seen coming into the city. A servant girl would go out and bring them the news, and they would take it to King David.

But a boy saw them and told Absalom. The two hurried off to a man’s house in Bahurim. There was a well in his courtyard, and they climbed down inside it. The woman of the house spread a cover over the top of the well and scattered grain over it, and no one could tell anything was there.

Absalom’s men came to the house. “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” they asked her.

“They crossed over the brook,” she said. The men searched but could not find them, and went back to Jerusalem.

As soon as Absalom’s men had gone, the two young men climbed out of the well and went to tell King David. “Get up and cross the water quickly,” they said. “Ahithophel has given this advice against you.”

So David and everyone with him set out and crossed the Jordan. By the time the sun came up, every last one of them had crossed.

David came to Mahanaim. Absalom crossed the Jordan too, with all the men of Israel, and they camped in the land of Gilead. Absalom had made Amasa commander of his army in place of Joab. Amasa was Joab’s cousin.

At Mahanaim, three men came out to meet David: Shobi son of Nahash, from the Ammonite city of Rabbah; Machir son of Ammiel, from Lodebar; and Barzillai the Gileadite, from Rogelim. They brought beds, bowls and clay pots. They brought wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey, butter, sheep, and cheese, for David and his people to eat. “The people are hungry and tired and thirsty in the wilderness,” they said.

But the people said, “You must not go out, because if we run away, they won’t pay attention to us. If half of us die, they still won’t care. You, though, are worth ten thousand of us. So it is better for you to be ready to help us from the city.”

“I will do whatever seems best to you,” said the king. He stood beside the gate while the army marched out in groups of hundreds and thousands. As they went, he gave an order to Joab, Abishai and Ittai that every soldier heard: “For my sake, be gentle with the young man Absalom.”

So David’s army marched out into the open country to fight Israel. The battle took place in the forest of Ephraim, and there David’s men defeated the men of Israel. It was a great slaughter that day: twenty thousand men died. The fighting spread across the whole countryside, and more men died in the forest that day than died by the sword.

Absalom happened to meet some of David’s men. He was riding his mule, and it carried him under the thick branches of a big oak. Absalom’s head caught fast in the tree. The mule kept going, and Absalom was left hanging between heaven and earth.

A man who saw it went and told Joab. “Look! I saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!”

“You saw him?” said Joab. “Then why didn’t you strike him down on the spot? I would have given you a reward: ten pieces of silver and a belt.”

“Even if someone put a thousand pieces of silver in my hand,” the man answered, “I would not lay a hand on the king’s son. We heard the king order you, Abishai and Ittai, ‘Make sure no one touches the young man Absalom.’ If I had betrayed him and taken his life, the king would have found out, because nothing is hidden from the king. And you yourself would have turned against me.”

“I’m not going to wait around like this with you,” said Joab. He took three spears in his hand and drove them into Absalom’s heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak. Then ten young men who carried Joab’s armor surrounded Absalom and struck him until he died.

Joab blew the trumpet, and his soldiers stopped chasing Israel, because Joab held them back. They threw Absalom into a big pit in the forest and heaped a huge pile of stones over him. All Israel ran away, every man to his own home.

While he was alive, Absalom had set up a stone pillar for himself in the King’s Valley. “I have no son to keep my name alive,” he had said. He named the pillar after himself, and it became known as Absalom’s Monument.

“You shouldn’t be the one to bring the news today,” Joab told him. “Another day you can carry news, but not today, because the king’s son is dead.”

Then Joab said to a Cushite, “Go and tell the king what you saw!” The Cushite bowed low to Joab and ran off.

But Ahimaaz would not give up. “Whatever happens,” he said to Joab, “please let me run after the Cushite.”

“Why do you want to run, my son?” said Joab. “You’ll get no reward for this news.”

“Whatever happens,” he said, “I want to run.”

“Then run!” said Joab. So Ahimaaz took the road through the plain and ran past the Cushite.

David was sitting between the two gates of the city. The watchman climbed up to the roof over the gate, on the city wall, and looked out. A man was running toward them, alone. The watchman called out and told the king.

“If he is alone,” said the king, “he has news.” The runner came closer and closer.

Then the watchman saw another man running. He called to the gatekeeper, “Look! Here comes another man, running alone!”

“He must be bringing news too,” said the king.

“I think the first one runs like Zadok’s son Ahimaaz,” said the watchman.

“He is a good man,” said the king, “and he is bringing good news.”

Ahimaaz shouted to the king, “All is well!” Then he bowed low in front of the king, his face to the ground. “Praise the Lord your God,” he said. “He has handed over to you the men who rose up against my lord the king!”

“Is the young man Absalom safe?” asked the king.

“When Joab sent me,” said Ahimaaz, “I saw a great commotion, but I don’t know what it was.”

“Step aside and stand here,” said the king. So Ahimaaz stepped aside and waited.

Then the Cushite arrived. “Good news for my lord the king!” he said. “Today the Lord has paid back everyone who rose up against you.”

“Is the young man Absalom safe?” the king asked him.

The Cushite answered, “May all the enemies of my lord the king, and everyone who rises up to harm you, end up like that young man.”

The king was overcome. He went up to the room over the gate and wept. As he went, he cried out, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!”