Chapter Eighteen

The defeat and death of Absalom.

2 Samuel 18:2. And David sent out the troops — a third part under the command of Joab, a third part under the command of Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, a third part under the command of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said to the men: I myself will go out with you. “And David sent out the troops” — on the campaign against Absalom.

2 Samuel 18:3. But the men said to him: You must not go out; for if we flee, they will not care about us; if half of us die, they will not care; but you are worth ten thousand of us; therefore it is better that you help us from the city. In ensuring the king’s safety, the military commanders probably also had in mind the circumstance that a father in war with his son would not possess the composure necessary for a battle commander.

2 Samuel 18:4. And the king said to them: I will do what seems best to you. And the king stood by the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. “And the king stood by the gate” of the city of Mahanaim.

2 Samuel 18:6. And the troops went out into the field against Israel, and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim. By the forest of Ephraim some (Hugo Grotius and others) understand that place in the eastern Trans-Jordan, where the judge Jephthah once defeated the Ephraimites (Judg 12:1-6).

2 Samuel 18:8. The battle spread over all the country, and the forest consumed more of the people than the sword did that day. “And the forest consumed more of the people than the sword did that day.” The defeated army of Absalom fled to seek protection in the forest, but here it was either met by an ambush, or simply scattered and destroyed piecemeal.

2 Samuel 18:17. And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very large heap of stones. And all Israel fled, each to his tent. “All Israel,” those who made up the army of Absalom.

2 Samuel 18:18. Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley; for he said: I have no son to preserve the memory of my name. So he called the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day. In the vicinity of Jerusalem, in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, there still stands a monument bearing the name of the Tomb of Absalom. According to the testimony of scholars, Hebrew rabbis from ancient times commanded parents of disobedient children to bring them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, to the Tomb of Absalom, and, telling them the story of the rebellious son of David, made them throw stones at the monument (Geikie, “The Holy Land and the Bible”). To the question of why, having noted above (2 Sam 14:27) that Absalom had three sons and one daughter, the writer now reports that Absalom set up a monument for himself because he had no sons, the blessed Theodoret answers: “Both statements are true, for it is probable that he both begat children and that his children died. And Josephus remarks that Absalom did this because his children could not live long; but a building could preserve the memory of him longer” (Blessed Theodoret, commentary on 2 Samuel, question 34).

2 Samuel 18:21. And Joab said to Cushi: Go, tell the king what you have seen. And Cushi bowed to Joab and ran. This refers not to the king’s adviser Hushai (2 Sam 15:32-37), but to someone else. According to the opinion of Vlastov (“Sacred Chronicle,” vol. IV), instead of “Hushai” one should read “Hushi” or “Kushi,” that is, a settler, servant, or hired laborer among the Hebrews “from the Ethiopians.”

2 Samuel 18:24. Now David was sitting between the two gates. And the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall, and when he lifted up his eyes, he saw a man running alone. “Between the two gates” of the city wall — the outer and the inner.

2 Samuel 18:25. And the watchman called out and told the king. And the king said: If he is alone, there is news in his mouth. And he came on and drew near. “If he is alone, there is news in his mouth,” that is, if one is coming, it is probably a messenger with good news about the success of the military operations, since the defeated do not come, but run, and that in groups.

2 Samuel 18:29. And the king said: Is it well with the young man Absalom? And Ahimaaz said: When Joab sent the king’s servant and me your servant, I saw a great commotion, but I do not know what it was. Wishing to please the king with the pleasant news of his army’s victory, Ahimaaz did not dare to tell the father about his son’s death.