Absalom ( meaning,"{my} father is {at} peace") was the third son of David and his wife Maacah.[1]. He was noted for his personal beauty and for the extraordinary profusion of the hair of his head.[2]. However, though he was predeceased by the two half-brothers between him and the throne, he would never rule over the land.
Due to a traumatic assault on his full sister Tamar by the presumed heir, and their half brother Amnon, a revenge killing by henchmen sent from Absalom vacated that seat. When later insurrection failed, he was killed by Joab, his father David's chief of staff.
Biography[]
Name and background[]
David had lived a hard life, despite his status as a hero in battle. Finally, he had been crowned king, but Saul's son Ishbosheth had maintained the support of the northern tribes. Determined to peacefully coexist with his enemy for a while, he had made the city of Hebron in his home tribe of Judah. He reigned there for 7½ years with his six wives. It was there that his wife Maacah gave birth to a son, who was given the name Absalom (or Abishalom).
In such a mixed household, Absalom had grown up under very little supervision. He and his sister Tamar had grown close as they shared the same parents. As royal children, the siblings bonded with their mother, more than their father. This led to disastrous results later in life.
Family[]
About the time Absalom was weaned, two men had assassinated King Ishbosheth of Israel, hoping to impress David. However, the rightful king of the united kingdom was not pleased. Nonetheless, with a new home in Jerusalem, Absalom and his siblings were now free from outside harassment. The oldest of them, Amnon, stood out with his aggressiveness. He was assumed to be the heir to the throne from an early age.
Things got complicated after the family moved to the new capital. David took more wives and concubines. From these women, many more children were born. It would turn out that the right to the throne was not to be a birthright.
Adult Life[]
The first public act of his life was the blood-revenge he executed against Amnon, David's eldest son, who had basely wronged Absalom's sister Tamar. This revenge was executed at the time of the festivities connected with a great sheep-shearing at Baal-hazor. David's other sons fled from the place in horror and brought the tidings of the death of Amnon to Jerusalem. Alarmed for the consequences of the act, Absalom fled to his grandfather at Geshur, and there lived for three years [3]
David mourned his absent son, now branded with the guilt of fratricide. As a result of a strategy carried out by a woman of Tekoah, Joab received David's sanction to invite Absalom back to Jerusalem. He returned accordingly, but two years elapsed before his father admitted him into his presence [4]
Absalom was now probably the oldest surviving son of David, and as he was of royal descent by his mother as well as by his father, he began to aspire to the throne. His pretensions were favored by the people. By many means, he gained their affection; and after his return from Geshur [5] he went up to Hebron, the old capital of Judah, along with a great body of the people, and there proclaimed himself king.
The revolt was so successful that David found it necessary to leave Jerusalem and flee to Mahanaim, beyond Jordan; where upon Absalom returned to Jerusalem and took possession of the throne without opposition.
Ahithophel, who had been David's chief counselor, deserted him and joined Absalom, whose chief counselor he now became. Hushai also joined Absalom, but only for the purpose of trying to counteract the counsels of Ahithophel, and so to advantage David's cause. He was so far successful that by his advice, which was preferred to that of Ahithophel, Absalom delayed marching an army against his father who thus gained time to prepare for the defense.
Absalom eventually marched out against his father, whose army, under the command of Joab, he encountered on the borders of the forest of Ephraim. Twenty thousand of Absalom's army were slain in that fatal battle, and the rest fled. Absalom fled on a swift mule, but his long flowing hair was caught in the bough of an oak, and there he was left suspended till Joab came up and pierced him through with three darts.
His body was then taken down and cast into a pit dug in the forest, and a heap of stones was raised over his grave. When the tidings of the result of that battle were brought to David, as he sat impatiently at the gate of Mahanaim, and he was told that Absalom had been slain, he gave way to the bitter lamentation:
Absalom's three sons;[6] had all died before him so that he left only a daughter, Tamar, who became the grandmother of Abijah.
Jewish Sources[]
Memorial[]
Absalom had erected a monument near Jerusalem to perpetuate his name:
Template:Blockquote
An ancient monument in the Kidron Valley near the Old City of Jerusalem, known as the Tomb of Absalom or Absalom's Pillar and traditionally identified as the monument of the biblical narrative, is now dated by modern archeologists to the first century AD.Template:Sfn The Jewish Encyclopedia reports: "A tomb twenty feet high and twenty-four feet square, which late tradition points out as the resting-place of Absalom. It is situated in the eastern part of the valley of Kidron, to the east of Jerusalem. In all probability it is the tomb of Alexander Jannæus (Conder, in Hastings' Dict. Bible, article "Jerusalem", p. 597). It existed in the days of Josephus.[7]Template:Sfn However, archaeologists have now dated the tomb to the 1st century AD.Template:Sfn In a 2013 conference, Professor Gabriel Barkay suggested that it could be the tomb of Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, based in part on the similarity to Herod's newly discovered tomb at Herodium. For centuries, it was the custom among passers-by—Jews, Christians and Muslims—to throw stones at the monument. Residents of Jerusalem would bring their unruly children to the site to teach them what became of a rebellious son.Template:Sfn
Analysis of Absalom's character[]
Although Absalom did avenge his sister's defilement by Amnon, ironically he was not much different from Amnon. As Amnon had brought two curses upon himself for incest with his half sister and failing to fulfill the Torah Law, Absalom brought three curses upon himself for dishonoring his father, relations with his father's wife (concubines) and failing to fulfill the Torah Law (Deuteronomy 27:20, 26).[8]
Rabbinic literature[]
The life and death of Absalom offered to the rabbis a welcome theme wherewith to warn the people against false ambition, vainglory, and unfilial conduct. The vanity with which he displayed his beautiful hair, the rabbis say, became his snare and his stumbling-block. "By his long hair the Nazirite entangled the people to rebel against his father, and by it he himself became entangled, to fall a victim to his pursuers".[9] And again, elsewhere: "By his vile stratagem he deceived and stole three hearts, that of his father, of the elders, and finally of the whole nation of Israel, and for this reason three darts were thrust into his heart to end his treacherous life".[10] More striking is the following: "Did one ever hear of an oak-tree having a heart? And yet in the oak-tree in whose branches Absalom was caught, we read that upon its heart he was held up still alive while the darts were thrust through him.[11] This is to show that when a man becomes so heartless as to make war against his own father, nature itself takes on a heart to avenge the deed."
"The knowledge that a part of Absalom's following sided with him in secret,--that, though he was pursued by his son, his friends remained true to him,--somewhat consoled David in his distress. He thought that in these circumstances, if the worst came to the worst, Absalom would at least feel pity for him. At first, however, the despair of David knew no bounds. He was on the point of worshipping an idol, when his friend Hushai the Archite approached him, saying: "The people will wonder that such a king should serve idols." David replied: "Should a king such as I am be killed by his own son? It is better for me to serve idols than that God should be held responsible for my misfortune, and His Name thus be desecrated." Hushai reproached him: "Why didst thou marry a captive?" "There is no wrong in that," replied David, "it is permitted according to the law." Thereupon Hushai: "But thou didst disregard the connection between the passage permitting it and the one that follows almost immediately after it in the Scriptures, dealing with the disobedient and rebellious son, the natural issue of such a marriage."[12] Absalom's end was beset with terrors. When he was caught in the branches of the oak-tree, he was about to sever his hair with a sword stroke, but suddenly he saw hell yawning beneath him, and he preferred to hang in the tree to throwing himself into the abyss alive. Absalom's crime was, indeed, of a nature to deserve the supreme torture, for which reason he is one of the few Jews who have no portion in the world to come.[13]
Popular legend states that the eye of Absalom was of immense size, signifying his insatiable greed.[14] Indeed, "hell itself opened beneath him, and David, his father, cried seven times: 'My son! my son!' while bewailing his death, praying at the same time for his redemption from the seventh section of Gehenna, to which he was consigned".[15] According to R. Meir,[16] "he has no share in the life to come". And according to the description of Gehenna by Joshua ben Levi, who, like Dante, wandered through hell under the guidance of the angel Duma, Absalom still dwells there, having the rebellious heathen in charge; and when the angels with their fiery rods run also against Absalom to smite him like the rest, a heavenly voice says: "Spare Absalom, the son of David, My servant."Template:Sfn "That the extreme penalties of hell were thus averted from him, was on account of David's eightfold repetition of his son's name in his lament over him. Besides, David's intercession had the effect of re-attaching Absalom's severed head to his body. At his death Absalom was childless, for all his children, his three sons and his daughter, died before him, as a punishment for his having set fire to a field of grain belonging to Joab."[17]
Verses[]
- ↑ 2 Sam. 3:3 (Link)
- ↑ 2 Sam 14:25,26 (Link)
- ↑ 2 Sam 3:3,13:23-38 (Link)
- ↑ 2 Sam. 14:28 (Link)
- ↑ 2 Sam. 15:7 (Link)
- ↑ 2 Sam. 14:27 (Link)
- ↑ "Antiquities" vii. 10, § 3 (Link)
- ↑ Template:Citation-attribution (Link)
- ↑ Mishnah Soṭah, i. 8 (Link)
- ↑ Tosef., Soṭah, iii. 17 (Link)
- ↑ [Mek., Shirah, § 6] (Link)
- ↑ Template:Citation-attribution (Link)
- ↑ Template:Citation-attribution (Link)
- ↑ Niddah, 24b (Link)
- ↑ Soṭah, 10b (Link)
- ↑ Sanh. 103b (Link)
- ↑ Template:Citation-attribution (Link)
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