Deal Gently With the Young Man
1 David counted the people who were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. 2 David sent the people out, a third part under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the people, “I will also surely go out with you myself.” 3 But the people said, “You shall not go out, for if we flee away, they will not care for us, neither if half of us die, will they care for us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. Therefore now it is better that you are ready to help us out of the city.” 4 The king said to them, “I will do what seems best to you.” The king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. 5 The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom. 6 So the people went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was in the forest of Ephraim. 7 The people of Israel were struck there before David’s servants, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men. 8 For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. 9 Absalom happened to meet David’s servants. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak; and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was hanging between the sky and earth; and the mule that was under him went on. 10 A certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.” 11 Joab said to the man who told him, “Behold, you saw it, and why didn’t you strike him there to the ground? I would have given you ten pieces of silver and a sash.” 12 The man said to Joab, “Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn’t stretch out my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Beware that no one touch the young man Absalom.’ 13 Otherwise, if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there is no matter hidden from the king), then you yourself would have set yourself against me.” 14 Then Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this with you.” He took three darts in his hand and thrust them through Absalom’s heart while he was still alive in the middle of the oak. 15 Ten young men who bore Joab’s armor surrounded and struck Absalom, and killed him. 16 Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab held the people back. 17 They took Absalom and cast him into a great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones. Then all Israel fled, each to his own tent. 18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar which is in the king’s valley, for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in memory.” He called the pillar after his own name. It is called Absalom’s monument, to this day.
A father's order heard by the whole army, a rebel caught in an oak, and a general who kills him anyway because the war needs ending.
The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.
The order is given publicly to three commanders before a battle against an army led by the man in question. As a father's plea it is understandable; as a royal command it is impossible — it asks twenty thousand men to fight a war whose leader must not be harmed, and it tells every soldier present that the king's heart is not fully in the cause they are about to die for. David's own troops have already refused to let him take the field 2 Samuel 18:3, and this is why.
6 So the people went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was in the forest of Ephraim. 7 The people of Israel were struck there before David’s servants, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men. 8 For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
Absalom's great host, gathered on Hushai's advice, is worse than useless in broken wooded country, where numbers cannot deploy and veterans can. The line about the forest is grim and slightly eerie: the land itself finishes what the professionals begin.
Absalom happened to meet David’s servants. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak; and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was hanging between the sky and earth; and the mule that was under him went on.
The end of the beautiful prince is an accident with a mule. The narrative does not mention the famous hair, and does not need to; the man whose appearance was Israel's marvel 2 Samuel 14:25–26 is left dangling in a tree, and his royal mount walks out from under him.
The man said to Joab, “Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn’t stretch out my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Beware that no one touch the young man Absalom.’
The unnamed soldier is the chapter's moral center. Offered ten pieces of silver and a sash to have killed him, he refuses on the plain ground that the king said not to — and adds, shrewdly, that Joab would have disowned him afterward. An ordinary man obeys an order that the commander finds inconvenient.
Then Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this with you.” He took three darts in his hand and thrust them through Absalom’s heart while he was still alive in the middle of the oak.
Joab's calculation is that a live Absalom means a continuing war and a king too compromised to end it, and by the cold arithmetic of the state he is probably right. He is also directly disobeying his king, killing a defenseless man, and doing it in front of ten armor bearers who finish the job so the blame is shared. He then blows the trumpet at once and stops the slaughter 2 Samuel 18:16 — the same man ending the killing he has just guaranteed. Joab is the book's study in the indispensable subordinate whose judgment is better than his master's and whose hands are never clean.
Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar which is in the king’s valley, for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in memory.” He called the pillar after his own name. It is called Absalom’s monument, to this day.
The body goes into a pit under a heap of stones — the burial of an executed criminal Joshua 7:26 — and the narrator sets beside it the monument Absalom had built for himself. He is remembered, precisely as he wished and not at all as he intended.
settled What this mark means