2 Samuel 18:9-18

Absalom’s death 18:9-18

"The mule was a royal mount; losing his mule [2 Samuel 18:9] Absalom has lost his kingdom." [Note: Conroy, p. 60.]

The text says Absalom’s head caught in an overhanging oak branch (2 Samuel 18:9). Josephus interpreted this, perhaps in view of 2 Samuel 14:26, as his hair got caught in the tree. [Note: Josephus, 7:10:2.]

"The great tree, inanimate though it is, has proved more than a match for the pride of Absalom." [Note: Baldwin, p. 270.]

"The reader who recalls 14,26 will almost certainly visualize Absalom’s hair in connection with the entanglement . . . and will easily draw a contrast between promise and pride on the one hand and humiliation and doom on the other." [Note: Conroy, p. 44, n. 4.]

The soldier who found Absalom wisely obeyed the orders of David. There are many evidences throughout the David saga that David had an excellent communications network. The soldier’s parenthetic comment, "There is nothing hidden from the king," (2 Samuel 18:13) is just one evidence of this (cf. 2 Samuel 14:20). Likewise there is nothing hidden from David’s greatest son, Jesus Christ, who knows all that happens under His authority.

Despite David’s instructions Joab wounded Absalom, probably mortally, on the spot (2 Samuel 18:14). Perhaps Joab feared David would have pardoned Absalom’s sin, thus giving him another opportunity to revolt. We must be careful to conduct our spiritual warfare according to our King’s instructions rather than taking matters into our own hands, as Joab did.

Absalom’s burial was in keeping with what the Mosaic Law prescribed for a rebellious son (Deuteronomy 21:20-21). God cut Absalom off because he rebelled against the Lord’s anointed, rather than blessing him because he was David’s eldest son. This was the third son that David had lost because of his sins against Bathsheba and Uriah. [Note: See my comment on 12:6.] Instead of having a line of kings succeed him, all Absalom left behind was a stone monument (stele) that he had erected to himself (2 Samuel 18:18). His three sons (2 Samuel 14:27) must have died prematurely (2 Samuel 18:18).

"It is possible, however, that one or more of his sons were unwilling (for whatever reason) to perpetuate their father’s memory." [Note: Youngblood, p. 1021.]

In the ancient world, a son normally erected a memorial to his father when his father died, if the father was famous. Moreover, people also expected him to imitate his father and thus become a living memorial to his name. [Note: Boyu Ockinga, "A Note on 2 Samuel 18:18," Biblische Notizen 31 (1986):32.] Absalom failed to receive either form of honor. Absalom lived like Eli’s sons and Saul, and he died as they did. [Note: For some interesting additional insights into Absalom gleaned from the text, see Roy Battenhouse, "The Tragedy of Absalom: A Literary Analysis," Christianity and Literature 31:3 (Spring 1982):53-57.] The King’s Valley (2 Samuel 18:18) was the Kidron Valley. The 52-foot-high tomb or pillar of Absalom that marks the spot today, just east of the temple area, is an early first century A.D. Hellenistic or Roman sepulcher. [Note: W. Harold Mare, The Archaeology of the Jerusalem Area, p. 195.] We should not confuse it with the memorial referred to in this text, though the present one may stand on the same spot as the older one.

Absalom’s attempt to usurp David’s throne proves again that disobedience to God’s covenant (i.e., the Mosaic Law) resulted in lack of fertility (blessing) in Israel. The enemies of the Lord’s Anointed will never succeed. Because of his sin, David had to flee Jerusalem, and he experienced much heartache. Because of his sins, Absalom died without honor. Nevertheless, in spite of David’s sin, God restored him to power because of God’s elective choice of him, and because of David’s heart for God.

God had promised to punish David for his disregard of the Mosaic Covenant and the Lord. Still, He did not say He would cut him off as He had cut Saul off (2 Samuel 12:10-12). The following chapters (2 Samuel 18:19 to 2 Samuel 19:43) record Yahweh’s restoration of His anointed after discipline.