A verse by verse commentary on 2 SAMUEL 15 dealing with the conspiracy and revolution against David which led to David having to flee from Jerusalem with all his officials. A very emotional king David had to deal with his enemies and his friends.

1. 2 SAMUEL 15 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Absalom's Conspiracy
1 In the course of time, Absalom provided himself
with a chariot and horses and with fifty men to run
ahead of him.
BARNES, "And it came to pass ... - The working out of Nathan’s prophecy
(marginal reference) is the clue to the course of the narrative. How long after
Absalom’s return these events occurred we are not told.
CLARKE, "Absalom prepared him chariots and horses - After all that has
been said to prove that horses here mean horsemen, I think it most likely that the
writer would have us to understand chariots drawn by horses; not by mules or such
like cattle.
Fifty men to run before him - Affecting in every respect the regal state by this
establishment. Of this man Calmet collects the following character: “He was a bold,
violent, revengeful, haughty, enterprising, magnificent, eloquent, and popular prince;
he was also rich, ambitious, and vain of his personal accomplishments: after the
death of Amnon, and his reconciliation to his father, he saw no hindrance in his way
to the throne. He despised Solomon because of the meanness of his birth, and his
tender years. He was himself of the blood royal, not only by his father David, but also
by his mother Maacah, daughter to Talmai, king of Geshur: and, doubtless, in his
own apprehension, of sufficient age, authority, and wisdom, to sustain the weight of
government. There was properly now no competitor in his way: Amnon, David’s first-
born, was dead. Of Chileab, his second son by Abigail, we hear nothing; and Absalom
was the third: see 2Sa_3:2-5. He, therefore, seemed to stand nearest to the throne;
but his sin was, that he sought it during his father’s life, and endeavored to dethrone
him in order to sit in his stead.
GILL, "And it came to pass after this,.... After the reconciliation of David and
Absalom, and the latter was admitted to court again:
that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses; to make himself look grand
and respectable among the people; perhaps he got these from his grandfather at
Geshur in Syria:
and fifty men to run before him; which added to his pomp and magnificence;
and such great personages in later time have had; Nero the Roman emperor never
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2. went on a journey with less than a thousand calashes or chariots, and a great number
of men that ran before him (c): and this was tacitly setting himself up for king, at
least preparing for it, as Adonijah afterwards did in the same way and manner, 1Ki_
1:5.
HENRY, "Absalom is no sooner restored to his place at court than he aims to be
in the throne. He that was unhumbled under his troubles became insufferably proud
when they were over; and he cannot be content with the honour of being the king's
son, and the prospect of being his successor, but he must be king now. His mother
was a king's daughter; on that perhaps he valued himself, and despised his father,
who was but the son of Jesse. She was the daughter of a heathen king, which made
him the less concerned for the peace of Israel. David, in this unhappy issue of that
marriage, smarted for his being unequally yoked with an unbeliever. When Absalom
was restored to the king's favour, if he had had any sense of gratitude, he would have
studied how to oblige his father, and make him easy; but, on the contrary, he
meditates how to undermine him, by stealing the hearts of the people from him. Two
things recommend a man to popular esteem - greatness and goodness.
I. Absalom looks great, 2Sa_15:1. He had learned of the king of Geshur (what was
not allowed to the kings of Israel) to multiply horses, which made him look desirable,
while his father, on his mule, looked despicable. The people desired a king like the
nations; and such a one Absalom will be, appearing in pomp and magnificence, above
what had been seen in Jerusalem. Samuel had foretold that this would be the manner
of the king: He shall have chariots and horsemen, and some shall run before his
chariots (1Sa_8:11); and this is Absalom's manner. Fifty footmen (in rich liveries we
may suppose) running before him, to give notice of his approach, would highly
gratify his pride and the people's foolish fancy. David thinks that this parade is
designed only to grace his court, and connives at it. Those parents know not what
they do who indulge a proud humour in their children; for I have seen more young
people ruined by pride than by any one lust whatsoever.
JAMISON, "2Sa_15:1-9. Absalom steals the hearts of Israel.
Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before
him — This was assuming the state and equipage of a prince. The royal guards,
called runners, avant couriers, amounted to fifty (1Ki_1:5). The chariot, as the
Hebrew indicates, was of a magnificent style; and the horses, a novelty among the
Hebrew people, only introduced in that age as an appendage of royalty (Psa_32:9;
Psa_66:12), formed a splendid retinue, which would make him “the observed of all
observers.”
BENSON, "2 Samuel 15:1. Absalom prepared him chariots, &c. — When he
thought he had established himself in his father’s good affection, he began to
take great state upon him, set up, as we now speak, a splendid equipage, and was
royally attended, as being the king’s eldest son, (now Amnon was dead,) and next
heir to the crown. For it seems Chileab, who was elder than he, 2 Samuel 3:3,
was either dead also, or, through some cause, was incapable of the government.
Absalom undoubtedly designed, by taking this course, to draw the eyes of the
people to himself, who, as they were much in love with his beauty, so were
doubtless mightily taken with this fine sight of chariots and horses, especially as
it was unusual, not being allowed by the law. David was, however, so indulgent
that, it seems, he took no notice of it. And fifty men to run before him — An
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3. honour this such as his royal father had neither had, nor thought of. These,
though attendants in appearance, were, in effect, guards.
K&D, "2Sa_15:1-3
Absalom seeks to secure the people's favour. - 2Sa_15:1. Soon afterwards (this
seems to be the meaning of ‫ן‬ֵ‫כּ‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ֲר‬‫ח‬ ַ‫א‬ ֵ‫מ‬ as distinguished from ‫ן‬ֵ‫כּ‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ֲר‬‫ה‬ ַ‫;א‬ cf. 2Sa_3:28)
Absalom set up a carriage (i.e., a state-carriage; cf. 1Sa_8:11) and horses, and
fifty men as runners before him, i.e., to run before him when he drove out, and
attract the attention of the people by a display of princely pomp, as Adonijah
afterwards did (1Ki_1:5). He then went early in the morning to the side of the
road to the gate of the palace, and called out to every one who was about to go to
the king “for judgment,” i.e., seek justice in connection with any matter in
dispute, and asked him, “Of what city art thou?” and also, as we may see from
the reply in 2Sa_15:3, inquired into his feelings towards the king, and then said,
“Thy matters are good and right, but there is no hearer for thee with the king.”
ַ‫ﬠ‬ ֵ‫מ‬ֹ‫שׁ‬ signifies the judicial officer, who heard complainants and examined into
their different causes, for the purpose of laying them before the king for
settlement. Of course the king himself could not give a hearing to every
complainant, and make a personal investigation of his cause; nor could his
judges procure justice for every complainant, however justly they might act,
though it is possible that they may not always have performed their duty
conscientiously.
CONSTABLE, "Absalom's conspiracy 15:1-12
Two sub-sections each begin with a reference to time (2 Samuel 15:1; 2 Samuel
15:7) and form a literary "diptych" (i.e., two complementary panels). [Note:
Fokkelman, p. 165.] The first six verses explain how Absalom undermined
popular confidence in the Lord's anointed for four years. The last six relate his
final preparations to lead a military revolution against David.
"Whatever the reason, he exhibited the same patient scheming and relentless
determination which he had already shown when he set out to avenge the rape of
his sister (chapter 13); the leopard had not changed his spots. His hatred for
Amnon at least had had some excuse, but now it became clear that he had no
affection for his father either. Apart from his love for his sister Tamar, he
appears to have been a cold, ruthless and above all ambitious man." [Note:
Payne, p. 227.]
Absalom spent four years (2 Samuel 15:7, probably 980-976 B.C.) quietly
planning a coup. That "four" is the correct number rather than "40" seems
clear from other chronological references. [Note: See the Septuagint, and
Josephus, 7:9:1.] He did this by securing military weapons and supporters (2
Samuel 15:1; cf. 1 Kings 1:5), criticizing his father's administration (2 Samuel
15:2-3), promising to rule better than David (2 Samuel 15:4), and exercising
personal charm and flattery (2 Samuel 15:5-6). David was at this time (980-976
B.C.) building his palace in Jerusalem, then constructing a new dwelling place
for the ark, and finally making preparations for the temple (2 Samuel 5:9-12).
This may be the reason David was not meeting the needs of his people as well as
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4. he might have done. It probably accounts for David's surprise when Absalom's
coup began as well.
Perhaps Absalom chose Hebron as the place to announce his rebellion because
that was his birthplace, and his support was probably strongest there. Some in
Hebron may have resented David's moving his capital from there to Jerusalem.
[Note: Laney, p. 113.] Ahithophel (2 Samuel 15:12) was probably Bathsheba's
grandfather (2 Samuel 11:3; 2 Samuel 23:34). Ahithophel's support of Absalom
may suggest that the general public did not know about God's choice of David's
successor. Ahithophel came from a town in Judah (Joshua 15:51).
Absalom's rebellion against God's anointed king is similar to the reaction of the
Jews to Jesus, the Lord's Messiah. They did not want Him to reign over them.
Consequently Jesus departed from them and returned to heaven, from which he
will return to reign over them eventually.
HAWKER, "(1) ¶ And it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him
chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him.
The whole life of Absalom seems to have been sinful. He multiplies his train of
horses and his chariots, with running footmen to grace his equipage; whereas the
Lord had strictly forbidden this to his people Israel. Deuteronomy 17:15.
Moreover, the Lord had told Israel by his servant Samuel, that the king they
would choose, but not of the Lord's approbation, would be of this very character,
to take pride in what the Lord had forbidden; and that he would oppress his
subjects in the number of his chariots, horsemen, and servants. So that these
things ought to have been enough to have made the people look shy upon
Absalom; whereas it appears that so far from it, these tended to win their
affections. See 1 Samuel 8:11, etc
PINK, "And it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots and
horses, and fifty men to run before him" (2 Sam. 15:1). The "after this" refers to
what now followed upon David’s receiving back into his favor the son who had
murdered a brother (14:33). If a spark of gratitude had burned in his breast,
Absalom would now have sought to do all in his power toward forwarding the
interests of his indulgent father. But alas, so far from strengthening the hands of
his royal parent, he sets to work to dethrone him. Absalom was now in the
position to develop his vile plan of deposing David. The methods he followed
thoroughly revealed what a godless and unscrupulous scoundrel he was. The
first thing here recorded of him at once intimated his utter contempt of God and
manifested his affinity with the heathen.
Jehovah requires His people to conduct themselves differently from the idolatrous
nations surrounding them, and therefore He gave, among others, this law for the
regulation of Israel’s king: But he shall not multiply horses to himself" (Deut. 17:16).
It was in accord with this, that, when the King of kings formally presented Himself to
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5. Israel, He appeared "meek and sitting upon an ass" (Matthew 21:5), so perfectly did
He honor the Law in every detail. But Absalom was of a totally different type:
arrogant, proud, self-willed. All the other sons of David rode upon mules (2 Sam.
13:19), but nothing less than "chariots and horses" would satisfy this wicked aspirant
to the kingdom.
The "fifty men to run before him" was a symbol of royalty: see 1 Samuel 8:11; 1
Kings 1:5. In acting thus, Absalom took advantage of his father’s fond attachment and
basely traded upon his weakness. Unauthorized by the king, yet not forbidden by him,
he prepared an imposing retinue, which gave him a commanding status before the
nation. Finding himself unchecked by the king, he made the most of his position to
seduce the hearts of the people. By means of underhand methods, Absalom now
sought to turn toward himself the affection of his father’s subjects. From the
employment of force (2 Sam. 14:30), he resorted to craftiness. As we have said before,
these two are the leading characteristics of the devil: the violence of the "lion" and the
guile of the "serpent," and thus it ever is with those whom he fully possesses.
"And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate: and it was so, that
when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom
called unto him, and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is of one of
the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right;
but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom said moreover, Oh that I
were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come
unto me, and I would do him justice! And it was so, that when any man came nigh to
him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him. And in
this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment: so Absalom
stole the hearts of the men of Israel" (2 Sam. 15:2-6).
A few explanatory comments are required upon some of the terms in the above verses.
First, the "way of the gate" was the place of judgment, that is, of judicial assize (see
Gen. 19:1; 23:10, 18; 34:20; Ruth 4:1). "Thy matters" in verse 3 signifies "thy suit or
cause" as in verse 4. The obvious intention of Absalom in stationing himself at this
important center was to ingratiate himself with the people. His "thy matters are good
and right" to all and sundry alike, showed his determination to win them regardless of
the requirements of justice or the claims of mercy. His "there is no one deputed of the
king to hear thee" was a dastardly attempt to create prejudice and lower the sovereign
in their eyes. His "O that I were made judge in the land" revealed the lusting of his
heart; neither pleasure nor pomp contented him—he must have power too. His
embracing of the common people (v. 5) was a display of (pretended) humility and
geniality.
"So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel," upon which Thomas Scott well
said, "He did not gain their hearts by eminent services, or by a wise and virtuous
conduct. But he affected to look great, as heir to the crown, and yet to be very
condescending and affable to his inferiors: he pretended a great regard to their
interests, and threw out artful insinuations against David’s administration; he
flattered every one who had a cause to be tried, with the assurance that he had right on
his side; that, if it went against him, he might be led to accuse David and the
magistrates of injustice. Though Absalom knew not how to obey, and deserves to die
for his atrocious crime, yet he expressed a vehement desire to be judge over all the
land, and suggested that suits should not then be so tedious, expensive, and partially
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6. decided as they were. This he confirmed by rising early and by apparent application;
though it was other people’s business, and not his own duty: and by such sinister arts,
united with his personal attractions and address, he imposed upon multitudes all over
the land to prefer so worthless a character to the wise, righteous, and pious David."
Ere proceeding further let us pause and ask the question, What is there here for our
own souls? This should ever be the principal concern of our minds as we read the
Word of God. Its historical sections are full of important practical teaching: many
valuable lessons may be learned therefrom if only we have hearts to receive them. Ah,
that is the point on which so much turns. There must be a readiness and willingness
on my part if I am to profit spiritually from what I peruse; and for that, there must be
humility. Only a lowly heart will perceive that I am likely to be attracted by the same
baits which led to the downfall of others; that I am liable to the same temptations they
met with, and that unless I guard the particular gate at which the enemy succeeded in
gaining an entrance into their souls, he will just as surely prevail over me. O for grace
to heed the solemn warnings which are found in every incident we ponder.
Now look again at what is recorded here. "Absalom stole the hearts of the men of
Israel." Surely that is the sentence which should speak most loudly to us. It was not
the open enemies of David that he wrought upon, but his subjects. It was not the
Philistines whom he enlisted but the people of God whom he seduced. Absalom
sought to sow the seeds of discontent in their minds, to alienate their affections from
David, to render them disloyal to their king. Ah, is not the lesson plain? Is there not
one who is ever seeking to seduce the subjects of Christ? tempting them to revolt from
allegiance to His sceptre, endeavoring to allure them into his service. Learn, then, dear
friend, to look beneath the surface as you read the Holy Scriptures, to see through the
historical details to the underlying principles that are therein illustrated, to observe the
motives which prompted to action; and then apply the whole to yourself.
What had you done had you been one of those "men of Israel" whose hearts Absalom
was seeking to divorce from David? The answer to that question would have turned
entirely on one thing: was your heart satisfied with David? Of this tempter we read,
"But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty:
from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him"
(2 Sam. 14:25), thus there was everything about his person to appeal to "the lust of the
flesh." And as we have seen, "Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty
men to run before him," thus there was an appeal to "the lust of the eyes." Moreover,
he promised to further the temporal interests of all who had "a controversy," that is, of
all who considered they had a grievance and were being hardly dealt with: thus there
was an appeal to "the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). Were those things more than
sufficient to counterbalance the excellencies which David possessed?
Again we say, Look beneath the historical characters and discern those whom they
typified! When Satan comes to tempt the subjects of the antitypical David he assumes
his most alluring character and dangles before us that which appeals either to the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life. But mark it well, dear reader, that
Satan’s baits have no attraction for those who are in communion with and finding
their joy in the Lord. And he knows that full well, and therefore does he seek to stir up
enmity against Him. He knows he cannot cause a regenerate soul to dislike the person
of the Lord, so he endeavors to create dissatisfaction with His government over us. It
was so in the type: "there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee." Ah, it is here we
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7. most need to be on guard: to resist every effort of Satan’s to bring us to murmur at the
Lord’s providences. But we must turn from the spiritual application back again to the
historical.
And what of David during this time? He could hardly have been totally ignorant of the
perfidy of his son: some tidings must have reached him of the treacherous plot now on
foot to dispose him. Yet there is no hint that he took any steps to thwart Absalom.
How, then, shall we account for his apathy? At the close of our last chapter we dwelt
upon the strange passiveness which characterized David during this stage of his
checkered career, suggesting that the explanation proffered by Alexander Maclaren
was a most likely one and apparently confirmed by the Scriptures, namely, that during
this period the king suffered from a severe and protracted sickness. That helpful writer
called attention to the fact that many of the best commentators regard Psalms 41 and
55 as being composed by David at this time. Having already given his brief remarks
upon the former, we will now reproduce those upon the latter; suggesting that Psalm
55 be read through at this point.
"The fifty-fifth psalm gives some very pathetic additional particulars. It is in three
parts: a plaintive prayer and portraiture of the psalmist’s mental distress (vv. 1-8); a
vehement supplication against his foes, and indignant recounting of their treachery
(vv. 9-16); and, finally a prophecy of the retribution that is to fall upon them (vv.
17-23). In the first and second portions we have some points which help to complete
our picture of the man. For instance, his heart is ‘sore pained’ within him, the ‘terrors
of death’ are on him, ‘fear and trembling’ are come to him, and ‘horror" has covered
him. All this points, like subsequent verses, to his knowledge of the conspiracy before
it came to a head.
"The state of the city, which is practically in the hands of Absalom and his tools, is
described with bold imagery. Violence and strife in possession of it, spies prowling
about the walls day and night, evil and trouble in its midst, and destruction,
oppression, and deceit—a goodly company—flaunting in its open spaces. And the
spirit, the brain of the whole, is the trusted friend whom he had made his own equal,
who had shared his secretest thoughts in private, who had walked next him in solemn
processions to the temple. Seeing all this, what does the king do, who was once so
fertile in resource, so decisive in counsel, so prompt in action? Nothing. His only
weapon is prayer: ‘As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord will save me.
Evening and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and He shall hear my
voice.
"He lets it all grow as it list, and only longs to be out of all the weary coil of troubles.
‘O that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest. Lo, I would flee
far off, I would lodge in the wilderness. I would swiftly fly to my refuge from the
raging wind, from the tempest.’ The languor of his disease, love for his worthless son,
consciousness of sin, and submission to the chastisement through ‘one of his own
house,’ which Nathan had foretold, kept him quiet, though he saw the plot winding its
meshes round him. And in this submission patient confidence is not wanting, though
subdued and saddened, which finds expression in the last words of this psalm of the
heavy laden, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee . . . I will trust
in Thee.’"
Much of what Absalom said to those whose hearts he stole had, no doubt, a measure
of truth in it. The disorders and sorrows of David’s house had borne heavily on the
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8. king: his energy flagged, his health was broken, and the influence of his throne
proportionately weakened. Absalom saw the defects of his father’s government, and
perceived that others saw them too, and quickly and meanly he took advantage of the
situation, deprecating David and extolling himself. Yet David idolized Absalom,
indeed, this was one of his chief failures, and bitterly was he now made to smart for
cherishing such a viper in his bosom. He knew that Absalom was exalting himself. He
knew that the calling of God was not with him, but with Solomon (2 Sam. 7:12;
12:25). He knew that Absalom was godless, that the flesh ruled him in all his ways;
and yet, knowing all this, he interfered not to restrain him.
"And it came to pass after forty years, that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let
me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord, in Hebron" (15:7). We are
not sure from what point these forty years date, but certainly not from the time of
David’s coronation, for in such a case we would now have arrived at the closing year
of his reign, which is obviously not the case—see 2 Samuel 21:1. Possibly it is to be
dated from the time of his first anointing (1 Sam. 16:13). At any rate, that which is
most germane to our present line of meditation is, Absalom considered that his
wicked plot was ripe for execution, hence he now proceeded to put the finishing
touches to it. Nothing less than the kingdom itself was what he determined to seize.
"For thy servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur in Syria, saying, If the Lord
shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. And the king said
unto him, Go in peace. So he arose, and went to Hebron" (vv. 8, 9). Absalom’s
duplicity and hypocrisy appear in all their hideousness. He cloaked his insurrection
under the guise of offering sacrifice unto Jehovah (Deut. 23:21-23) in performance of
a vow which he pretended to have made. He had no love for his parent and no fear for
his God, for he dared now to mock His worship with a deliberate lie. He cunningly
imposed upon his poor father’s hopes that at last his wayward son was becoming
pious. No doubt David had often prayed for him, and now he supposed that his
supplications were beginning to be answered. How delighted he would be to hear that
Absalom desired to "serve the Lord," and therefore he readily gave his consent for him
to go to Hebron.
"But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as ye hear
the sound of the trumpet, then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron" (v. 10). Let
this be a warning to parents not to assume too readily that their children have
experienced the new birth, but wait to see the fruits of the same. Instead of journeying
to Hebron in order to worship Jehovah, Absalom’s purpose was to be acclaimed
monarch over Israel. "Hebron" was not only the place where he was born (2 Sam.
3:2,3) but it was also where David had commenced his reign (2 Sam. 5: 1-3). These
"spies" that he sent forth were either his own trusted "servants" (14:30) or those whose
hearts he had stolen from David and on whom he could now rely to further his evil
scheme. Those who would hear this proclamation "Absalom reigneth" might draw
whatever conclusion they pleased—that David was dead, or that he had relinquished
the reins of government, or that the Nation at large preferred his attractive son.
"And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called, and
they went in their simplicity, and they knew not any thing" (v. 11). No doubt these
"two hundred men were persons of rank and prominence, being summoned to
accompany the king’s son to a sacred feast. Absalom’s object was to awe the common
people and give them the impression that David’s cause was now being deserted at
8

9. headquarters. Thus these men unwittingly countenanced Absalom’s evil devices, for
their presence signified that they supported his treason. This is a fair sample of the
methods employed by unprincipled politicians to further their selfish ends, getting
many to join their ranks or party under a complete misconception of the leader’s real
policy.
"And Absalom sent for Ahithophel, the Gilonite, David’s counsellor, from his city,
even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong, for the
people increased continually with Absalom" (v. 12). The man whose aid Absalom
now sought was a renowned statesman, apparently no longer on friendly terms with
David. He was a fit tool for the insurrectionist, though in the end God turned his
counsel into foolishness. The sovereignty which God displays in His providences is as
patent as it is awe-inspiring. As He graciously raises up those to befriend His people
in the hour of their need, so He has appointed those who are ready to help the wicked
in the furthering of their evil plans. As there was an Ittai loyal to David, so there was
an Ahithophel to counsel Absalom.
MACLAREN, "PARDONED SIN PUNISHED
There was little brightness in David’s life after his great sin. Nathan had told him,
even while announcing his forgiveness, that the sword should never depart from his
house; and this revolt of Absalom’s may be directly traced to his father’s disgraceful
crime. The solemn lesson that pardoned sin works out its consequences, so that
‘whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,’ is taught by it. The portion of the
story with which we are concerned has two stages,-the slow hatching of the plot, and
its final outburst.
I. 2Sa_15:1-6 give us the preparation of the mine. It takes four years, during which
Absalom plays all the tricks usual to aspirants for the most sweet voices of the
multitude. He seems to have been but a poor creature; but it does not take much
brain to do a great deal of mischief. He was vain, headstrong, with a dash of craft and
a large amount of ambition. He had no love for his father, and no ballast of high
principle, to say nothing of religion. He was a spoiled child grown to be a man, with a
child’s petulance and unreason, but a man’s passions. He loved his unfortunate
sister, but it was as much wounded honour as love which led him to the murder of
his elder brother Amnon. That crime cleared his way to the throne; and David’s half-
and-half treatment of him after it, neither sternly punishing nor freely pardoning, set
the son against the father, and left a sense of injury. So he became a rebel.
The story tells very vividly how he adopted the familiar tactics of pretenders. How
old, and yet how modern, it reads! We who live in a country where everybody is an
‘elector’ of some sort, and candidates are plentiful, see the same things going on, in a
little different dress, before our eyes. Absalom begins operations by dazzling people
with ostentatious splendour. In better days Samuel had trudged on foot, driving a
heifer before him, to anoint his father; and royalty had retained a noble simplicity in
the hands of Saul and David. But ‘plain living and high thinking’ did not suit
Absalom; and he had gauged the popular taste accurately enough in setting up his
chariot with its fifty runners. That was a show something like a king, and, no doubt,
much more approved than David’s simplicity. But it was an evil omen to any one who
looked below the surface. When luxury grows, devotion languishes. The senseless
ostentation which creeps into the families of good men, and is sustained by their
weak compliance with their spoiled children’s wishes, does a world of harm. We in
Lancashire have a proverb, ‘Clogs, carriage, clogs,’ which puts into three words the
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10. history of three generations, and is verified over and over again.
How well Absalom has learned the arts of the office-seeker! Along with his handsome
equipage he shows admirable devotion to the interests of his ‘constituents.’ He is
early at the gate, so great is his appetite for work; he is accessible to everybody; he
flatters each with the assurance that his case is clear; he gently drops hints of sad
negligence in high quarters, which he could so soon set right, if only he were in
power; and he will not have the respectful salutation of inferiors, but grasps every
hard hand, and kisses each tanned cheek, with an affectation of equality very
soothing to the dupes. ‘Electioneering’ is much the same all the world over; and
Absalom has a good many imitators nearer home.
There was, no doubt, truth in the charge he made against David of negligence in his
judicial and other duties. Ever since his great sin, the king seems to have been
stunned into inaction. The heavy sense of demerit had taken the buoyancy out of
him, and, though forgiven, he could never regain the elastic energy of purer days. The
psalms which possibly belong to this period show a singular passivity. If we suppose
that he was much in the seclusion of his palace, a heavily-burdened and spirit-broken
man, we can understand how his condition tempted his heartless, dashing son to
grasp at the reins which seemed to be dropping from his slack hands, and how his
passivity gave opportunity for Absalom’s carrying on his schemes undisturbed, and a
colour of reasonableness to his charges. For four years this went on unchecked, and
apparently unsuspected by the king, who must have been much withdrawn from
public life not to have taken alarm. Nothing takes the spring out of a man like the
humiliating sense of sin. The whole tone of David’s conduct throughout the revolt is,
‘I deserve it all. Let them smite, for God hath bidden them.’ To this resourceless,
unresisting submission to his enemies, sin had brought the daring soldier. It is not
old age that has broken his courage and spirit, but the consciousness of his foul guilt,
which weighs on him all the more heavily because he knows that it is pardoned.
II. The second part of our subject tells of the explosion of the long-prepared mine. It
was necessary to hoist the flag of revolt elsewhere than in Jerusalem, and some skill
is shown in choosing Hebron, which had been the capital before the capture of the
Jebusite city, and in which there would be natural jealousy of the new metropolis.
The pretext of the sacrifice at Hebron, in pursuance of a vow made by Absalom in his
exile, was meant to touch David’s heart in two ways,-by appealing to his devotional
feelings, and by presenting a pathetic picture of his suffering and devout son vowing
in the land where his father’s wrath had driven him. It is not the first time that
religion has been made the stalking-horse for criminal ambition, nor is it the last.
Politicians are but too apt to use it as a cloak for their personal ends. Absalom talking
about his vow is a spectacle that might have made the most unsuspecting sure that
there was something in the wind. Such a use of religious observances shows more
than anything else could do, the utter irreligion of the man who can make it. A son
rebelling against his father is an ugly sight, but rebellion disguised as religion adds to
the ugliness. David suspects nothing; or, if he does, is too broken to resist, and,
perhaps glad at any sign of grace in his son, or pleased to gratify any of his wishes,
sends him away with a benediction. What a parting,-the last, though neither knew it!
The plot had spread widely in four years, and messengers had been sent through all
Israel to summon its adherents to Hebron. If David had been as popular as in his
early days, it would have been impossible for such a widely spread conspiracy to have
come so near a head without some faithful soul having been found to tell him of it.
But obviously there was much smouldering discontent, arising, no doubt, from such
causes as the pressure of taxation, the gloom that hung over the king, the partial
paralysis of justice, the transference of the capital, the weight of wars, and, at lowest,
the craving for something new. Few reigns or lives set in unclouded brightness. The
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11. western horizon is often filled with a bank of blackness. Strangely enough, Absalom
invited two hundred men to accompany him, who were ignorant of the plot. That
looks as if its strength was outside Jerusalem, as was natural. These innocents were
sufficiently associated with Absalom to be asked to accompany him, and, no doubt,
he expected to secure their complicity when he got them away. Unsuspecting people
are the best tools of knaves. It is better not to be on friendly terms with Absalom, if
we would be true to David. The last piece of preparation recorded is the summoning
of Abithophel to come and be the brain of the plot. He had been David’s wisest
counsellor, and is probably the ‘familiar friend, in whom I trusted,’ whose defection
the Psalmist mourns so bitterly, and whose treachery was a marvellous
foreshadowing of the traitor who dipped in the dish with David’s Lord. Note that he
had already withdrawn from Jerusalem to his own city, from which he came at once
to Hebron. Absalom could flatter and play the well-worn tricks of a pretender, but a
subtler, cooler head was wanted now, and the treacherous son was backed up by the
traitor friend. ‘And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually
with Absalom.’ What a tragical issue to the joyous loyalty of early days! What a
strange madness must have laid hold on the nation to have led them to prefer such a
piece of petulance and vanity to their hero-poet-king! What did it mean?
The answer is not far to seek, and it is the great lesson of this story. David’s sin was
truly repented and freely forgiven, but not left unpunished. God is too loving to
shield men from the natural consequences, in the physical and social world, of their
sins. The penitent drunkard’s hand shakes, and his constitution is not renewed,
though his spirit is. Only, punishment is changed into discipline, when the heart
rests in the assurance of pardon, and is accepted as a token of a Father’s love. In
every way God made of the vice the whip to scourge the sinner, and David, like us all,
had to drink as he had brewed, though he was forgiven the sin.
BI 1-37, "Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before
him.
Absalom; or, the fast young man
The Bible resembles a portrait gallery adorned with the faces of remarkable historic
men, where every variety of feature and every type of character may be found. An
imaginative person, visiting such a gallery, and gazing at the silent faces which look
down upon him from the walls, until lost in the thoughts and reflections awakened by
them, may fancy at length that they are alive. As we study the characters of the
people there portrayed, we recognise in them permanent, types of different classes.
As such they live again to us. We have known such persons; they have lived in our
time; they have acted anew the parts, and displayed the qualities which of old
distinguished or disgraced them. They reappear in every age. It is this typical
character of the Bible that gives such value to this ancient book. In reading it, we
forget that it is an old book. It seems a new book, from exhibiting the latest phases of
human conduct, from setting before us moral qualities and actions which we
recognise as familiar, and, connecting with them timely lessons for our instruction
and warning. Such reflections are awakened by the perusal of the story of Absalom. It
is a typical story, and he was a typical character and representative of what is called
the fast young man.
I. It teaches the vanity of personal beauty and outward show apart from moral worth.
In the pictures of Hogarth, and other painters of society, we find that such superior
beauty is the common heritage of the fast young man. It has been called a “fatal
dower.” It is so regarded because it is apt to make the possessor the petted darling of
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12. parents and friends, and liable to be spoiled by the thoughtless admiration and
flattery lavished upon him. Thus an exaggerated estimate is placed upon mere
physical charms. Beauty of face and form is set above the higher excellence of
character, whereby vanity and frivolity of mind are engendered, and amiability of
disposition and goodness of heart sacrificed. But there is truth in the homely adage
that “Handsome is who handsome does,” and all beauty which is not united with fair
doing is only a poor sham.
II. The story of Absalom reveals the type of character that is most dangerous and
dreadful. His was not an impulsive nature, hurried away by gusts of passion into sin.
There is much allowance to be made for such hot-tempered spirits. The
misdemeanours of which they are guilty are not, as a rule so reprehensible as those
which are perpetrated by their authors in cold blood. They are more likely than the
latter to be only escapades from virtue—exceptions to a course that is ordinarily
straightforward and well-meaning. Absalom’s wickedness was deliberate and
studied. His character is evinced in the way he avenged the outrage done by Amnon
to his sister.
III. This fast young man, of desperate type, becomes an intriguing politician.
Absalom is the earliest specimen on record, we believe, of a finished demagogue. As
we consider the subtle arts by which he courted popularity and wound himself into
the favour of men—his attendance at the gate, where the king’s judgment seat was,
his affability and condescension towards the people who brought causes for
adjudication, and his pretended sympathy for their grievances on account of the
delay of justice, we seem to have come upon the original model after which the
modern opposition candidate has shaped himself It agrees with the character to be
forever arraigning those in power for neglect of duty and malfeasance in office, and
to promise a complete reformation in case the party of the critic is entrusted with the
conduct of affairs. When the outs are in, and the ins are out, all wrong shall be
righted, and the millennium will come. So Absalom laboured to make the flattered
people believe.
IV. Another aspect in which Absalom appears is that of a wayward, undutiful son.
The fast young man causes agonising heartache to his aged father or distressed
mother. In the eyes of the Jews, with their traditions of the patriarchal period and its
form of government, where the father was both priest and ruler of his household,
such a child was a monster of depravity, worthy only of death. Hence the emphasis
put upon the fifth commandment, “the first commandment with promise;” hence the
sternness of their legislation with respect to unfilial conduct, and the fearful
denunciation their proverbs utter against it. “The eye that mocketh at his father,”
says Agur, “and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it
out, and the young eagles shall eat it.”
V. The story of Absalom contains another lesson, without which it would be
incomplete, namely, the lesson of sin’s retribution. It is a striking example of the
declaration: “As righteousness tendeth to life, so he that pursueth evil, pursueth it to
his own death.” The last act of the tragedy is short and impressive. David and his
adherents stayed not in their flight until they found shelter behind the walls of
Mahanaim, in the land of Gilead. There opportunity was given to recover from panic,
and organise their strength; and thither Absalom and his forces leisurely pursued
them. (A. H. Charlton.)
David and Absalom
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13. I. In how many ways men serve themselves in serving others.
1. We may serve ourselves, strengthen our position, advance our temporal
interests, when we are truly serving others, But when we are doing them
disservice, encouraging them, helping them, to evil, we are our own enemies as
well as theirs. We have something higher than temporal interests to think of.
Gold is far from everything. In the protest of conscience how the fine gold
becomes dim! And when conscience is seared, and the heat dead to all sensibility,
at what a cost has anything, how-ever desired by men, been secured.
2. We truly befriend ourselves by unselfishly serving others. And this we can do
as we make everything a Divine service. Sometimes we may seem on the
vanquished side, like true-hearted Ittai, staunch to David in his flight, but the end
will justify us. To be on the side of honesty, truth, purity, is ever at the last to be
on the side that wins. So he who forgets himself in doing the things right in the
sight of God will be vindicated in the sight of the world as “good and faithful
servant,” as having “well done” for himself as well as others.
II. In absalom we see how the motive determines the value of conduct. This appears
in his bearing towards Amnon. Similarly with Absalom’s conduct when seeking to
ingratiate himself with the people. The animating motive of what we do should be
tested by us. Could we read others as God reads us, could we “look at the heart” as He
does, with what rejection would we meet much that is now welcomed by us! But if we
cannot appraise the lives of others by their motives, and if they cannot thus appraise
ours, there is One ever thus testing us. There is One who pierces every mask of
hypocrisy. There is One who looks through our outward appearance of truth, purity,
devotion, and sees whether there is a corresponding inward reality. With Him the
motive makes the act.
III. In Absalom we see to what cruel lengths unchecked ambition will lead a man.
That was his ruling passion; the explanation, I think, of his long-delayed stroke at
Amnon. Ambition goaded Absalom from crime to crime till lie had wrapped the land
in the horrors of civil war—of all wars the most prolific in misery—and nerved him to
assail a father’s life that he might, over his dead body, step up into the throne. It win
not do for us to say that in all this there is no beacon to us. There are many thrones.
Some of us, it may be, eager to get into one—to be over others; kings and queens of
influence in our little kingdom. There can be ambition in a cottage as well as in a
court. There may be wretched envy, the evil eyeing of an imagined rival, the wicked
gladness that hears, and that with pretended reluctance retails the disparaging
slander; the sty persistence that insinuates itself, or the rough resolution that
tramples its way into the petty throne. God save us from such ambition! In His
kingdom the thrones are for the lowly.
IV. In David we see the threatened punishment for his sin. Penitent for his great
wickedness in the matter of Uriah, his life had been spared, but the sword was not to
depart from his house. Sin has broken him, even forgiven sin. A thing to be
remembered. He may never have been wisely firm enough in the training of his
children. But that feel transgression of his loosened the filial bond that bound his
children to obedience, and encouraged them to crimes that laid his kingly head in the
dust. Sin finds men out, even godly men. “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he
also reap.” He who sows to the flesh, though he be a David, shall of the flesh reap
corruption. Well, then, for us to “stand in awe and sin not.”
V. In the darkness of calamity the better David shines to us. In the bowed,
barefooted man weeping his way across the Kedron, and up Olivet, it is a king we see.
It is David again. A Divine permission he recognises in all that is befalling him. He
has no superstitious trust in the ark—let Zadok and Abiathar carry it back to
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14. Jerusalem. In God was his trust. “Let Him do to me as seemeth good unto Him.” So
on—one of the most pathetic figures of all history—goes weeping David-on towards
the plains of the wilderness. And as he passes out of our sight do you not hear such
words as these? Sorrow by sin! Peace by pardon! Blessed is the man whose
transgression is forgiven! “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
(G. J. Coster.)
Absalom: a study
Untrained, except in self-admiration and self-indulgence, imperious, ambitious,
quick to take offence and slow to forgive, hot with the riot of youthful blood, the
young man—so fathered, so mothered, so brought up—is suddenly flung upon the
world, and exposed to the temptations of a court in which the Uriah and Bathsheba
scandal is being discussed in all its forms and incidents. And the first grave
adventure he meets in it is the intolerable wrong and shame inflicted on his beautiful
sister by the heir to the throne! Will not the king avenge so dreadful a crime? No;
David is very wroth with Amnon, but does not care “to vex his spirit, because he is his
first-born.” By all Eastern as well as by Hebrew law, then, public justice having failed,
Absalom is the goel, the avenger of his sister; it is no crime, bug a duty, to wipe out
her shame with blood. But as David will not “vex the spirit of Amnon, his son”—and
there is a world of weak unfatherliness in that fatherly phrase—so neither will he
suffer it to be vexed. Hence Absalom is left to brood over the wrong in silence for a
couple of years, till, by a treacherous ruse, he makes way for his revenge, and Amnon
is stabbed as he sits at his brother’s table and drinks his brother’s wine. We blame
the deed, and, above all, the manner of the deed: but can we very severely blame the
man? Not if we remember what the wrong was which he avenged, and how the world
has always allowed a certain latitude to the avenger of such wrongs. Not if we
remember that the justice, which the king ought to have been forward to execute, had
been deliberately refused, and how imperative were the duties imposed on the goel
both by Eastern custom and Hebrew law. Amnon was his half-brother, indeed—a
thought which might well have given him pause; but have we yet to learn that
brothers born in the harem are born enemies, rivals from the first to the last? And it
was not Absalom’s fault that harem manners and jealousies had been introduced into
Israel. If “beauty is a gift,” “beauty is also a snare.” To few has the gift been so largely
accorded as to Absalom; to few has it proved a snare so deadly. In him the personal
comeliness and vigour of Jesse’s line seems to have culminated. Of Absalom we are
told simply that his beauty was without blemish and beyond compare; but it seems
probable that it may have been of that rare type in the Hebrew race which stirs even
them to an unwonted admiration. It may have been because of his rare and superb
beauty that, while still a child, he was celled Absalom, “father of peace,” though he
proved to be a “father of strife” rather than of peace; for it may not unnaturally have
been thought that a child so exceptionally lovely would kindle smiles and win a kindly
welcome wherever he went. It adds the last touch to our conception of his beauty if
we note that it sprang from the most vigorous physical health, as his magnificent fell
of hair indicates. For, then, we can only think of him as quick with life and energy,
and accomplished in all the exercises of peace and of war. Now if we think of this
young prince with his hereditary bias, his defective training, never taught to rule or
deny himself, coming out into a lax world—tall, graceful, strong, his blue eyes
swimming in light, his fair locks failing thickly on his broad shoulders—we shall
understand that his very beauty may have been a fatal gift to him. Met with smiles,
welcome, and an easy compliance with his whims and desires, on every hand, hardly
any one saying “No” to him, he never saying “No” to himself, what wonder if he
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15. became wilful, bold, insolent? What wonder if, his will once thwarted, he should
kindle into a blaze; or, If he hid his fire, he should nurse and feed it till it found vent,
and swept him beyond all bounds of law and duty? Is it not plain that position,
training, temperament, habits, gifts, even the gift of beauty, all worked together to
make him self-willed, capricious, restless, imperious, and, if crossed, violent and
revengeful? Even in the brief space he occupies in the Sacred Record, we have many
proofs that there was something reckless and desperate in the man, that he was apt
to throw the reins on the neck of his lusts, and let them carry him where they would.
That David and his men had some such suspicion of him, that they held him to be at
least capable of an excessive and criminal violence in order to serve his ends, is
proved by the fact that whoa an exaggerated report, of Amnon’s assassination
reached them, when they were told, “Absalom hath slain all the king’s sons, there is
not one of them left,” they found nothing incredible in the horrible rumour, but rent
their clothes and cast themselves on the earth, and wept for the goodly young men
cut off in their prime (2Sa_13:30-31.) If the tale were not true, it was only too likely
to have been true. A touch of the same recklessness and desperation comes out in the
manner in which he jogged the drowsy memory of Joab (2Sa_14:23.) It was by the
intervention of Joab that Absalom was called back to Jerusalem from his three years’
banishment in Syria. It was on Joab’s intercession that he relied for an entire
reconciliation with the king, who for two years after his return, refused to see his
face. Joab may have been doing his best, or he may not. In any case he did not move
fast enough for the imperious prince. He sends for Joab, therefore; but, Joab having
no good tidings to give him, will not come. He sends a second time, and still Joab will
not come. Whereupon he sends servants into Joab’s farm to fire his standing barley,
and so compels the old warrior to wait upon him, and to listen to his complaint that
he would rather die than continue to live such a life as his. But, of course, it, was in
his long-planned and artfully prepared rebellion against his father and king that all
that was vehement, self-willed, unrestrained in the man found full vent. With
Absalom’s tragic end the bolt of retribution flew right home. And yet the pity of it!
For, had Absalom been reared as hardily and piously as David was, in the home and
on the hills of Bethlehem; had he been snubbed, laughed at, kept down, as David
was, by a band of tall, stalwart brothers; had he, like David, been tried by stroke on
stroke of adversity and undeserved reproach through all the opening years of
manhood, there seems little reason to doubt that he might have been no worse a man
morally than his father was; or, at least, no room to doubt that, by such a severe and
pious training in duty and obedience, he might have been saved from the crimes by
which his life was stained, and from the shame by which his memory is oppressed. In
him, too, the spiritual man might have conquered the natural man at the last, and
stilled and controlled the fever of his blood. As it is, we can but use his name “to
point a moral,” for we can hardly add “and to adorn a tale.” And that moral is, of
course, the immense danger of suffering the animal man in us to overget the spiritual
man. The bias of our blood and temperament may not jump with his; our training
may have been better than his; our faults, our passions, our gifts, may not resemble
his; and certainly we arc not, most of us tempted to an indolent self-indulgence and
self-will by a splendour of personal beauty and charm which makes it hard for any
one to resist us. And yet no one who knows himself will doubt that the brute is strong
in him; that he, too, has inherited cravings, passions, lusts, which must be subdued if
he is to be saved from sins as fatal, if not as flagrant, as those of Absalom. And the
flesh is not to be subdued and starved in any of us save as we feed and cherish the
spirit. We can only overcome evil as we follow after that which is good. But if we seek
to subdue the flesh by nourishing the spirit, whether in ourselves or in our children,
He who makes large allowance for us all will largely and effectively help us all. (S.
Cox, D. D.)
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16. Absalom’s rebellion
The monument to Absalom in the valley of the Kidron is buried deep in stones, cast
against it by the Jews, as through generations they have passed, in token of their
execration of this unatural prince—the counterpart, in the Old Testament, of Judas in
the New. These stones are the true monument of Absalom. Let us add our tribute to
make it a prominent and permanent landmark in religious history. This instructive
example is held up before us in great detail. It is a warning, especially to young men.
The methods by which it was secured are carefully stated. The instance is particular;
but the application is as general as mankind.
I. Absalom perverted his natural advantages. He was a gifted and handsome young
man; he came of a well-favoured stock, and he was its flower. He had a fine head of
hair; he paid strict attention to it. It became a matter of national interest when
Absalom cut his hair. He had a sheep-farm. We do not know the particulars of his
clip of wool; but the weight of his annual poll of hair is carefully noted as two
hundred shekels, or more than three pounds. The hair of Absalom represents all
natural advantages. For personal gifts play an important part in securing success in
this world.
II. Absalom had a perverse energy of character. He had persistency of purpose in a
high degree—a masterful trait. He was calculating and deep. He was a tenacious man.
Many men of fine powers fail through want of tenacity. The good man in the famous
ode of Horace was tenacious of his purpose. So our bad man, Absalom, did not fail
here. When Amnon wronged his sister Tamar he concealed his resentment for two
years. He bided his time. When he determined to undermine David’s throne he
showed a like steadfastness of resolution. He rose promptly in the morning. David
rose early to pray; Absalom rose early to plot. This course of patient, insidious
plotting Absalom continued for months, perhaps for years, until he was known
throughout the kingdom as the poor man’s friend.
III. Absalom perverted the study of human nature. He studied the weaknesses of
men. This is called by men of his base aims the study of men. The vices and the
foibles are noted; the theory being that for one who would play effectively on this fine
instrument what is especially necessary is a Wagnerian mastery of discords. The
adventurer, the opposition politician, the quack doctor, the fortune-seeker, give
themselves to men have succeeded as Absalom succeeded—in politics, in professional
life, in Absalom’s study of human weakness. Upon this knowledge their success
depends.
IV. Absalom had unlimited and perverted self-assurance. With all his shrewdness in
measuring others, he had no proper sense of his own weaknesses. To scrutinise the
weaknesses of others he closed, so to speak, one eye—that one whose outlook was
upon his own heart. Exaggerated self-confidence is typical of this class of men. To the
ordinary man with his misgiving and fear of himself it is surprising, dazzling. His
own modesty prepares him to yield to the most audacious and preposterous claims of
another. Perhaps the wonderful physician can work a cure of the incurable. He says
he can. And what hair he hast Perhaps the politician can redress the evils of society
which have baffled the wisest statesmen. He says he can. He is a remarkable-looking
man. Perhaps one can be safely given a place of trust, though it would seem as if he
can have had no experience to fit him for its delicate duties. He says he is competent.
There is a degree, and, it is an amazing degree oftentimes, to which men will give
confidence to bare pretension. Absalom’s pretension was most shrewdly calculated.
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17. V. Absalom Perverted The Choice Of Counsellors. He chose sagacious, but evil
advisers; masterly, but unprincipled. Ahithophel was the oddest statesman in the
nation. Absalom improved the opportunity. He sent for Ahithophel. The bad old man
came to him—a man after his own heart. We must recognise the dangerous wisdom
of the councils of this world. This wisdom is necessary to worldly success. If one
heeds it, he greatly increases his prospects of accomplishing all worldly aims.
VI. Absalom perverted the use of religion. It has been suggested here that when
David rose early to pray he and Absalom may have met. It may be that the crafty
prince first shared his father’s devotions on the way to the gate. He saw the hold
which religion had upon David and upon the nation. It would not answer for him to
have the reputation of being irreligious; he must guard his religious standing. He
made a religious excuse for visiting Hebron. It was a natural one. He had made a
vow, he explained, while he was in Geshur in exile for the murder of Amnon. It was a
nicely-calculated excuse. David believed in vows. He would look upon the handsome
prince with heightened tenderness, touched by his manifest sensibility. Religion, in
all times, is one of the readiest and most serviceable of cloaks. It especially serves the
purposes of one who would win success in a religious community. Thus Satan comes
among us disguised as an angel of light.
VII. Absalom studiously secured the support of good men, with the same steady
perseverance. He valued them. They could help him. He wanted the approval of such
men at large in the nation. He despised them. He wanted them only as tools. But he
knew the value to his cause of having men of character associated with his followers.
The rebellion triumphed without a blow. It war one of the best considered and most
brilliant enterprises in history. Absalom seemed to be repaid for all his self-denial,
his unsavoury wiles, his clever hypocrisy, his long patience. He had reached his goal.
He was king. Many society. You may be tempted to cherish the low aim. But look at
Absalom at the goal of his hopes, in tile full flush of success! Even then who would
take his place? What had he accomplished but the fatal perversion of a life capable of
greatest things. Look into his heart, and try to conceive the thoughts which must
have been there in the very exaltation of his triumph. Then look again upon that
sombre background, the forest of Ephraim, the figure of a man dripping with blood
from many wounds, hanging and swaying in the awful twilight in the terebinth tree,
suspended by his beautiful hair. Ah! this, then, is a part of what Absalom was
planning—that part of which he was all unconscious, but the inevitable end! Learn
from this history how the noblest gifts may be perverted, industriously, painfully,
fatally, to secure the false success. How are you using your life? your fine natural
advantages? How are you treating the privileges of religion? Who are your chosen
counsellors? For what aim of life are you fostering deep, tenacious, self-sacrificing
purposes? What a man Absalom might have been with a right aim I What a man you
may become if you set your heart on the one end worthy of a Son of God—to be a
prince of the kingdom of tight; in love and loyalty and honour, to be one of the pillars
of His temple. (Monday, Club Sermons.)
The rebellion of Absalom
I. Absalom’s conduct began in the exercise of the basest ingratitude. He assassinated
Amnon at a banquet, and then fled to his grandfather’s city Geshur for a refuge.
There he remained for some years; the popular soldier Joab caused the woman of
Tekoa to go to David with a parable and an entreaty; and the king reluctantly
permitted his son to return to Jerusalem, but he would not meet him in the palace.
That gave Absalom a chance again. And now we have two lessons to learn at once.
17

18. 1. One is this: what a man sows he must also reap. David’s boys divided up
David’s crimes between them, and repeated his guilt there under his own roof.
That was an instance of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind. It is wise to
remember that harvests are greater than seed.
2. The second lesson is, there is no gain in discipline unless it leaves behind it a
better heart. “Even after a shipwreck,” the old philosopher Seneca remarks,
“there are hosts who still wilt seek the sea.” It is not for any man to say that
affliction sanctifies; of itself it sours a heart which is not sanctified beforehand.
And he has lost much who has lost a discipline at God’s hand; he has had all the
weary pain of it without any of the good; he has had the roughness of the
ploughing without any of the fruit from the furrows.
II. This rebellion disclosed itself in the mere show of personal vanity. That is the only
significance of such gorgeousness of equipage, and a half a hundred men to run
before this conceited creature Absalom’s chariot. There is not a sign of patriotism in
his course. So here we have another lesson to learn: all true leadership is taught by
the discipline of endurance under fierce distress. It was with David as with Jesus
Christ; he that is to be a Captain of salvation unto God’s people must consent, as our
Divine Saviour consented, to be made “perfect through suffering.”
III. This outbreak of Absalom was conducted with the hypocrisies of malicious
deceit. How plausibly the man talked; how venomous were his insinuations; how
false were his kisses; yet thus it was that he won the people’s hearts and undermined
his father’s throne. The lesson that comes to us just here is: there can be no
dependence on mere personal advantages unless they are put to a serviceable use.
The record which is familiar to us all reminds us of the old commendations of Saul in
the day when he came out before the people a head and shoulders above any one of
those who cried “God save the king!” We have a kindling picture of Absalom’s
attractions of person and form. The old honest historian of the Greeks says with a
creditable frankness that Themistocles was able to make his insipid son,
Cleophantes, a good horseman, but he failed in every particular when he
endeavoured to make him a good man. And that same failure has been reached a
great many times since.
IV. That this insurrection was relentlessly continued through a long period of time.
Not “forty years,” surely, as one of the verses seem to say; such a chapter can be
found neither in David’s nor in Absalom’s biography. It is impossible to put the
reckoning anywhere. Josephus states the time, with the authority of the Syriac and
the Arabic version behind him, as being four years instead of forty. And that is long
enough certainly for an ungrateful son to continue mischievously to plot against his
father is so villianous a way. There can be no value in a noble lineage unless the
position is employed nobly. Absalom had nothing to do with the item of his birth; it
would be a credit to him or a shame according to what he should do with it. Honour
and wealth from no condition rise. The Bible makes short work with primogeniture;
in almost every instance the chieftainship goes away from the sons earliest born.
Later history is suggestive. Cleanthes lived by watering gardens; Pythagoras was the
child of a silversmith; Euripides was brought up to help his brothers till the fields;
Demosthenes was the son of a cutler; Virgil’s father was a potter. There is no
pretension more impertinent than that which is forcing itself forward on the merits
of mere parentage and position:
V. That this wild rebellion is consummated at last with a lie in the name of religion.
This was at once the meanest and the shrewdest of all Absalom’s subterfuges. In
order to cover his absence from suspicion, and put David off his guard in Jerusalem,
he trumped up this pretext of an old vow. God sometimes leaves wicked people to the
18

19. retribution of apparent success. Absalom comes to Jerusalem, is actually crowned as
king, has a few military victories; then his downfall is swift and heavy; the triumph of
traitors is short. In a part of one year is dissipated all the fortune of the four years the
treacherous son had plotted against his father. Ahithophel closes his career with a
suicide, and ere long the rebellion is ended; David sits in his throne and sings
brighter songs even while he mourns in his heart.
VI. We mention a few reflections concerning the death which this rebel prince died.
1. There is a limit beyond which patience, both human and Divine, cannot be
expected to go. When the heart of this royal ingrate became fixed in his
wickedness, the Lord simply withdrew from all interposition; so he was left to his
fate; he died the rebel he had lived. Here is an inspired warning: “Some men’s
sins are Open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow
after.”
2. When a false leader falls, he drags down his favourites in the failure. The most
interesting feature of this story has always been the immediateness with which
the rebellion subsided when those darts went through Absalom’s heart: What
ultimately became of those who had perilled all their fortunes upon his success
we are not informed. Their hopes failed; they had attributed many excellences to
that young and beautiful prince; possibly they had not studied the future
carefully, into the abysses of which they land now plunged. Hereafter they were
outlaws and wanderers.
3. There can be no advantage in having “a fair chance” in life unless one hastens
to improve it for the good of others. The fact is, we instinctively hold this man
Absalom responsible all the more sternly because he had opportunities so fair
and abused them so basely. His sin was the more heinous on account of his
conspicuous position.
4. The hour of retribution is likely to be an hour of melancholy review.
Confidence in the successful issue of evil purposes only deepens the humiliation
of defeat. There is even to this day pointed out in the valley close by Jerusalem a
lofty structure of stone called “Absalom’s Tomb.” The Scripture has given us a
hint concerning its true origin, but not of its date: “Now Absalom in his lifetime
had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king’s dale: for he
said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar
after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom’s place.” That
particular structure is perhaps replaced by this: tradition says it is not a
sepulchre, but a monument; and Josephus goes so far as to insist that it was
called Absalom’s Hand,” and bore at its summit a hand as the symbol of power
and victory. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Absalom’s rebellion
After domestic broils and the violent death of Amnon in circumstances full of horror
and disgrace, and after Absalom’s banishment and return, this adroit and
unscrupulous man, impelled by his own ambition, and having no idea of co-
operation with Deity in the punishment of evil, sets about dethroning his own father
and, if possible, possessing himself of the crown. When one thing is radically wrong,
other Wrong things follow in the train of it. Like woes, sins cluster. The city-gate was
the place for the administration of justice (Rth_4:1), and those who were charged
with dispensing it held court early in the day. On the approach to the court an
anxious litigant is greeted with frank courtesy by the handsome and stately Absalom,
19

20. who with the deepest interest inquires about his residence and his business. Won by
the affability of such a distinguished and exalted questioner, the man tells his place
and his grievance. The hollow courtier has the same story for each. He reaches a
verdict without the trouble of a hearing of the case or the appearance of the other
side. The man is delighted. He is at rest. And when the simple provincial, in addition
to such intelligent sympathy with his wrongs, found himself taken by the hand and
kissed by the handsome pretender, he was sure to go back to his own town and say
that David had become useless as a king and was neglecting his duties, and that
things never would be right until Absalom, who was as wise as he was elegant, filled
the throne. Alas, poor human natural It is the same to-day that it was in David’s time.
“Ambition,” as a word, comes from the Roman politicians going about in their
canvass for votes, fawning upon and flattering the people. English ladies of rank have
gone and coaxed and caressed butchers whom they scorned to secure their votes for
their husbands or their proteges. Members of legislatures have kissed the children
and hobnobbed with their parents to make reputation among them. Doctors have sat
as “friends” by the bedside of the wealthy, hinted their regrets that more vigorous
measures were not adopted and more hopeful views taken by the physicians in
attendance, only dropping their smooth generalities when the device succeeded and
they were called into consultation, and regard for their reputation compelled them to
agree with the rest. It is all in the same line with the policy of the mean, smooth-
mannered traitor who (v. 6) “stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” It took three years
to carry out his schemes, make his party and arrange for his being proclaimed. So he
made a pretence of going to Hebron, the old capital; which probably resented the loss
of its prestige, where friends of his youth probably lived and could be counted upon,
and where his father had been crowned. It is not needful to ask if his vow were a
reality. He was now at his ease in lying, and could readily supply the details of v. 8.
To keep up the show of things, Absalom offered sacrifices, in which all who partook
were to be held as pledged to his support. Men of this sort will use religion for their
own ends. History since the Reformation has many a sad case of rulers shaping their
religious courses so as to secure popular sympathy. Meanwhile, and in order to have
him at the banquet, Absalom invites Ahithophel, a man of influence, whose adhesion
would carry great weight, as he was David’s counsellor. Absalom probably knew his
feelings of discontent and dissatisfaction with David. Absalom’s plans now seemed
sure to succeed. “The conspiracy was strong.” He had many friends throughout the
tribes. The fascination of his personal approaches, the fair promises he had
informally made, the relation he sustained to royalties already—all these things
influenced the people, and his following “increased continually.” Ill-news will
commonly travel fast. “A messenger”—from some friend perhaps—to David
announced the extent of the movement, no doubt with details of Absalom’s plans as
far as they were known or inferred. The afflicted king realised the danger, and at once
decided upon flight. There were two good reasons for this: No preparation had been
made for the defence of Jerusalem, and an attack on it would have been disastrous in
the extreme. But such an assault would have been the natural and politic course of
the rebels if David remained there and attempted to hold the city. It was both
humane and politic to quit the capital. At the same time, the flight must be prompt
and rapid, “lest he overtake us suddenly and bring evil upon us.” This suggests the
second reason: Flight gave time for the development of events and for calm reflection
on the part of the people, This shrewd view was held, it will be noticed, by Ahithophel
(2Sa_17:1-2), and also by Hushai the Archite (2Sa_17:7-13). They looked at it simply
as managers and political observers. The following points may be emphasised with
profit:—
1. The home and the public welfare are inseparably linked. Samuel’s sons took
bribes and proved unfit for continuing the system of judges. David’s family-life
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21. was not as it Ought to have been, anal murder, widespread rebellion and
slaughter, with indescribable dishonour and disgrace and danger to the kingdom,
are the results. The suffering, too, falls on the sinning family first of all.
2. Bad morals on the part of rulers relax the ties of obedience and make
government contemptible. The plausibilities of the rebel son drew their force
from real faults of David’s administration. We may well pray for just and pure
men in places of power.
3. But over and above these natural effects we have the just rule of Jehovah.
David in his misery and penitence owns this. There is a difference between him
and an enemy of God (2Sa_15:25-26). Hence his language regarding the cursing
of Shimei (2Sa_16:11).
4. The life of Absalom speaks to both parents and children, setting in a clear light
the weakness, folly, and sin of unreasoning parental indulgence, and on the other
hand the atrocious character of ingratitude, selfishness and disobedience on the
part of a child. Vices go in groups. They deaden sensibilities; one prepares for
another. The impure and lustful will be ready for dishonesty, violence, and
unnatural crime. (J. Hall, D. D.)
An ungrateful son
Everyone recognises that ingratitude is a grievous defect in a character. The ingrate is
invariably condemned by the opinion of his fellows and by posterity. Who, for
example, has not sympathised with poor Beethoven, when at the close of a laborious,
self-sacrificing life his heart was broken by the knowledge that the boy to whom he
had given all he possessed had repaid his love with cold selfishness and cruelty?
There can only be one opinion as to the blameworthiness of the pampered ingrate.
Ingratitude is all but universally regarded as one of the worst of faults. (J. R.
Campbell.)
A struggle for a crown
“A man will venture a knock that is in reach of a crown.” The ambitious will run all
risks of cruel wounds, and death itself to reach a throne; the prize hardens them
against all hazards. Even so will every wise man encounter all difficulties for the
crown of life; and when, by faith, he sees it within reach, he will count all afflictions
light through which he wades to glory. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.” (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Ambition
The brilliant, but erratic, Marie Bashkertsheff, wrote in her diary: “It is the New Year.
At the theatre, precisely at midnight, watch in hand, I wished nay wish in a single
word, ‘Fame!’” This is frank, but tragic. Yet if men were equally honest with
themselves and at New Year’s breaking, or any time of solemn impression, spoke
their candid feelings, one would cry “Pleasure,” another “Gold,” another “Fame,”
another “Power,” and, thank God, not a few would cry “To me to live is Christ.”
Ambition in itself is not evil; all depends on its quality, its supreme aim. Paul had
three ambitions, and each of them was noble and worthy of a Christ-purchased and
Christ-possessed soul.
21

22. COFFMAN 1-6, ""A chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him" (2 Samuel
15:1). This ostentation by Absalom should have alerted David to his son's intentions.
Throughout history, the first step of any man seeking to usurp power was to procure
a bodyguard. Herodotus tells us how Pisistratus seized control of Athens by means of
that very procedure.[1] It was unusual for Israelites to ride in chariots drawn by
horses, and the practice was frowned upon by God's prophets. Samuel had warned
Israel that their king which they demanded would, "Take your sons and appoint them
to his chariots and to be horsemen, and to run before his chariots" (1 Samuel 9:11).
"Absalom probably learned this kind of display from his grandfather the pagan king
of Geshur, at whose court he had resided during the three years of his exile."[2]
By these bold actions, which were no doubt popular in Israel, Absalom was making a
bid to become king eventually and to be received as the heir-apparent to David. "Fifty
footmen running before him (in rich liveries we may suppose), thus giving notice of
his approach, would highly gratify his pride and the people's foolish fancy."[3]
However, Absalom had no intention of waiting until his father's death in order to
succeed him. "David had not taken any steps to designate a successor, and a rule of
succession had not been established for the monarchy. The death of Saul and
Jonathan had set a precedent against hereditary rule."[4]
"Oh that I were judge in the land" (2 Samuel 15:4). "He who himself should have
been judged to death for murder had the impudence to aim at being the judge of
others."[5] The arrogant conceit of this charlatan was not contained within any
boundaries whatever.
"Then every man ... might come to me, and I would give him justice" (2 Samuel 15:4).
"How much Absalom really cared for the rights of others may be seen in his arrogant
and crooked dealings with Joab (2 Samuel 14:28-33)."[6]
"Whenever a man came to do obeisance ... he took hold of him ... and kissed him" (2
Samuel 15:5). This was Absalom's way of feigning an "equality" with the people; he
interrupted their intentions to bow down before him by embracing and kissing them.
No doubt this type of flattery won him many adherents to his cause.
"It is a mistake to suppose that David altogether neglected his judicial duties. We
have just noted that the woman from Tekoa easily found access to the king's ears;
and, besides that, the reason Absalom had to arise early is that it was an early hour
when the king heard the suits brought before him. Note also that it was the plaintiffs
who were on their way to the king's tribunal whom Absalom accosted, and whom he
made to believe that he would have decided in their favor regardless of the merits of
the various cases."[7] Absalom's conduct in this underhanded attack against his
father was founded upon unscrupulous falsehood, deceit and hatred. Nevertheless,
due to David's sins and the sorrows brought upon him by God's punishments, it must
be considered very likely that to some degree David indeed had lost some of the
concern and efficiency which once marked his efforts before the evil times fell upon
22

23. him.
"Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel" (2 Samuel 15:6). His methods were
the same as that of any demagogue; he promised everyone whom he met that he
would give them what they wanted if only he were in authority. He pretended that he
was interested in justice for every one. "He showed interest in the private lives of the
people and made a pretence of protecting the poor and the lowly, insinuating that the
government was incompetent and that if he were in power everything would be
different."[8] All of this, of course, was as phony as similar pretensions by current
seekers of political office, but the people were deceived by it, reminding us of the
words of Voltaire who declared that, "The public is a ass"!
ELLICOTT, "1) Prepared him chariots and horses.—As a preparation for his
rebellion, it was necessary to impress the people with his wealth and splendour.
(Comp. 1 Kings 1:5, where Adonijah does the same thing.) This was the first use
in Israel of chariots and horses as a part of regal pomp.
LANGE, "2 Samuel 15:1. “After this.” The word here used (‫ן‬ֵ‫כ‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ֲר‬‫ח‬ ַ‫א‬ ֵ‫מ‬ comp3:28)
shows that what is here related follows immediately[FN20] on the event narrated
in14:28–33. Absalom provides himself a state-chariot with its appurtenances
[fifty runners or footmen] in order thus to assume a royal appearance and to
attract the wondering attention of the people to himself. Comp. the similar
procedure of Adonijah, 1 Kings 1:5.
PETT, "Absalom Wins For Himself The Loyalty Of The People (2 Samuel
15:1-6).
Absalom had by now probably caught on to the fact that if he waited for David
to die the throne would be given to someone else. and that would explain why he
began to plan a coup. Initially his activity would only appear to be that of a
rather vain king’s son, but gradually it built up into something more insidious as
he began to convince the people that ‘if only he was in power’ all would get
justice. And yet even that might have been looked on by David with some
amusement as he saw it as being with the intention of building up support for
when David died. He had overlooked the traits that indicated that when Absalom
wanted anything, he was willing to do anything to obtain it.
At first sight all appears to go well for Absalom. Judah and Israel will be won
over, Ahithophel the Wise will join him in Hebron in order that together they
might commence the rebellion, and David will have to flee from Jerusalem for
his life, leaving the way wide open for Absalom into the capital. It is all part of
YHWH’s chastening of David for his great sins. But it will be made clear that
YHWH has not rejected David, and that because David’s heart is still right
towards him. Though he will chastise him severely (2 Samuel 7:14) he will then
enable him to retain the kingship, and the remainder of the account will indicate
23

24. how it is YHWH Who will be instrumental in defeating and humiliating
Absalom, and thwarting all his plans.
Thus:
· It is YHWH Who, when David learns that Ahithophel is aligned against
him and prays for help, sends him Hushai the Archite who will confound the
wisdom of Ahithophel (2 Samuel 15:31).
· It is YHWH who causes Absalom to prefer the counsel of Hushai to that
of Ahithophel, even though Ahithophel’s counsel is almost like that of God (2
Samuel 16:23; 2 Samuel 17:14).
· It is YHWH who sends to David assurance of His goodwill, not only
through the coming of Hushai, but also through the determined loyalty of Ittai
the Gittite, through the Ark of God supervising his departure from Jerusalem,
and through provisions being brought to him by Ziba the Saulide (2 Samuel
15:19 to 2 Samuel 16:4).
· Even the forest itself fights against Absalom and Israel (2 Samuel 18:8),
and it is the forest which will take Absalom captive and make him ready for the
slaughter (2 Samuel 18:9).
So Absalom’s defeat will finally be due to YHWH. On the other hand Absalom is
also depicted as defeated by his vanity, as well as because he has rebelled against
the anointed of YHWH. Thus:
· He listened to Hushai because whereas Ahithophel offered him sound
wisdom, Hushai offered him great glory (2 Samuel 17:11).
· In striking contrast with David, he went into battle in person in order that
the glory might be his (2 Samuel 17:26; 2 Samuel 18:3-4; 2 Samuel 18:9).
· He entered the forest riding on a royal mule, a factor which led to his
downfall (2 Samuel 18:9).
· It was his flowing hair, of which he was so proud, that finally sealed his
fate (2 Samuel 18:9-10).
So, as so often in history, it is God’s sovereign activity and man’s rebellion and
folly which go hand in hand in order to accomplish God’s purposes, which was
in this case the chastening of David because of his gross sins and complacency,
and the destruction of those who rebelled against His Anointed.
Analysis of 2 Samuel 15:1-6.
a And it came about after this, that Absalom prepared him a chariot and
horses, and fifty men to run before him (2 Samuel 15:1).
b And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate, and it
24

25. was so, that, when any man had a suit which should come to the king for
judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, “Of what city are you?” And he
said, “Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel”. And Absalom said to him,
“See, your matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to
hear you” (2 Samuel 15:2-3).
c Absalom said moreover, “Oh that I were made judge in the land, that
every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him
justice!” (2 Samuel 15:4).
b And it was so, that, when any man came near to do him obeisance, he put
forth his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him. And in this manner did
Absalom to all Israel who came to the king for judgment (2 Samuel 15:5-6 a).
a So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel (2 Samuel 15:6 b).
Note that in ‘a’ Absalom puts on a show of splendour and in the parallel he steals
the hearts of the men of Israel. In ‘b’ he seeks to subvert those who come for
justice to Jerusalem, and in the parallel he seeks to win their heart’s response.
Centrally in ‘c’ he declares what a good ruler he would be.
2 Samuel 15:1
‘And it came about after this, that Absalom prepared him a chariot and horses,
and fifty men to run before him.’
Absalom’s first move was to increase his reputation in the popular mind by
travelling in a chariot and horses preceded by fifty runners. This display of
pomp, common with many kings of the day, was intended to indicate to the
people how important he was (compare 1 Kings 1:5-6; 1 Samuel 8:11). It
underlined to them his supreme royal status. (Ordinary people are often
impressed by great display).
2 He would get up early and stand by the side of the
road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came
with a complaint to be placed before the king for a
decision, Absalom would call out to him, "What town
are you from?" He would answer, "Your servant is
from one of the tribes of Israel."
GILL, "And Absalom rose up early,.... Every morning, to show how diligent and
industrious he should be, and closely apply himself to business, was he in any office
25

26. trader the king, and especially when he should be king himself; this he did to
ingratiate himself into the affections of the people:
and stood beside the way of the gate; either of the king's palace, so Josephus
(d), or of the city, where courts of judicature are held: the former seems most
probable by what follows:
and it was so, that when any man that had a controversy came to the king
for judgment; that had a controversy with another man on any account, and came
to the king to have it decided according to law, or the rules of justice and equity:
then Absalom called unto him, and said, of what city art thou? which
question he asked, only to lead on to some further discourse:
and he said, thy servant is of one of the tribes; that is, of one of the cities of
the tribes of Israel, and not of a city of another nation.
HENRY, "(2.) A good opinion of his own fitness to rule. That the people might
say, “O that Absalom were a judge!” (and they are apt enough to desire changes), he
recommends himself to them, [1.] As very diligent. He rose up early, and appeared in
public before the rest of the king's sons were stirring, and he stood beside the way of
the gate, where the courts of judgment sat, as one mightily concerned to see justice
done and public business despatched. [2.] As very inquisitive and prying, and
desirous to be acquainted with every one's case. He would know of what city every
one was that came for judgment, that he might inform himself concerning every part
of the kingdom and the state of it, 2Sa_15:2. [3.] As very familiar and humble. If any
Israelite offered to do obeisance to him he took him and embraced him as a friend.
No man's conduct could be more condescending, while his heart was as proud as
Lucifer's. Ambitious projects are often carried on by a show of humility, Col_2:23.
He knew what a grace it puts upon greatness to be affable and courteous, and how
much it wins upon common people: had he been sincere in it, it would have been his
praise; but to fawn upon the people that he might betray them was abominable
hypocrisy. He croucheth, and humbleth himself, to draw them into his net, Psa_10:9,
Psa_10:10.
JAMISON 2-6, "Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the
gate — Public business in the East is always transacted early in the morning - the
kings sitting an hour or more to hear causes or receive petitions, in a court held
anciently, and in many places still, in the open air at the city gateway; so that, as
those whose circumstances led them to wait on King David required to be in
attendance on his morning levees, Absalom had to rise up early and stand beside the
way of the gate. Through the growing infirmities of age, or the occupation of his
government with foreign wars, many private causes had long lain undecided, and a
deep feeling of discontent prevailed among the people. This dissatisfaction was
artfully fomented by Absalom, who addressed himself to the various suitors; and
after briefly hearing their tale, he gratified everyone with a favorable opinion of his
case. Studiously concealing his ambitious designs, he expressed a wish to be invested
with official power, only that he might accelerate the course of justice and advance
the public interests. His professions had an air of extraordinary generosity and
disinterestedness, which, together with his fawning arts in lavishing civilities on all,
made him a popular favorite. Thus, by forcing a contrast between his own display of
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27. public spirit and the dilatory proceedings of the court, he created a growing disgust
with his father’s government, as weak, careless, or corrupt, and seduced the
affections of the multitude, who neither penetrated the motive nor foresaw the
tendency of his conduct.
BENSON, "2 Samuel 15:2. Absalom rose up early — He accustomed himself to
rise betimes in the morning, that he might make a show of solicitude for the good
of the public, and of every private person. When any man came to the king for
judgment — The king, it appears, reserved all weighty causes for his own
hearing; and appeals were made to him from the other courts. Absalom called to
him — Preventing him with the offers of his assistance. And, as if he were ready
to make particular inquiry into the state of his cause, and intended, to take
peculiar care of his interest, kindly inquired concerning his city, family, situation
in life, and the place of his abode.
HAWKER, "Verses 2-6
(2) And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate: and it was
so, that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment,
then Absalom called unto him, and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy
servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. (3) And Absalom said unto him, See, thy
matters are good and right; but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee.
(4) Absalom said moreover, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every
man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him
justice! (5) And it was so, that when any man came nigh to him to do him
obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him. (6) And on this
manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment: so
Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
It is awful to consider the depth of guilt and sin in the heart of man. Here is a
man wishing himself a Judge, that merited judgment, and punishment, for the
murder even of his own brother! Here is such a character aspiring to a crown,
and yet apparently so very humble as to embrace the poorest creature in the
kingdom. Dearest Jesus! hadst thou not come down from heaven to redeem our
nature, and hadst thou not sent thy blessed Spirit to renew our nature; what man
alive would have believed that the same seeds of sin as are here seen bringing
forth their deadly fruit in the instance of Absalom, are in every man's heart by
nature. Lord keep me from that evil man myself!
LANGE, "2 Samuel 15:2 sq. Vivid description of his condescending behaviour
(in contrast with his pompous appearance) to gain the favor of the people in
connection with their law-matters. [He “rose up early” in order to show his zeal
and get opportunities; and such legal business is usually attended to very early in
the East; Malcolm (quoted by Philippson) says that Oriental ministers hold their
levees at an hour when Western people of quality are not yet up.—Tr.]. The
“gate” here referred to is the gate of the royal palace, whither those came that
sought the decision of the king in law-matters. “For judgment,” that Isaiah, for
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28. legal decision. The “hearer” is the judicial officer whose duty it was first to hear
and understand the people’s matters, and then lay them before the king, an
auscultator. For just decision everything depends on careful hearing and
understanding. But there is no hearer for thee on the part of the king.—Absalom
guards indeed against accusing the king himself of injustice; but he excites in the
minds of the people distrust of the king’s whole judicial practice by saying that
there was no regular judicial process for a good and just cause. Perhaps neglect
and partiality had crept in, so that Absalom could find some handle for his
charges, and avail himself of an already existing dissatisfaction. In the words:
See, thy matters are good and right, he gives (in order to win favor) a judicial
decision before thorough investigation has been made. Thy just cause, says
Hebrews, is not investigated; else thou would’st not lack a favorable decision.
[Absalom shows himself master of the art of political intriguing—he flatters the
people and brings charges against the rulers. Perhaps his insinuations were
directed in part against the princes his brothers, possibly against Solomon
(Patrick), whose age, however, at this time we do not know, or whether it had
been intimated that he was heir to the throne.—Tr.].
PETT, "2 Samuel 15:2
‘And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate, and it was so, that,
when any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom
called to him, and said, “Of what city are you?” And he said, “Your servant is of one of
the tribes of Israel.” ’
But he went further. Every day he would go down to the city gate (which was where
justice would normally be exercised) early in the morning and when anyone came by,
who had come to see the king in order to seek justice, he would begin to chat with
him and find out who he was and what his case was all about.
3 Then Absalom would say to him, "Look, your
claims are valid and proper, but there is no
representative of the king to hear you."
BARNES, "To flatter each man by pronouncing a favorable verdict in his case, to
excite a sense of grievance and discontent by censuring the king for remissness in
trying the causes brought before him by his subjects, and to suggest a sure and easy
remedy for all such grievances, namely, to make Absalom king; all this, coupled with
great affability and courtesy, which his personal beauty and high rank made all the
more effective, were the arts by which Absalom worked his way into favor with the
people, who were light and fickle as himself.
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