Absalom

Biblical narrative

Background

Absalom, David's third son, by Maacah, was born in Hebron. He was renowned for his beauty and long hair. He had three sons and one daughter, Tamar, who is described as a beautiful woman. From the language of 2 Samuel 18:18, Absalom states, "I have no son to keep my name in remembrance". It may be that his sons died before his statement, or, as Matthew Henry suggests, Absalom's three sons may have been born after his statement.

Aside from his daughter Tamar, Absalom had another daughter or granddaughter, Maacah, who later became the favorite wife of Rehoboam. Maacah was the mother of Abijah of Judah and the grandmother of Asa of Judah. She served as queen mother for Asa until he deposed her for idolatry.

Murder of Amnon

Absalom also had a sister named Tamar, who was raped by her half-brother Amnon, David's eldest son. Absalom waited two years after the rape for vengeance, sending his servants to murder a drunken Amnon at a feast to which Absalom had invited all of King David's sons.

After this murder, Absalom fled to his maternal grandfather Talmai, the king of Geshur. Not until three years later was Absalom fully reinstated in David's favour and finally returned to Jerusalem.

The revolt at Hebron

In Jerusalem, Absalom built support for himself by speaking to those who came to King David for justice, saying, "See, your claims are good and right; but there is no one deputed by the king to hear you", perhaps reflecting flaws in the judicial system of the united monarchy. "If only I were the judge of the land! Then all who had a suit or cause might come to me, and I would give them justice." He made gestures of flattery by kissing those who bowed before him instead of accepting supplication. He "stole the hearts of the people of Israel".

After four years, he declared himself king, raised a revolt at Hebron, the former capital, and publicly raped his father's ten concubines. It is said that this was God punishing David for his sin with Bathsheba tenfold. All Israel and Judah flocked to him, leaving David to be attended only by the Cherethites and Pelethites and his former bodyguard, which had followed him from Gath. The priests Zadok and Abiathar remained in Jerusalem, and their sons Jonathan and Ahimaaz served as David's spies. Absalom reached the capital and consulted with the renowned Ahitophel (sometimes spelled Achitophel). It is also speculated that Ahitophel could have joined Absalom's cause as David had previously committed adultery with his granddaughter, Bathsheba.

David took refuge from Absalom's forces beyond the Jordan River. However, he took the precaution of instructing a servant, Hushai, to infiltrate Absalom's court and subvert it. Once in place, Hushai convinced Absalom to ignore Ahitophel's advice to attack his father while he was on the run, and instead to prepare his forces for a major attack. This gave David critical time to prepare his own troops for the battle. When Ahitophel saw that his advice was not followed, he committed suicide by hanging himself.

Battle of Ephraim's Wood

A fateful battle was fought in the Wood of Ephraim (the name suggests a locality west of the Jordan) and Absalom's army was completely routed. When Absalom fled from David's army, his head was caught in the boughs of an oak tree as the mule he was riding ran beneath it. He was discovered there still alive by one of David's men, who reported this to Joab, the king's commander. Joab, accustomed to avenging himself, took this opportunity to even the score with Absalom. Absalom had once set Joab's field of barley on fire and then made Amasa Captain of the Host instead of Joab. Killing Absalom was against David's explicit command, "Beware that none touch the young man Absalom". Joab injured Absalom with three darts through the heart and Absalom was subsequently killed by ten of Joab's armor-bearers.

When David heard that Absalom was killed, although not how he was killed, he greatly sorrowed.

O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!

David withdrew to the city of Mahanaim in mourning, until Joab roused him from "the extravagance of his grief" and called on him to fulfill his duty to his people.

Memorial

Absalom had erected a monument near Jerusalem to perpetuate his name:

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.

An ancient monument in the Kidron Valley near the Old City of Jerusalem, known as the Tomb of Absalom or Absalom's Pillar and traditionally identified as the monument of the biblical narrative, is now dated by modern archeologists to the first century AD. The Jewish Encyclopedia reports: "A tomb twenty feet high and twenty-four feet square, which late tradition points out as the resting-place of Absalom. It is situated in the eastern part of the valley of Kidron, to the east of Jerusalem. In all probability it is the tomb of Alexander Jannæus (Conder, in Hastings' Dict. Bible, article "Jerusalem", p. 597). It existed in the days of Josephus. However, archaeologists have now dated the tomb to the 1st century AD. In a 2013 conference, Professor Gabriel Barkay suggested that it could be the tomb of Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great, based in part on the similarity to Herod's newly discovered tomb at Herodium. For centuries, it was the custom among passers-by—Jews, Christians and Muslims—to throw stones at the monument. Residents of Jerusalem would bring their unruly children to the site to teach them what became of a rebellious son.

Rabbinic literature

The explanation in Rabbinic literature about why Ahithophel had advised Absalom to act against his father: The Talmud speaks of this counsellor of David as "a man, like Balaam, whose great wisdom was not received in humility as a gift from heaven, and so became a stumbling block to him." He was "one of those who, while casting longing eyes upon things not belonging to them, also lose the things they possess." Accordingly, Ahithophel was granted access by Almighty God into the Divine powers of God. And being thus familiar with Divine wisdom and knowledge as imparted through the Holy Spirit, he was consulted as an oracle like the Urim and Thummim. "..and great as was his wisdom, it was equalled by his scholarship. Therefore, David did not hesitate to submit himself to his instruction, even though Ahithophel was a young man at his death, not more than thirty-three years old. The one thing lacking in him was sincere piety, which proved his undoing in the end, for it induced him to participate in Absalom's rebellion against David. Thus, he forfeited even his share in the world to come.

To this dire course of action, he was misled by astrology and other signs, which he interpreted as prophecies of his kingship when in reality, they pointed to the royal destiny of his granddaughter Bath-sheba. Possessed by his erroneous belief, he cunningly urged Absalom to commit an unheard-of crime. Thus, Absalom would profit nothing by his rebellion, for, though he accomplished his father's ruin, he would yet be held to account and condemned to death for his violation of family purity, and the way to the throne would be clear for Ahithophel, the great sage in Israel."

The life and death of Absalom offered to the rabbis a welcome theme wherewith to warn the people against false ambition, vainglory, and unfilial conduct. The vanity with which he displayed his beautiful hair, the rabbis say, became his snare and his stumbling-block. "By his long hair the Nazirite entangled the people to rebel against his father, and by it he himself became entangled, to fall a victim to his pursuers". And again, elsewhere: "By his vile stratagem he deceived and stole three hearts, that of his father, of the elders, and finally of the whole nation of Israel, and for this reason three darts were thrust into his heart to end his treacherous life". More striking is the following: "Did one ever hear of an oak-tree having a heart? And yet in the oak-tree in whose branches Absalom was caught, we read that upon its heart he was held up still alive while the darts were thrust through him. This is to show that when a man becomes so heartless as to make war against his own father, nature itself takes on a heart to avenge the deed."

Art and literature

Art

Absalom and Tamar (Guercino)

Thamar (Cabanel)

Poetry

The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe, with the Tragedie of Absalon, a play by George Peele, written before 1594 and published in 1599.

Absalom and Achitophel (1681), a satirical poem by John Dryden, uses the biblical story as an allegory for contemporary politics.

"Absalom" by Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867).

"Absaloms Abfall" by Rainer Maria Rilke ("The Fall of Absalom", trans. Stephen Cohn).

"Absalom" is a section in Muriel Rukeyser's long poem The Book of the Dead (1938), inspired by the biblical text, spoken by a mother who lost three sons to silicosis.

"Avshalom" by Yona Wallach, published in her first poetry collection Devarim (1966), alludes to the biblical character.

"Prayer for Sunset" by Leonard Cohen, published in his first poetry collection Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956), Absalom appears in a simile.

Fiction

In the 1946 short story "Absalom" by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, the character Absalom is a child prodigy, who does non-consensual brain surgery on his father (a former child prodigy, though not as intelligent as his son) to make the father totally focused on Absalom's success. This relates to the Biblical story of the son usurping his father.

Georg Christian Lehms, Des israelitischen Printzens Absolons und seiner Prinzcessin Schwester Thamar Staats- Lebens- und Helden-Geschichte (The Heroic Life and History of the Israelite Prince Absolom and his Princess Sister Tamar), novel in German published in Nuremberg, 1710.

Absalom, Absalom! is a novel by William Faulkner, and refers to the return of the main character Thomas Sutpen's son.

Oh Absalom! was the original title of Howard Spring's novel My Son, My Son!, later adapted for the film of the latter name.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Absalom was the name of Stephen Kumalo's son in the novel. Like the Biblical Absalom, Absalom Kumalo was at odds with his father, the two fighting a moral and ethical battle of sorts over the course of some of the novel's most important events. Absalom kills and murders a man, and also meets an untimely death.

Throughout Robertson Davies's The Manticore a comparison is repeatedly made between the protagonist's problematic relations with his father and those of the Biblical Absalom and King David. Paradoxically, in the modern version, it is the rebellious son who has the first name "David". The book also introduces the term "Absalonism", as a generic term for a son's rebellion against his father.

Absalom appears as a prominent character in Peter Shaffer's play Yonadab, which portrays Amnon's rape of Tamar and his murder at Absalom's hands.

A scene in the Swedish writer Frans G. Bengtsson's historical novel "The Long Ships" depicts a 10th Century Christian missionary recounting the story of Absalom's rebellion to the assembled Danish court, including the aging King Harald Bluetooth and his son Sweyn Forkbeard; thereupon, King Harald exclaims "Some people can learn a lesson from this story!", casting a meaningful glance at his son Sweyn—whom the King (rightly) suspects of plotting a rebellion.

Music

Josquin des Prez composed the motet "Absalon, fili mi" on the occasion of the death of Juan Borgia (Absalon being a further alternative spelling).

Nicholas Gombert composed the two-part, eight-voice motet "Lugebat David Absalon".

Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) composed "Fili mi, Absalon" as part of his Sinfoniae Sacrae, op. 6.

The single verse, 2 Samuel 18:33, regarding David's grief at the loss of his son ("And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"), is the inspiration for the text of several pieces of choral music, usually entitled When David Heard (such as those by Renaissance composers Thomas Tomkins and Thomas Weelkes, or modern composers Eric Whitacre, Joshua Shank, and Norman Dinerstein). This verse is also used in "David's Lamentation" by William Billings, first published in 1778.

Leonard Cohen's poem "Prayer for Sunset" compares the setting sun to the raving Absalom, and asks whether another Joab will arrive tomorrow night to kill Absalom again.

"Absalom, Absalom" is a song on the 1996 Compass CD Making Light of It by singer/songwriter Pierce Pettis, incorporating several elements of the biblical narrative.

The Australian composer Nigel Butterley set the verse in his 2008 choral work "Beni Avshalom", commissioned by the Sydney Chamber Choir.

During the finale of the song "Distant Early Warning" by Canadian band Rush, Geddy Lee sings, "Absalom, Absalom, Absalom"; lyrics written by drummer Neil Peart.

David Olney's 2000 CD Omar's Blues includes the song "Absalom". The song depicts David grieving over the death of his son.