2 Samuel 17-18; Psalm 3 and 63

2 Samuel 17

Ahihotel and Hushai give Absalom opposite advice on what to do next. Ahihote's advice is to chase after David immediately and capture/kill. Hushai tells him to stay and mobilize the entire Israelite army before fighting David.

Absalom chooses Hushai's advice. Hushai then has messengers secretly tell David about this and that he must cross the Jordan river immediately.

The text says that God wanted Absalom to follow Hushai's advice, but I think it fit into Absalom's pride as well. He pictured himself leading the entire Israelite army against his father's army and that appealed to his pride.

Ahihotel then commits suicide when he finds out that his advice was not followed. It seemed a little abrupt but I suppose he felt that either Absalom's action would lead to their collective downfall or that it would be a matter of time before Hushai tells Absalom to kill Ahihotel.

Meanwhile, David escapes and gets supplies from people loyal to him.

Psalm 3 gives some insight into how David feels at the time. It is similar to the psalms that David wrote while fleeing Saul. It has the familiar themes of running from his enemies but finding security in God.

Psalm 63 is another associated with this time. It focuses on worship and praise while in the desert.


2 Samuel 18
It is time to fight it out. David's men tell him that he must stay behind out of the battle. He tells them not to harm Absalom.

Guess what happens?

Absalom's army is defeated and David's men chase them. During all this, Absalom's hair (5 pounds of growth a year) gets caught in a tree and he dangles from it.

David's men find Absalom, but will not kill him out of respect for David's order. Joab has other ideas and stabs Absalom. They then hide Absalom's body in an unmarked grave.

One one hand, I actually respect Joab for this. It is clearly against David's orders, but David's orders may have not been the best for the kingdom. I respect Joab for ending this rebellion once and for all, even if it meant clearly disobeying orders.

This has some parallels to the whole Abner incident. Joab killed Abner out of revenge, although David thought Abner was building a peace for the kingdom. Here, Absalom staying alive would always threaten the peace of the kingdom and I don't think David appreciates it.

Regardless of whether or not it was a good idea to kill Absalom, I think this event may be why David has Joab killed when David is on his death-bed.

2 messengers run off to tell David. The first mentions the victory but nothing about Absalom. The second to arrive mentions the victory but also says that Absalom is dead.

David begins to wildly and loudly mourn about Absalom.