Absalom Seizes the Kingdom

Now Absalom, after this success with the king, quickly provided himself with a great many horses and many chariots. He also had fifty armor-bearers around him. Every day he came early to the king’s palace and spoke pleasantly to those who had come for justice and lost their cases, as if this had happened for lack of good counselors around the king, or perhaps because the judges had made a mistake in the unjust sentence they gave; and by this he won the goodwill of them all. He told them that if only such authority were entrusted to him, he would deal out justice to them with the greatest fairness. When he had made himself so popular with the crowd, he thought he had already made sure of the people’s goodwill. So when four years had passed since his father’s reconciliation with him, he came to him and begged permission to go to Hebron and offer a sacrifice to God, because he had vowed it to him when he fled from the country. When David granted his request, he went there, and great crowds came running together to him, for he had sent word to a great number to do so. [a] Among them came Ahithophel the Gilonite, one of David’s counselors, and two hundred men from Jerusalem itself, who knew nothing of his intentions but had been invited as if to a sacrifice. So he was made king by all of them, and he won this by a trick. [b]

As soon as this news was brought to David and he learned what he had never expected from his son, he was terrified at this wicked and reckless undertaking. He was amazed that Absalom was so far from remembering how lately his offense had been forgiven that he had taken up much worse and more lawless schemes, reaching for a kingdom that, first, God had not given him, and second, could be had only by doing away with his own father. So he resolved to flee to the country beyond the Jordan. He called his closest friends together and told them all he had heard of his son’s madness. He committed himself to God, to judge between them in all their actions; he left the care of his royal palace to his ten concubines, and went away from Jerusalem. The rest of the people went with him willingly, hurrying away with him, and above all the six hundred armed men who had been with him since his first flight in the days of Saul.

But he persuaded Abiathar and Zadok, the high priests, who had decided to go away with him, and all the Levites who were with the ark, to stay behind, hoping that God would deliver him without its being moved; and he told them to let him know secretly how everything went. He had their sons, Ahimaaz the son of Zadok and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, as faithful servants in everything. But Ittai the Gittite went out with him whether David would let him or not; for David would have persuaded him to stay, and for that reason Ittai showed himself all the more his friend.

As he was going up the Mount of Olives barefoot, with all his company in tears, he was told that Ahithophel was with Absalom and had taken his side. Hearing this increased his grief, and he earnestly begged God to turn Absalom’s mind against Ahithophel, for he was afraid that Ahithophel would persuade him to follow his ruinous counsel, since he was a shrewd man and very sharp at seeing what would be advantageous. When David reached the top of the mountain, he looked out over the city and prayed to God with many tears, as one who had already lost his kingdom. Here a faithful friend of his named Hushai met him. When David saw him with his clothes torn and ashes all over his head, lamenting the great change in affairs, he comforted him and urged him to stop grieving. At last he begged him to go back to Absalom and appear to be one of his party, to draw out the most secret plans of his mind and to oppose the counsels of Ahithophel; for he could not do him as much good by being with him as he could by being with Absalom. So Hushai was persuaded by David, left him and came to Jerusalem, where Absalom himself also arrived a little later.

When David had gone a little farther, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him. (David had sent him to take care of the possessions he had given Mephibosheth as the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul.) He had a pair of donkeys loaded with provisions, and asked David to take as much of them as he and his followers needed. When the king asked him where he had left Mephibosheth, he said he had left him in Jerusalem, expecting to be chosen king in the present confusion, in remembrance of the benefits Saul had conferred on them. At this the king was very indignant and gave Ziba everything he had formerly given to Mephibosheth, for he decided it was far more fitting that Ziba should have it than Mephibosheth; and Ziba was overjoyed at this.

When David was at a place called Bahurim, a relative of Saul’s named Shimei, the son of Gera, came out, threw stones at him and hurled abuse at him. Though David’s friends stood around the king and protected him, he kept on all the more with his insults, calling him a man of blood and the cause of every kind of evil. He also told him to get out of the land as an unclean and accursed wretch, and he thanked God for taking his kingdom from him and making him pay for the wrongs he had done to his master, and that by the hand of his own son. They were all provoked and angry with him, especially Abishai, who wanted to kill Shimei; but David restrained his anger and said, “Let us not bring a fresh misfortune on ourselves on top of those we already have. Truly, I have not the least regard or concern for this dog who raves at me. I submit myself to God, by whose permission this man treats me so wildly. Nor is it any wonder that I have to endure these insults from him, when I am suffering the same from a wicked son of my own. But God will have some pity on us, and if it is his will, we will overcome our enemies.” So he went on his way without troubling himself about Shimei, who ran along the other side of the mountain and poured out his abuse freely. When David reached the Jordan, he let those with him rest, for they were weary. [e]

When Absalom and his counselor Ahithophel had come to Jerusalem with all the people, David’s friend Hushai came to them. He bowed down before Absalom and wished him besides that his reign might last a long time and continue for all ages. Absalom said to him, “How is it that the man who was such a close friend of my father’s, and seemed faithful to him in everything, is not with him now, but has left him and come over to me?” Hushai’s answer was very much to the point and shrewd. He said, “We ought to follow God and the great body of the people. Since these, my lord and master, are with you, it is right that I should follow them, for you have received the kingdom from God. So if you believe me to be your friend, I will show you the same loyalty and kindness that you know I showed your father. Nor is there any reason to be the least dissatisfied with the present state of affairs; for the kingdom has not passed to another, but remains in the same family, since the son has received it after his father.” [f]

This speech won over Absalom, who had suspected Hushai before. Next he called Ahithophel and consulted him about what he ought to do. Ahithophel urged him to go in to his father’s concubines, saying, “By this act the people will believe that the quarrel between you and your father can never be mended, and so they will fight against your father with great eagerness; for until now they are afraid of taking up open hostility against him, because they expect that the two of you will be reconciled again.” Absalom was won over by this advice and ordered his servants to pitch a tent for him on the top of the royal palace in sight of the crowd; and he went in and lay with his father’s concubines. This came about according to the prediction of Nathan, when he prophesied and declared to David that his son would rise up in rebellion against him.

When Absalom had done what Ahithophel advised, he asked his advice next about the war against his father. Ahithophel asked only that he let him have ten thousand picked men, and promised that he would kill his father and bring back alive those who were with him; and he said that the kingdom would be secure for Absalom once David was dead. Absalom was pleased with this advice, and called for Hushai, David’s chief friend (for that is what David called him). He told him Ahithophel’s opinion and asked him further what he thought about the matter. Hushai saw that if Ahithophel’s counsel was followed, David would be in danger of being captured and killed. So he tried to bring in an opposite opinion, and said, “You are well aware, O king, of the valor of your father and of those who are with him now. He has fought many wars and has always come away victorious. He is probably staying in the camp now; yet, since he is very skillful in stratagems and in foreseeing the tricks of his enemies, he will leave his own soldiers in the evening and will either hide himself in some valley or set an ambush at some rock. Then, when our army joins battle with him, his soldiers will fall back for a little while, but will come at us again, encouraged by the king’s being near them; and meanwhile your father will suddenly show himself in the middle of the battle and put courage into his own people when they are in danger, but bring panic on yours. Consider my advice, then, and think it over, and if you cannot help admitting that it is the best, reject Ahithophel’s opinion. Send to the whole country of the Hebrews and order them to come and fight against your father. Take the army yourself and be your own general in this war, and do not trust the conduct of it to anyone else. Then you may expect to defeat him easily, when you overtake him in the open with his few supporters, while you yourself have many tens of thousands who will be eager to show you their diligence and zeal. And if your father shuts himself up in some city and stands a siege, we will overthrow that city with siege engines and by undermining it.” When Hushai had said this, he carried his point against Ahithophel, for Absalom preferred his opinion to the other’s. Yet it was none other than God who made Hushai’s counsel seem best to Absalom’s mind. [g]

So Hushai hurried to the high priests, Zadok and Abiathar, and told them Ahithophel’s opinion and his own, and that the decision had been made to follow his. He told them to send to David and tell him of it, to inform him of the plans that had been made, and further to urge him to cross the Jordan quickly, in case his son should change his mind, hurry after him, overtake him and seize him before he was in safety. The high priests had their sons hidden in a suitable place outside the city, so that they could carry news to David of what was being done. So they sent a maidservant they could trust to carry them the news of Absalom’s plans, and ordered them to report it to David with all speed. The young men made no excuse and no delay. Taking their fathers’ instructions with them, as devout and faithful servants, and judging that speed and promptness were the best mark of faithful service, they hurried to meet David. But some horsemen saw them when they were about a quarter of a mile from the city and told Absalom, who immediately sent men to take them. When the high priests’ sons saw this, they left the road at once and took refuge in a village not far from Jerusalem, called Bahurim, where they asked a woman to hide them and keep them safe. She let the young men down into a well by a rope and laid fleeces of wool over them. When their pursuers came to her and asked whether she had seen them, she did not deny having seen them, for they had had a drink at her house, but she said they had then gone on their way; and she told them that if they followed them straight on, they would catch them. But when they could not catch them after a long pursuit, they came back. When the woman saw that the men had returned and that there was no longer any fear of the young men being caught by them, she drew them up by the rope and told them to go on their journey. They pressed on with great diligence, came to David and gave him an exact account of all Absalom’s plans. So he ordered those who were with him to cross the Jordan during the night and not to delay at all. [i]

But Ahithophel, when his advice was rejected, mounted his donkey and rode away to his own country, Giloh. He called his family together and told them plainly what advice he had given Absalom. Since Absalom had not been persuaded by it, he said, Absalom would clearly perish, and that before long, and David would defeat him and return to his kingdom. So it was better, he said, for him to take his own life freely and with a great spirit than to expose himself to punishment by David, against whom he had acted wholly on Absalom’s side. When he had spoken to them like this, he went into the innermost room of his house and hanged himself. Such was the death of Ahithophel, who passed sentence on himself; and when his relatives had taken him down from the noose, they saw to his funeral. As for David, he crossed the Jordan, as we have already said, and came to Mahanaim, a very fine and very strong city. All the chief men of the country received him with great pleasure, both out of shame that he should have been forced to flee and out of the respect they had shown him in his former prosperity. These were Barzillai the Gileadite, Siphar the ruler among the Ammonites, and Machir the leading man of Gilead. They furnished him with plentiful provisions for himself and his followers, so that they lacked neither beds nor blankets, nor loaves of bread, nor wine. They even brought them a great many cattle for slaughter, and supplied whatever they needed for rest when they were weary and for food, with plenty of other necessities. [l]