The fine person of Absalom, his superior birth, and his natural claims predisposed the people to regard his pretensions with favour; and this pre disposition was strengthened by the measures which he took to win their regard. By the state and attendance with which he appeared in public, he enhanced the show of condescending sympathy with which he accosted the suitors who repaired for justice or favour to the royal audience, he in quired into their various cases, and hinted at what might be expected if he were on the throne, and had the power of accomplishing his own large and generous purposes. By these influ ences 'he stole the hearts of the men of Israel;' and when at length, four years after his return from Geshur, he repaired to Hebron, and there pro claimed himself king, the great body of the people declared for him. So strong ran the tide of opinion in his favour, that David found it expedient to quit Jerusalem and retire to Mahanaim, beyond the Jordan.
When Absalom heard of this, he proceeded to Jerusalem and took possession of the throne with out opposition. Among those who had joined him was Ahithophel, who had been David's counsellor, and whose profound sagacity caused his counsels to be regarded like oracles in Isrdel. This defec tion alarmed David more than any other single circumstance in the affair, and he persuaded his friend Hushai to go and join Absalom, in the hope that he might be made instrumental in turning the sagacious counsels of Ahithophel to foolishness. The first piece of advice which Ahithophel gave Absalom was that he should publicly take posses sion of that portion of his father's harem which had been left behind in Jerusalem. This was not only a mode by which the succession to the throne might be confirmed [AnisHAG : comp. Herodotus, iii. 68], but in the present case, as suggested by the wily counsellor, this villanous measure would dis pose the people to throw themselves the more un reservedly into his cause, from the assurance that no possibility of reconcilement between him and his father remained. Hushai had not then arrived. Soon after he came, when a council of war was held, to consider the course of operations to be taken against David, Ahithophel counselled that the king should be pursued that very night, and smitten, while he was `weary and weak handed, and before he had time to recover strength.' Hushai, however, whose object was to gain time for David, speciously urged, from the known valour of the king, the possibility and fatal consequences of a defeat, and advised that all Israel should be assembled against him in such force as it would be impossible for him to withstand. Fatally for
Absalom, the counsel of Hushai was preferred to that of Ahithophel ; and time was thus given to enable the king, by the help of his influential followers, to collect his resources, as well as to give the people time to reflect upon the under taking in which so many of them had embarked. The king soon raised a large force, which he properly organized and separated into three di visions, commanded severally by Joab, Abishai, and Ittai of Gath. The king himself intended to take the chief command ; but the people refused to allow him to risk his valued life, and the command then devolved upon Joab. The battle took place in the borders of the forest of Ephraim; and the tactics of Joab, in drawing the enemy into the wood, and there hemming them in, so that they were destroyed with ease, eventually, under the providence of God, decided the action against Absalom. Twenty thousand of his troops were slain, and the rest fled to their homes. Absalom himself fled on a swift mule ; but as he went, the boughs of a terebinth tree caught the long hair in which he gloried, and he was left suspended there. The charge which David had given to the troops to respect the life of Absalom prevented any one from slaying him : but when Joab heard of it, he hastened to the spot, and pierced him through with three darts. His body was then taken down and cast into a pit there in the forest, and a heap of stones was raised upon it.
David's fondness for Absalom was unextinguished by all that had passed ; and as he sat, awaiting tidings of the battle, at the gate of Mahanaim, he was probably more anxious to learn that his son lived, than that the battle was gained ; and no sooner did he hear that Absalom was dead, than he retired to the chamber above the gate, to give vent to his paternal anguish. The victors its they re turned, slunk into the town like criminals, when they heard the bitter wailings of the king 0 my son Absalom ! my son, my son Absalom ! would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my son, my son !' The consequences of this weakness—not in his feeling, but in the inability to control it—might have been most dangerous, had not Joab gone up to him, and after sharply rebuking him for thus discouraging those who had risked their lives in his cause, induced him to go down and cheer the returning warriors by his presence (2 Sam. xiii. xix. S).—J. K.