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multitude which followed Absalom. David divided his army into three corps, led by
Joab, Abishai, and Ittai - the chief command being entrusted to Joab, since the people
would not allow the king himself to go into battle. The field was most skillfully chosen
for an engagement with undisciplined superior numbers, being a thick forest near the
Jordan,^26 which, with its pitfalls, morasses, and entanglements, destroyed more of
Absalom's followers than fell in actual contest. From the first the battle was not
doubtful; it soon became a carnage rather than a conflict.
One scene on that eventful day had deeply and, perhaps, painfully impressed itself on
the minds of all David's soldiers. As they marched out of Mahanaim on the morning of
the battle, the king had stood by the side of the gate, and they had filed past him by
hundreds and by thousands. One thing only had he been heard by all to say, and this he
had repeated to each of the generals. It was simply. "Gently,^27 for my sake, with the
lad, with Absalom!"
If the admonition implied the existence of considerable animosity on the part of
David's leaders against the author of this wicked rebellion, it showed, on the other
hand, not only weakness, but selfishness, almost amounting to heartlessness, on the
part of the king. It was, as Joab afterwards reproached him, as if he had declared that
he regarded neither princes nor servants, and that it would have mattered little to him
how many had died, so long as his own son was safe (2 Samuel 19:6). If such was the
impression produced, we need not wonder that it only increased the general feeling
against Absalom. This was soon to be brought to the test. In his pursuit of the rebels,
one of Joab's men came upon a strange sight. It seems that, while Absalom was riding
rapidly through the dense wood in his flight, his head had somehow been jerked in
between the branches of one of the large spreading terebinths - perhaps, as Josephus
has it (Ant. 7. 10, 2), having been entangled by the flowing hair. In this position the
mule which he rode, perhaps David's royal mule - had run away from under him; while
Absalom, half suffocated and disabled, hung helpless, a prey to his pursuers. But the
soldier who first saw him knew too well the probable consequences of killing him, to
be tempted to such an act by any reward, however great. He only reported it to Joab,
but would not become his tool in the matter. Indeed, Joab himself seems to have
hesitated, though he was determined to put an end to Absalom's schemes, which he
must have resented the more, since but for his intervention the prince would not have
been allowed to return to Jerusalem. And so, instead of killing, he only wounded
Absalom with pointed staves,^28 leaving it to his armor-bearers finally to dispatch the
unhappy youth. His hacked and mangled remains were cast into a great pit in the wood,
and covered by a large heap of stones. A terrible contrast, this unknown and unhonored
criminal's grave, to the splendid monument which Absalom had reared for himself after
the death of his sons! Their leader being dead, Joab, with characteristic love for his
countrymen, sounded the rappel, and allowed the fugitive Israelites to escape.
(^)