ABSALOM (Hebrew 'Abšalôm "The Father is Peace"). - Third-born son of David, endowed with natural charms but with unbridled ambition. Eager to excel, he took as his pretext the rape of his sister Tamar by Amnon (v.), in order to kill the first-born Amnon two years later. From Geshur, where he had taken refuge with his maternal grandfather Tholmai (Talmai), he won David's forgiveness through a wise woman of Tekoa, and, after a two-year stay in Jerusalem, with the self-interested favor of Joab, he was able to regain his father's friendship and the long-awaited entry to the palace.
Having removed the obstacles, he cunningly and persistently prepared his ascent to the throne, exploiting both the sympathy procured for him by his beauty (his admirers paid out 200 shekels to possess his magnificent hair, cut once a year) and the affability with which he welcomed even men of the common people who came to him, giving a hearing to all who sought justice from the king, and lamenting the slim likelihood of their receiving a favorable welcome at court. After four years he proclaimed himself king at Hebron, rebelling against his father, who, seeing little possibility of resistance with the few loyal troops, took refuge in Transjordan. If A.'s public entry among the concubines left by his father now made the people certain that a reconciliation was impossible, the refusal to pursue at once (v. ACHITOPHEL) the few fleeing troops was the beginning of the collapse of A. When he found himself facing the Davidic army, reinforced by Transjordanian bands and reorganized into three corps led by Joab, Abishai and the Gittite Ethai, A.'s troops, headed by Amasa, were routed near Mahanaim in Gilead. In the headlong flight through the surrounding forest of Ephraim, the rebel son plunged among the too-low branches of a terebinth, where his head (not merely his hair) remained caught, while his mount continued its course. There he was killed by Joab, against David's prohibition, with three arrows, and then finished off by his servants with spear-thrusts, and buried, like criminals, under a heap of stones, while in his lifetime he had erected a sepulchral monument for himself in the King's Valley. David mourned him long (II Sam. 13-18). Today, in the Kidron Valley, a strange monument of uncertain date is pointed out as the "tomb of Absalom"; in the time of Flavius Josephus, a marble stele two stadia from Jerusalem was shown as A.'s tomb (Antiq. Jud. VII, 10, 3).
Bibliography
Faustino Salvoni