Absalom

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Absalom
     father of peace; i.e., "peaceful" David's son by Maacah (2 Sam.
     3:3; comp. 1 Kings 1:6). He was noted for his personal beauty
     and for the extra-ordinary profusion of the hair of his head (2
     Sam. 14:25,26). The first public act of his life was the
     blood-revenge he executed against Amnon, David's eldest son, who


     had basely wronged Absalom's sister Tamar. This revenge was
     executed at the time of the festivities connected with a great
     sheep-shearing at Baal-hazor. David's other sons fled from the
     place in horror, and brought the tidings of the death of Amnon
     to Jerusalem. Alarmed for the consequences of the act, Absalom
     fled to his grandfather at Geshur, and there abode for three
     years (2 Sam. 3:3; 13:23-38).
     
       David mourned his absent son, now branded with the guilt of
     fratricide. As the result of a stratagem carried out by a woman
     of Tekoah, Joab received David's sanction to invite Absalom back
     to Jerusalem. He returned accordingly, but two years elapsed
     before his father admitted him into his presence (2 Sam. 14:28).
     Absalom was now probably the oldest surviving son of David, and
     as he was of royal descent by his mother as well as by his
     father, he began to aspire to the throne. His pretensions were
     favoured by the people. By many arts he gained their affection;
     and after his return from Geshur (2 Sam. 15:7; marg., R.V.) he
     went up to Hebron, the old capital of Judah, along with a great
     body of the people, and there proclaimed himself king. The
     revolt was so successful that David found it necessary to quit
     Jerusalem and flee to Mahanaim, beyond Jordan; where upon
     Absalom returned to Jerusalem and took possession of the throne
     without opposition. Ahithophel, who had been David's chief
     counsellor, deserted him and joined Absalom, whose chief
     counsellor he now became. Hushai also joined Absalom, but only
     for the purpose of trying to counteract the counsels of
     Ahithophel, and so to advantage David's cause. He was so far
     successful that by his advice, which was preferred to that of
     Ahithophel, Absalom delayed to march an army against his father,
     who thus gained time to prepare for the defence.
     
       Absalom at length marched out against his father, whose army,
     under the command of Joab, he encountered on the borders of the
     forest of Ephraim. Twenty thousand of Absalom's army were slain
     in that fatal battle, and the rest fled. Absalom fled on a swift
     mule; but his long flowing hair, or more probably his head, was
     caught in the bough of an oak, and there he was left suspended
     till Joab came up and pierced him through with three darts. His
     body was then taken down and cast into a pit dug in the forest,
     and a heap of stones was raised over his grave. When the tidings
     of the result of that battle were brought to David, as he sat
     impatiently at the gate of Mahanaim, and he was told that
     Absalom had been slain, he gave way to the bitter lamentation:
     "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died
     for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Sam. 18:33. Comp. Ex.
     32:32; Rom. 9:3).
     
       Absalom's three sons (2 Sam. 14:27; comp. 18:18) had all died
     before him, so that he left only a daughter, Tamar, who became
     the grandmother of Abijah.
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Absalom, father of peace