(The Reading Will Be Posted Tomorrow)
The Summary
Shemuel Bet Chapter 18
David is now joined by tens of thousands of supporters and prepares for the battle with Avshalom. The group is divided into three camps under the leadership of Yoav, Avishai and Ittai, respectively. David expresses a desire to join the troops himself; however, the officers object, concerned that Avshalom’s forces will be disinterested in combat and simply target David if he is present. David agrees to stay behind, but he publicly orders his officers to deal gently with Avshalom.
David’s soldiers quickly gain the upper hand in the conflict, slaying twenty thousand men. At one point, Avshalom is riding on his mule and his head is caught in a tree above; the mule continues walking, leaving Avshalom hanging from a branch in midair. One of the troops reports this to Yoav, who rebukes the soldier for neglecting to kill Avshalom when he found him; the soldier replies that he did not feel that he could contravene the direct orders of the king not to harm his son.
Yoav drives three darts through the heart of Avshalom and then instructs ten of his weapon-bearers to execute him. Yoav then blows the shofar, signaling that the war has come to an end. Avshalom’s body is dumped in a pit and covered with a pile of stones. The text emphasizes that he had no heir to continue the struggle after him.
Ahimaatz, son of Tzadoq the Kohen, wants to run and inform David that the war is over. Yoav explains that since the king’s son has died, these are not good tidings and he should allow someone else to convey them. Yoav sends a Kushite to bring the news to David, and the Kushite leaves to fulfill his mission. Ahimaatz persists and again asks for permission to run ahead and share the latest developments with David, and Yoav begrudgingly allows him to do so, reiterating that this will be a thankless job under the circumstances. Despite the fact that Ahimaatz left later than the Kushite, he is able to surpass the Kushite and reach David first because he takes a shortcut.
Meanwhile, David is waiting patiently for an update from the battlefield. The watchman observes first one, then two men running toward the gate, evidently coming to provide some information to the king. When David is told that the first to arrive will be Ahimaatz, he assumes that this indicates that the news will be positive. Ahimaatz reassures David that all is well and bows low to the ground. When David asks about the welfare of Avshalom, he claims ignorance of the details. David is then greeted by the Kushite, who confirms the message delivered by Ahimaatz. When he is asked about the status of Avshalom, however, he freely acknowledges his death, declaring that “all the enemies of the king should be like that young man.”
One noteworthy element of this chapter is the sudden “swelling” of David’s camp. How did his entourage grow from a few hundred supporters to tens of thousands of troops? One possibility is that, as Ahitophel predicted, the rebellion’s loss of its initial momentum caused a sizable number of people to become skeptical, defect from Avshalom’s regime and join David. Another possibility is that the vulgar behavior of Avshalom in publicly cohabiting with his father’s wives was not well received and caused some of his allies to rethink their allegiances.
The Sages explain that there is an element of “poetic justice” in Avshalom’s death; he grew his hair very long to elevate himself and it was ultimately the cause of his downfall. The Rabbis state that Avshalom was actually a permanent Nazirite and this was the reason why he only cut his hair once a year. On the surface, it is difficult to reconcile the image of a devoutly religious Nazir with the manifestly base and aggressive tendencies of Avshalom. Why do the Rabbis cast Avshalom as a Nazir?
We must bear in mind that the status of a Nazir is itself quite controversial in rabbinic tradition. A famous Talmudic story has it that Shimon Hatzadiq, the great Kohen Gadol of the Second Temple period, refused to eat of the sacrifices of Nazirites because, as a rule, they undertook the vow to showcase their piety and not out of genuine religious motives (the story goes on to detail a memorable exception to this rule).
Avshalom, as a clever and crafty manipulator of public opinion, is portrayed as a Nazir – that is, someone who cultivates an outward image of religiosity in order to impress and endear himself to others. Avshalom is envisioned as a Nazir precisely because, generally speaking, a Nazir is a person who wants to be seen as very devout, even when this is far from the case. We can well imagine Avshalom, like many politicians today, taking up the mantle of religious fervor and observance in order to win the admiration and trust of his would-be supporters.
In that way, unlike Shimshon and Shemuel who preceded him, Avshalom’s Nazirite status undermined true Torah principles rather than helping to establish and promote them. Shimshon and Shemuel were Nazirites from birth because this allowed them to focus less on themselves and more on the service of Hashem and the needs of the nation of Israel. Avshalom, by contrast, used the Nazirite vow as a ploy to draw more attention to himself.
The complications negotiated by Yoav and Ahimaatz with respect to informing David of the outcome of the battle are symptomatic of a deeper problem – David’s ambivalence about the war as a whole. On a national level, his responsibility and objective must be to defend his crown and protect his subjects. However, at the same time, his attachment to Avshalom renders this communal victory a personal loss. This theme will be explored in more detail in upcoming chapters.