📖 2 Samuel 18 : 💎 David's Victory and Sorrow, and Joab's Disobedience!

(Imagem gerada por IA)

📜 Chapter 17

When his counsel was not followed, Ahithophel went home and hanged himself.

• And this was not merely a war between David and Absalom..
• It was a war in which members of the same family were forced to stand against one another..
• The text also records that, even among Saul's house, there were those who cursed David and those who helped him.

📖 2 Samuel 18 : 💎
David's Victory and Sorrow, and Joab's Disobedience!

Chapter 18 shows the beginning and the outcome of the war.

👉 David and Absalom: a clash of strength against strength

David appointed commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds over the people who were with him, and organized the army.

• One third under the command of Joab
• One third under the command of Abishai, Joab's brother
• One third under the command of Ittai the Gittite, to whom he entrusted the troops.

✔️ In Saul's time, whenever they fought the Philistines, David acted more wisely than all the servants of Saul... and led the army to victory in every battle. True to who he was, he prepared for war. (1 Sam 18, last verse)

👉 David asks the commanders to deal gently with Absalom

His servants dissuaded David from going out to battle, and David agreed... He commanded Joab, Abishai, and Ittai to deal gently with Absalom, and the text records that all the people heard it.

• In the war, the people of Israel were defeated by David's men, and the casualties that day reached 20,000.

🔎 An interesting point - verse 8

• The battle spread over the whole countryside, and that day the forest claimed more lives than the sword (v. 8)

✔️ The forest of Ephraim had rugged terrain, with pits, cliffs, and swamps, and I wonder whether David may have used this geographical advantage in his strategy.

✔️ Usually in a war, armies face armies, mass against mass... But here the text says the fighting spread out on every side... Perhaps it was a battle that took advantage of these conditions of the land.

👉 Joab ignores David's command

Absalom meets David's servants..

• Absalom was riding a mule
• and when the mule passed under a great oak, it went on, and Absalom's head was caught in the oak.

Then a man reports it to Joab.

• Joab asks, "Why didn't you strike him down right there?"
• The man answers that even if he were offered a fortune, he would not raise his hand against the king's son, and he reminds Joab of David's command that no one harm Absalom.

Joab ignores all of these words, goes to Absalom, and thrusts into the heart of Absalom, who was still alive in the midst of the tree; ten of Joab's armor-bearers surround Absalom and strike him dead. Then Joab blows the trumpet, and the fighting ends.

👉 Ahimaaz and the Cushite carry the news of victory

Ahimaaz son of Zadok says, "Let me run and carry to the king the news... the news of victory, that the LORD has avenged him of his enemies." But Joab answers, "Not today; you may carry news another day, for the king's son is dead."

Then he calls the Cushite and says to him, "Go, tell the king what you have seen."

Was this a double-minded attitude on Joab's part?
Or did he want to send someone from his own side to do the speaking?

Ahimaaz son of Zadok insists once more on running after the Cushite, and Joab, reluctantly, tells him to go.

👉 David weeps upon learning, along with the victory, of Absalom's death

Ahimaaz, who reaches David first, delivers the news of victory. But about Absalom's death, he answers that he does not know.

Joab had clearly told Ahimaaz that Absalom was dead, but I think Ahimaaz may have hidden it for David's sake. 💎

The Cushite, when asked about Absalom as he delivers the news of victory, speaks plainly.

• "May the enemies of my lord the king be like that young man," he says.

Hearing this, David, his heart deeply wounded, goes up to the chamber over the gate and weeps, crying out Absalom's name... "Would that I had died instead of you!", and he keeps calling his son's name over and over.

✍️ Closing thoughts -1

1. The war between David and Absalom (the battle in the forest of Ephraim) showed a different character from an ordinary war.

• More died in the forest than by the sword.

2. In chapter 14, along with Absalom's beauty, we are told that his hair was heavy and that he cut it every year-end. (2 Sam 14:26)

📌 Here we find a very interesting situation. 😄

When Absalom deceived David, went to Hebron saying he would shear sheep, and started the rebellion, I think it was springtime; soon the situation grew urgent, David fled... and not long after, the war broke out.

• Could it be that Absalom, who cut his hair every year-end, was unable to cut it? Or did he cut it and still have too much hair?
• That Absalom, with his beautiful head of hair, met his death with his head caught between the branches of a tree.

📌 Another guess: Absalom was riding a mule, not a horse...

• Could it be that he did not know how to ride a horse?
• That is, someone who, unlike David, had not been through wars, perhaps a man who did not know war? That is what comes to my mind.

✍️ Closing thoughts -2

📍 In verse 5, David gave a clear command: deal gently with the young man Absalom.

• It was not a command to kill him.

📌 Joab's action in response was disobedience. He broke the command. As commander-in-chief, it was a grave blunder and a serious crime.

• Even the man who told Joab that Absalom was hanging in the oak said, "The king commanded: take care that no one touches the young man Absalom." (2 Sam 18:12)

✔️ Earlier, Joab killed Abner, who had made a covenant with David, behind David's back.

✔️ This time, he brutally killed Absalom, whom David had not allowed to be killed.

😄 The irony is that...

• Joab sensed what was in David's heart and brought back Absalom, who had grown distant from David.
• Yet this same Joab killed Absalom...

✔️ We can conclude that Joab did not bring Absalom back for David's sake. 💎

• If Joab had been thinking of David's heart, he could not have killed Absalom.
• Joab had once "peeked" into David's heart, but it was for his own ambition (which is more plausible).
• And the Joab of chapter 18 killed Absalom as he saw fit, with no regard for David's heart.

😄 One more thing..

• Joab had a reason for killing Abner.
  • At that time, it was to avenge his brother's death.
• This time, he killed Absalom. There was surely a reason. (The Bible says nothing about it, but...)
  • The guess that Absalom, brought back for Joab's own ambition, was not the crown prince David had in mind
  • and, besides, he was the one who set Joab's field on fire and caused him financial loss... (fact)

✔️ Joab was someone who acted on his own judgment,
and this is the second episode that shows it. 💎

(Imagem gerada por IA)