2 Samuel 18:13-23

13 "Otherwise, if I had dealt treacherously against his life (and ¹there is nothing * * hidden from the king ), then you yourself would have stood aloof *."

14 Then Joab said, "I will not waste time here with you." ²So he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.

15 And ten young men who carried Joab's armor gathered around and struck Absalom and killed him.

16 Then ³Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained the people.

17 They took Absalom and cast him into a deep pit in the forest and ⁴erected over him a very great heap of stones. And ⁵all Israel fled, each to his tent.

18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and ⁶set up for himself a pillar which is in ⁷the King's Valley, for he said, "⁸I have no son to preserve my name." So he named the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom's Monument to this day.

David Is Grief-stricken

19 Then ⁹Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said, "Please let me run and bring the king news ¹⁰that the LORD has freed him from the hand of his enemies."

20 But Joab said to him, "You are not the man to carry news this day, but you shall carry news another day; however, you shall carry no news today because * the king's son is dead."

21 Then Joab said to the Cushite, "Go, tell the king what you have seen." So the Cushite bowed to Joab and ran.

22 Now Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said once * more * to Joab, "But whatever happens, please let me also run after the Cushite." And Joab said, "Why * would you run, my son, since ¹¹you will have no reward for going?"

23 "But whatever happens," he said, "I will run." So he said to him, "Run." Then Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and passed up the Cushite.

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2 Samuel 18:13-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 18

In this chapter is an account of David's review of his army, preparing it for battle with Absalom, and those with him, 2Sa 18:1-5; and of the defeat and flight of the rebels, 2Sa 18:6-8; and of the death of Absalom, and the manner of it, and of his burial, 2Sa 18:9-18; and of the news of it brought to David by different persons, 2Sa 18:19-32; and of his great grief and sorrow on that account, 2Sa 18:33.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 11

1. 2 Samuel 14:19, 20
2. 2 Samuel 14:30
3. 2 Samuel 2:28; 2 Samuel 20:22
4. Deuteronomy 21:20, 21; Joshua 7:26; Joshua 8:29
5. 2 Samuel 19:8; 2 Samuel 20:1, 22
6. 1 Samuel 15:12
7. Genesis 14:17
8. 2 Samuel 14:27
9. 2 Samuel 15:36
10. 2 Samuel 18:31
11. 2 Samuel 18:29

Footnotes 5

[a]. Lit "tarry thus"
[b]. Lit "heart"
[c]. Lit "the great"
[d]. Lit "for the sake of remembering"
[e]. Lit "vindicated"