The Books of Samuel · Absalom, the Oak and the Last Song
He gave one order about the battle.“Be gentle with the young man.”
Absalom takes his father's kingdom without a single battle — by getting up early, standing at the gate, and embracing every person in the country who has ever felt unheard. And the bravest man in the book refuses to fight for his own capital, because of who is on the other side of it. Every scene below is a real frame from our animated film.
Absalom is the best-looking man in the kingdom and everybody says so. He is also David's son, and there is old damage between them. So he starts getting up early. He stands at the city gate, where people come with their disputes, and catches them before they reach the king. Your claims are good — but there is no man appointed by the king to hear you. If only I were judge in the land! 2 Samuel 15 : 1–4
And here is the detail that makes it so uncomfortable. When somebody bows to him — a prince, the king's son — he will not let them. He puts out his hand and lifts them up and kisses them, like a brother. It is a beautiful gesture and it is entirely a technique. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Four years of it, one hurt person at a time. 2 Samuel 15 : 5–6
The coup arrives as information rather than as an army: a man comes into a quiet room and says one sentence, and the old king understands that the country has already changed hands and nobody told him. It has been happening at his own front gate for four years while he sat inside. There is no battle to lose, because there was never a battle. 2 Samuel 15 : 13
And David — who stood in front of a giant at fifteen and refused to lift a hand against Saul for fifteen years — gives the order to leave. Not to fight for his own capital. Not to defend the throne he was promised. He says arise, and let us flee, or else none of us will escape. The bravest man in the book will not fight this one, because of who is on the other side. 2 Samuel 15 : 14
So the king of Israel walks out of Jerusalem on foot, barefoot, head covered, going up the Mount of Olives and weeping as he goes — and everyone with him does the same. A column of people leaving a lit city in the dark with what they can carry. He sends the priests back with the ark, and the line he gives them is the whole theology of the episode in one breath. 2 Samuel 15 : 23–26
On the road out, a man from Saul's family comes along the ridge throwing stones and shouting curses, and one of David's men offers to deal with it. And the old king says no. Let him curse, because the LORD has said to him, "Curse David." He does not defend himself. He has spent his whole life refusing to grab what was not being handed to him, and he does not start now. 2 Samuel 16 : 5–12
Here I am. Let him do to me what seems good to him.
It comes to a battle in the end, because it always does. And the king who is not allowed to go out with the army gives his three commanders exactly one instruction, in front of all the troops, and it is not about tactics. Deal gently, for my sake, with the young man, with Absalom. An old man asking a hard soldier for something he already suspects he will not get. 2 Samuel 18 : 5
The fighting goes into the forest of Ephraim, and the text says something strange about it: the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. The trees do more damage than the battle. And Absalom rides his mule under the branches of a great oak, and his head catches fast in it, and the mule keeps going — and he is left hanging between the heavens and the earth. 2 Samuel 18 : 6–9
A soldier finds him and will not touch him, because he heard what the king said in front of everybody. Joab, who heard it too, calls him a fool and goes himself. And we are shown Joab walking up that hill, and then nothing more — only a wide of the oak standing alone on the ridge, and every bird in it going up at once into an empty sky. That is the whole scene. 2 Samuel 18 : 10–15
He has been sitting between the two gates all day waiting for a runner. And when the news comes, he does not ask about the battle. He asks the only question he has asked all day: is the young man Absalom safe? Then he gets up and goes into the chamber over the gate, alone — and from up there comes the most naked sentence in the Old Testament. He is mourning his boy. 2 Samuel 18 : 33
Would God I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!
And the army comes home having saved his kingdom and his life — and hears the king weeping for the man they had to fight, and the victory dies in the streets. The people stole away into the city, as people who are ashamed steal away. Joab tells him plainly that he is shaming every man who fought for him. And he goes down and stands in the gate, with his heart in pieces. 2 Samuel 19 : 1–8
At the end of everything the old man writes one more song, and it is not about his victories. It is a list of things God is: my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield, my high tower and my refuge. And from a man whose family broke apart in his own hands, a line you would not expect to survive: he delivered me, because he delighted in me. Then a small town, and one star. 2 Samuel 22 : 2–20
The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer — my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge.
After the story
He was not mourning a rebel. He was mourning his boy.
The Books of Samuel end where they began: on a hillside outside a small town, with sheep on it. Between those two shots a shepherd boy became a giant-killer, an outlaw, a king, an adulterer, a penitent and a grieving father, and the book never once tidies him up. It lets him be the man who wrote half the Psalms and the man who wrote that letter. What it insists on, all the way through, is that God did not give up on him — and the last image is not a throne or a battlefield but the town he came from, at night, with a single star over it, because this family has one more king to produce and everybody who reads this book knows it.
Voices of the forest · hover or tap to turn
David
"Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom."
— 2 Samuel 18:5
Absalom
"Oh that I were made judge in the land… I would do him justice!"
— 2 Samuel 15:4
The Oak
"…his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the sky and earth."
— 2 Samuel 18:9The Books of Samuel
How closely were you watching?
1. How does Absalom win the country over?
2 Samuel 15:1–6. Four years of it — and the text says he stole the hearts of the men of Israel, without a battle anywhere.
2. What does David do when he learns of the revolt?
2 Samuel 15:14–30. He sends the ark back into the city and says that if God has no delight in him, God may do as he sees fit.
3. What is David's single instruction to his commanders?
2 Samuel 18:5 — said in front of the whole army, which is why the soldier who finds Absalom refuses to touch him.
4. How is Absalom's death shown?
Joab is shown walking up the hill, and then only the oak on the ridge, with every bird in it going up at once — and stays there.
What this story teaches
Bitterness recruits.
Absalom did not raise an army. He stood at the gate for four years finding people with a real grievance and telling each one that nobody was listening but him. Every word of it was half true, which is what made it work.
"So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel." 2 Samuel 15:6Open hands, to the very end.
David would not take the throne from Saul by force and he would not hold it against his son by force either. The same refusal that made him worth crowning at the start is the one that walks him barefoot out of his own city at the end.
"Behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him." 2 Samuel 15:26You can grieve and still do your job.
Joab was right and cruel at the same time: the army that had just saved his life was creeping home ashamed. David pulled himself together and went and sat in the gate with his heart in pieces, which is not the absence of grief but the discipline of it.
"My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died for you." 2 Samuel 18:33Read the scripture itself. 2 Samuel 15 · 18 · 22 · World English Bible
2 Samuel 15
1After this, Absalom prepared a chariot and horses for himself, and fifty men to run before him.
2Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. When any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, “What city are you from?” He said, “Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.”
3Absalom said to him, “Behold, your matters are good and right; but there is no man deputized by the king to hear you.”
4Absalom said moreover, “Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!”
5It was so, that when any man came near to bow down to him, he stretched out his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him.
6Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
7At the end of forty years, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to Yahweh, in Hebron.
8For your servant vowed a vow while I stayed at Geshur in Syria, saying, ‘If Yahweh shall indeed bring me again to Jerusalem, then I will serve Yahweh.’”
9The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he arose, and went to Hebron.
10But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron!’”
11Two hundred men went with Absalom out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they didn’t know anything.
12Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.
13A messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom.”
14David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee; or else none of us will escape from Absalom. Hurry to depart, lest he overtake us quickly, and bring down evil on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
15The king’s servants said to the king, “Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king chooses.”
16The king went out, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house.
17The king went out, and all the people after him; and they stayed in Beth Merhak.
18All his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.
19Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? Return, and stay with the king; for you are a foreigner, and also an exile. Return to your own place.
20Whereas you came but yesterday, should I today make you go up and down with us, since I go where I may? Return, and take back your brothers. Mercy and truth be with you.”
21Ittai answered the king, and said, “As Yahweh lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king is, whether for death or for life, your servant will be there also.”
22David said to Ittai, “Go and pass over.” Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones who were with him.
23All the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over. The king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.
24Behold, Zadok also came, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God; and they set down God’s ark; and Abiathar went up, until all the people finished passing out of the city.
25The king said to Zadok, “Carry God’s ark back into the city. If I find favor in Yahweh’s eyes, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation;
26but if he says, ‘I have no delight in you;’ behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him.”
27The king said also to Zadok the priest, “Aren’t you a seer? Return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar.
28Behold, I will stay at the fords of the wilderness, until word comes from you to inform me.”
29Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried God’s ark to Jerusalem again; and they stayed there.
30David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him each covered his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.
31Someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” David said, “Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”
32When David had come to the top, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn, and earth on his head.
33David said to him, “If you pass on with me, then you will be a burden to me;
34but if you return to the city, and tell Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king. As I have been your father’s servant in time past, so will I now be your servant; then will you defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.’
35Don’t you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? Therefore whatever you hear out of the king’s house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
36Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok’s son, and Jonathan, Abiathar’s son. Send to me everything that you shall hear by them.”
37So Hushai, David’s friend, came into the city; and Absalom came into Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 18
1David counted the people who were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them.
2David sent the people out, a third part under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the people, “I will also surely go out with you myself.”
3But the people said, “You shall not go out; for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. Therefore now it is better that you are ready to help us out of the city.”
4The king said to them, “I will do what seems best to you.” The king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.
5The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom.” All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.
6So the people went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was in the forest of Ephraim.
7The people of Israel were struck there before David’s servants, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men.
8For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
9Absalom happened to meet David’s servants. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the sky and earth; and the mule that was under him went on.
10A certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.”
11Joab said to the man who told him, “Behold, you saw it, and why didn’t you strike him there to the ground? I would have given you ten pieces of silver, and a sash.”
12The man said to Joab, “Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn’t stretch out my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Beware that no one touch the young man Absalom.’
13Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there is no matter hidden from the king), then you yourself would have set yourself against me.”
14Then Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this with you.” He took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the middle of the oak.
15Ten young men who bore Joab’s armor surrounded and struck Absalom, and killed him.
16Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab held the people back.
17They took Absalom and cast him into the great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones. Then all Israel fled, each to his own tent.
18Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar which is in the king’s valley, for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in memory.” He called the pillar after his own name. It is called Absalom’s monument, to this day.
19Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said, “Let me now run, and carry the king news, how Yahweh has avenged him of his enemies.”
20Joab said to him, “You must not be the bearer of news today, but you must carry news another day. But today you must carry no news, because the king’s son is dead.”
21Then Joab said to the Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen!” The Cushite bowed himself to Joab, and ran.
22Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said yet again to Joab, “But come what may, please let me also run after the Cushite.” Joab said, “Why do you want to run, my son, since that you will have no reward for the news?”
23“But come what may,” he said, “I will run.” He said to him, “Run!” Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite.
24Now David was sitting between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate to the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, a man running alone.
25The watchman cried, and told the king. The king said, “If he is alone, there is news in his mouth.” He came closer and closer.
26The watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the gatekeeper, and said, “Behold, a man running alone!” The king said, “He also brings news.”
27The watchman said, “I think the running of the first one is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok.” The king said, “He is a good man, and comes with good news.”
28Ahimaaz called, and said to the king, “All is well.” He bowed himself before the king with his face to the earth, and said, “Blessed is Yahweh your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted up their hand against my lord the king!”
29The king said, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” Ahimaaz answered, “When Joab sent the king’s servant, even me your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I don’t know what it was.”
30The king said, “Come and stand here.” He came, and stood still.
31Behold, the Cushite came. The Cushite said, “News for my lord the king, for Yahweh has avenged you today of all those who rose up against you.”
32The king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” The Cushite answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you to do you harm, be as that young man is.”
33The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son!”
2 Samuel 22
1David spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul,
2and he said: “Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine;
3God is my rock in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. My savior, you save me from violence.
4I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.
5For the waves of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
6The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death caught me.
7In my distress, I called on Yahweh. Yes, I called to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry came into his ears.
8Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.
9Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it.
10He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.
11He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.
12He made darkness a shelter around himself: gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies.
13At the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled.
14Yahweh thundered from heaven. The Most High uttered his voice.
15He sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and confused them.
16Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by Yahweh’s rebuke, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
17He sent from on high and he took me. He drew me out of many waters.
18He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
19They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support.
20He also brought me out into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
21Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands.
22For I have kept Yahweh’s ways, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
23For all his ordinances were before me. As for his statutes, I did not depart from them.
24I was also perfect toward him. I kept myself from my iniquity.
25Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight.
26With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect.
27With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.
28You will save the afflicted people, But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down.
29For you are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh will light up my darkness.
30For by you, I run against a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall.
31As for God, his way is perfect. Yahweh’s word is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
32For who is God, besides Yahweh? Who is a rock, besides our God?
33God is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect.
34He makes his feet like hinds’ feet, and sets me on my high places.
35He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of brass.
36You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your gentleness has made me great.
37You have enlarged my steps under me. My feet have not slipped.
38I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them. I didn’t turn again until they were consumed.
39I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they can’t arise. Yes, they have fallen under my feet.
40For you have armed me with strength for the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
41You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me.
42They looked, but there was no one to save; even to Yahweh, but he didn’t answer them.
43Then I beat them as small as the dust of the earth. I crushed them as the mire of the streets, and spread them abroad.
44You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me to be the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known will serve me.
45The foreigners will submit themselves to me. As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me.
46The foreigners will fade away, and will come trembling out of their close places.
47Yahweh lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,
48even the God who executes vengeance for me, who brings down peoples under me,
49who brings me away from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man.
50Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations, and will sing praises to your name.
51He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and to his offspring, forever more.”
World English Bible (WEB) — a public-domain modern English translation. Read it freely, share it freely.
The Books of Samuel — animated film 70% in production
These scenes are real frames from the film.
Help us finish it — and every story like it — free for the world.