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[[Text:EBD:Father (EBD)|Father]] of peace; i.e., "peaceful" [[Text:EBD:David (EBD)|David]]'s son by [[Text:EBD:Maachah (EBD)|Maachah]] (2 Sam. 3:3; comp. 1 Kings 1:6). He was noted for his personal beauty and for the extra-ordinary profusion of the [[Text:EBD:Hair (EBD)|hair]] of his head (2 Sam. 14:25,26). The first public act of his life was the [[Text:EBD:Blood (EBD)|blood]]-revenge he executed against [[Text:EBD:Amnon (EBD)|Amnon]], David's eldest son, who had basely wronged Absalom's sister [[Text:EBD:Tamar (EBD)|Tamar]]. This revenge was executed at the time of the festivities connected with a great [[Text:EBD:Sheep (EBD)|sheep]]-shearing at [[Text:EBD:Baal-hazor (EBD)|Baal-hazor]]. David's other sons fled from the place in horror, and brought the tidings of the [[Text:EBD:Death (EBD)|death]] of Amnon to [[Text:EBD:Jerusalem (EBD)|Jerusalem]]. Alarmed for the consequences of the act, Absalom fled to his grandfather at [[Text:EBD:Geshur (EBD)|Geshur]], and there abode for three [[Text:EBD:Year (EBD)|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 [[Text:EBD:Woman (EBD)|woman]] of [[Text:EBD:Tekoa, Tekoah (EBD)|Tekoah]], [[Text:EBD:Joab (EBD)|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 [[Text:EBD:Throne (EBD)|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 [[Text:EBD:Hebron (EBD)|Hebron]], the old capital of [[Text:EBD:Judah (EBD)|Judah]], along with a great body of the people, and there proclaimed himself [[Text:EBD:King (EBD)|king]]. The revolt was so successful that David found it necessary to quit Jerusalem and flee to [[Text:EBD:Mahanaim (EBD)|Mahanaim]], beyond [[Text:EBD:Jordan (EBD)|Jordan]]; where upon Absalom returned to Jerusalem and took possession of the throne without opposition. [[Text:EBD:Ahithophel (EBD)|Ahithophel]], who had been David's chief [[Text:EBD:Counsellor (EBD)|counsellor]], deserted him and joined Absalom, whose chief counsellor he now became. [[Text:EBD:Hushai (EBD)|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 [[Text:EBD:Army (EBD)|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 [[Text:EBD:Forest (EBD)|forest]] of [[Text:EBD:Ephraim, Wood of (EBD)|Ephraim]]. Twenty thousand of Absalom's army were slain in that fatal battle, and the rest fled. Absalom fled on a swift [[Text:EBD:Mule (EBD)|mule]]; but his long flowing hair, or more probably his head, was caught in the bough of an [[Text:EBD:Oak (EBD)|oak]], and there he was left suspended till Joab came up and pierced him through with three [[Text:EBD:Dart (EBD)|darts]]. His body was then taken down and cast into a [[Text:EBD:Pit (EBD)|pit]] dug in the forest, and a heap of [[Text:EBD:Stone (EBD)|stones]] was raised over his [[Text:EBD:Grave (EBD)|grave]]. When the tidings of the result of that battle were brought to David, as he sat impatiently at the [[Text:EBD:Gate (EBD)|gate]] of Mahanaim, and he was told that Absalom had been slain, he gave way to the [[Text:EBD:Bitter (EBD)|bitter]] [[Text:EBD:Lamentation (EBD)|lamentation]]: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would [[Text:EBD:God (EBD)|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 [[Text:EBD:Daughter (EBD)|daughter]], Tamar, who became the grandmother of [[Text:EBD:Abijah (EBD)|Abijah]].