Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
, “peaceful” David’s son by Maacah (2 Sam. 3:3; comp. 1 Kings 1:6). He was noted for his personal beauty and for the extra-ordinary profusion of the hair of his head (2 Sam. 14:25,26). The first public act of his life was the blood-revenge he executed against Amnon, David’s eldest son, who had basely wronged Absalom’s sister Tamar. This revenge was executed at the time of the festivities connected with a great sheep-shearing at Baal-hazor. David’s other sons fled from the place in horror, and brought the tidings of the death of Amnon to Jerusalem.
Alarmed for the consequences of the act, Absalom fled to his grandfather at Geshur, and there abode for three 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 woman of Tekoah, 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 throne. His pretensions were favoured by the people. ) he went up to Hebron, the old capital of Judah, along with a great body of the people, and there proclaimed himself king. The revolt was so successful that David found it necessary to quit Jerusalem and flee to Mahanaim, beyond Jordan; where upon Absalom returned to Jerusalem and took possession of the throne without opposition.
Ahithophel, who had been David’s chief counsellor, deserted him and joined Absalom, whose chief counsellor he now became. 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 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 forest of Ephraim.
Twenty thousand of Absalom’s army were slain in that fatal battle, and the rest fled. Absalom fled on a swift mule; but his long flowing hair, or more probably his head, was caught in the bough of an oak, and there he was left suspended till Joab came up and pierced him through with three darts. His body was then taken down and cast into a pit dug in the forest, and a heap of stones was raised over his grave.
When the tidings of the result of that battle were brought to David, as he sat impatiently at the gate of Mahanaim, and he was told that Absalom had been slain, he gave way to the bitter lamentation: “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! ” (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 daughter, Tamar, who became the grandmother of Abijah.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(father of peace), third son of David by Maachah, daughter of Tamai king of Geshur, a Syrian district adjoining the northeast frontier of the Holy Land. ) Absalom had a sister, Tamar, who was violated by her half-brother Amnon. The natural avenger of such an outrage would be Tamar’s full brother Absalom. He brooded over the wrong for two years, and then invited all the princes to a sheep-shearing feast at his estate in Baalhazor, on the borders of Ephraim and Benjamin.
Here he ordered his servants to murder Amnon, and then fled for safety to his grandfather’s court at Geshur, where he remained for three years. At the end of that time he was brought back by an artifice of Joab. David, however, would not see Absalom for two more years; but at length Joab brought about a reconciliation. Absalom now began at once to prepare for rebellion. He tried to supplant his father by courting popularity, standing in the gate, conversing with every suitor, and lamenting the difficulty which he would find in getting a hearing.
He also maintained a splendid retinue, (2 Samuel 15:1) and was admired for his personal beauty. It is probable too that the great tribe of Judah had taken some offence at David’s government. Absalom raised the standard of revolt at Hebron, the old capital of Judah, now supplanted by Jerusalem. The revolt was at first completely successful; David fled from his capital over the Jordan to Mahanaim in Gilead, and Absalom occupied Jerusalem.
At last, after being solemnly anointed king at Jerusalem, (2 Samuel 19:10) Absalom crossed the Jordan to attack his father, who by this time had rallied round him a considerable force. A decisive battle was fought in Gilead, in the wood of Ephraim. Here Absalom’s forces were totally defeated, and as he himself was escaping his long hair was entangled in the branches of a terebinth, where he was left hanging while the mule on which he was riding ran away from under him.
He was dispatched by Joab in spite of the prohibition of David, who, loving him to the last, had desired that his life might be spared. He was buried in a great pit in the forest, and the conquerors threw stones over his grave, an old proof of bitter hostility.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
AB'SALOM (father of peace) was the third son of David by Maacah, daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. 2 Sam 3:3. He was remarkable for his beauty, and for his hair, which is said to have weighed 200 shekels when cut off every year. But if the royal shekel equal the sacred shekel, this would make 6 pounds, which is incredible. The difficulty is not removed by reducing the value of the shekel one-half or one-third. 19 The simplest explanation is that by the error of a copyist the 200 was written for 20, the difference between the figures being very slight in Hebrew notation.
Absalom's fair sister, called Tamar, having been violated by Amnon, his half-brother, he meditated revenge, since he was her natural avenger; and after brooding over the outrage for two years, he at last took Amnon's life at a feast to which he had invited him, and then at once fled to Talmai, his maternal grandfather, at Geshur, where he stayed three years.
Joab, in order to secure Absalom's return and restoration to his father's favor, employed a woman of Tekoa to appear before David and feign a case similar to the situation of Absalom, and having obtained his decision, to apply the principle to the real case. After a favorable decision was obtained in the feigned case, the woman began to plead for Absalom's return. The king suspected Joab's concern in the plot, and the woman confessed that it was wholly planned by him.
David, however, directed Joab to go to Geshur and bring Absalom back to Jerusalem, but would not receive him into favor nor admit him to his presence, nor did he see his face for two years more. Wearied with his banishment, Absalom often attempted to obtain an interview with Joab, but for some cause Joab was not disposed to go to him. To compel him to come, Absalom resorted to a singular expedient; he directed his servants to set fire to Joab's fields.
Joab immediately came to Absalom, was persuaded to plead with the king in his behalf, succeeded in his effort, and Absalom was received into full favor. Absalom then showed the object of his ambition was to obtain his father's throne. He was jealous of the favor his father gave to Solomon, Bath-sheba's son, for, since he was the oldest living son of David, he was by birth the rightful heir to the kingdom.
To this end he lived in great pomp, procured chariots and horsemen and other appendages of royalty, and stood in the public places courting the favor of the people by the meanest arts, persuading them that their rights were not regarded by the government, and that it would be for their interest to elevate him to power, that equal justice might be administered to all. By these and other means Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
In pursuing his traitorous design, and with a pretended regard to filial duty, he asked his father's permission to go to Hebron and pay a vow which he said he had made. The unsuspicious king consented, and Absalom immediately sent men throughout Israel, who were, at a given signal, to proclaim him king in Hebron. He also took two hundred men with him from Jerusalem, though they did not know his plan, and then sent for Ahithophel, who was David's counsellor, that he might have his advice and assistance.
Absalom's party increased rapidly, and intelligence of the conspiracy was communicated to the king, and so alarmed him that he fled from the city. At length David persuaded Hushai to go to Absalom, who had now come back to Jerusalem with his party, and become his servant, and when opportunity occurred to give such counsel as should defeat Ahithophel's plans and bring confusion and discomfiture upon Absalom. By a train of providential interpositions Absalom's ruin was hastened.
Before David's men went out to battle with the revolted party, he gave them special charge respecting Absalom, and commanded them to deal gently with him for his father's sake. The two parties met in the wood of Ephraim, and the battle was bloody. Absalom rode upon a mule, and in passing under the thick boughs of an oak he was caught by his head in the fork or angle of two branches, and the mule passed onward, leaving him suspended in the air.
Joab, one of David's chief captains, being informed of it, took three darts and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak; and they took his body and cast it into a pit in the wood, and covered it with stones.
Hitchcock's Bible Names (1869)
father of peace