2 Samuel 18
2 Samuel 18
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2 Samuel 18

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2 Samuel 18

2 Samuel 18 is the eighteenth chapter of the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the second part of Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains the account of David's reign in Jerusalem. This is within a section comprising 2 Samuel 9–20 and continued to 1 Kings 12 which deal with the power struggles among David's sons to succeed David's throne until 'the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon' (1 Kings 2:46).

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 33 verses.

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q51 (4QSama; 100–50 BCE) with extant verses 1–11, 28–29.

Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint (originally was made in the last few centuries BCE) include Codex Vaticanus (B; B; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (A; A; 5th century).

The story of Absalom's rebellion can be observed as five consecutive episodes:

God's role seems to be understated in the whole events, but is disclosed by a seemingly insignificant detail: 'the crossing of the Jordan river'. The Hebrew root word' 'br, "to cross" (in various nominal and verbal forms) is used more than 30 times in these chapters (compared to 20 times in the rest of 2 Samuel) to report David's flight from Jerusalem, his crossing of the Jordan river, and his reentry into Jerusalem. In 2 Samuel 17:16, stating that David should cross the Jordan (17:16), the verb 'br is even reinforced by a 'Hebrew infinitive absolute' to mark this critical moment: "king David is about to cross out of the land of Israel." David's future was in doubt until it was stated that God had rendered foolish Ahithophel's good counsel to Absalom (2 Samuel 17:14), thus granting David's prayer (15:31), and saving David from Absalom's further actions. Once Absalom was defeated, David's crossing back over the Jordan echoes the Israelites' first crossing over the Jordan under Joshua's leadership (Joshua 1–4):

Here God's role is not as explicit as during Joshua's crossing, but the signs are clear that God was with David, just as with Joshua.

Hushai's successful counsel to Absalom gave David enough time to organize his troops. By the time for battle David had three groups of army, which was a traditional division at that time (cf. Judges 7:16; 1 Samuel 11:11). David was prevented by his men from marching out with them (verse 3), so he would not be in harm way as would happen to Absalom later. The narrative emphasizes that David should not be implicated in Absalom's death as he was not with the army and he gave specific instructions to his three commanders to 'deal gently' with Absalom, which were also heard by all the people. The battle is briefly described that 'the men of Israel', supporters of Absalom, were defeated by 'the servants of David', who were better placed to take advantage of the wooded terrain, made treacherous by the large pits, called 'the forest of Ephraim' (verse 17). Absalom became victim to the forest, that his phenomenal long hair (cf. 2 Samuel 14:26; cf. Josephus, Ant. 7 paragraph 239) got caught in the branches of a tree as his mule made its way under it, and 'he was left hanging' in mid-air. A man who reported Absalom's situation was originally offered a reward by Joab to kill Absalom, but he had three good reasons to refuse:

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