David’s Fatherly Concern

The inevitable showdown between David and Absalom is not long in coming. When the time arrives, David divides his men into three companies under Joab, Abishai (Joab’s brother), and Ittai the Gittite (the newcomer from Gath, 2 Sam. 15:18–22). David also announces, that he will go into the battle himself, but his men balk at that command decision. They reason that if Absalom’s forces get the upper hand and David’s forces must flee, Absalom and his men will not pursue all of David’s men, just him. In the eyes of his men, David is worth ” ‘ten thousand of us.’ ” He can serve the army best by remaining safe in the city and deploying reinforcements as needed. How greatly David’s men love him and value him!

David reluctantly agrees to this petition of his men. Standing beside the gate of Mahanaim, he reviews his troops as they march out for the battle. He is full of faith as to the outcome, fully expecting his army to prevail. For this reason, he asks his three commanders to “deal gently” with Absalom for his sake, a request that is overheard by all the men. He is telling them that if they love him, they will spare Absalom’s life. Despite all the evil Absalom has done and all the hardship he has caused his father, David still hopes to see repentance in his son and to be reconciled to him. “Never was unnatural hatred to a father more strong than in Absalom; nor was ever natural affection to a child more strong than in David,” Matthew Henry writes. “Each did his utmost, and showed what man is capable of doing, how bad it is possible for a child to be to the best of fathers and how good it is possible for a father to be to the worst of children; as if it were designed to be a resemblance of man’s wickedness toward God and God’s mercy toward man, of which it is hard to say which is more amazing.”

The two armies clash in “the woods of Ephraim” (probably so named because the people of Gilead defeated the Ephraimites in battle there, Judg. 12:1–4). David’s men strike down twenty thousand Israelites under Absalom, and the woods (probably meaning the rugged country and the beasts in the forest) is said to devour even more. “Now they smarted justly for their treason against their lawful prince,” Henry writes of Absalom’s followers. “Now they see what it is to take counsel against the Lord and His anointed.”