Bible Verses About Absalom

Now therefore, I have come to present this matter to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king. Perhaps he will grant the request of his maidservant.

For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would cut off both me and my son from God’s inheritance.’

And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is able to discern good and evil, just like the angel of God. May the LORD your God be with you.’”

Then the king said to the woman, “I am going to ask you something; do not conceal it from me!” “Let my lord the king speak,” she replied.

So the king asked, “Is the hand of Joab behind all this?” The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king says. Yes, your servant Joab is the one who gave me orders; he told your maidservant exactly what to say.

Joab your servant has done this to bring about this change of affairs, but my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that happens in the land.”

Then the king said to Joab, “I hereby grant this request. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.”

Joab fell facedown in homage and blessed the king. “Today,” said Joab, “your servant knows that he has found favor with you, my lord the king, because the king has granted his request.”

So Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

But the king added, “He may return to his house, but he must not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, but he did not see the king.

Now there was not a man in all Israel as handsome and highly praised as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head, he did not have a single flaw.

Three sons were born to Absalom, and a daughter named Tamar, who was a beautiful woman.

He would get up early and stand beside the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone had a grievance to bring before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out and ask, “What city are you from?” And if he replied, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel,”

Absalom would say, “Look, your claims are good and right, but the king has no deputy to hear you.”

And he would add, “If only someone would appoint me judge in the land, then everyone with a grievance or dispute could come to me, and I would give him justice.”

Also, when anyone approached to bow down to him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him, and kiss him.

Absalom did this to all the Israelites who came to the king for justice. In this way he stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

Then a messenger came to David and reported, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.”

Now Absalom was riding on his mule when he met the servants of David, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so that he was suspended in midair.

When one of the men saw this, he told Joab, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!”

“You just saw him!” Joab exclaimed. “Why did you not strike him to the ground right there? I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a warrior’s belt!”

The man replied, “Even if a thousand shekels of silver were weighed out into my hands, I would not raise my hand against the son of the king. For we heard the king command you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’

If I had jeopardized my own life—and nothing is hidden from the king—you would have abandoned me.”

But Joab declared, “I am not going to wait like this with you!” And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak tree.

And ten young men who carried Joab’s armor surrounded Absalom, struck him, and killed him.