Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
7. AND AFTER FORTY YEARS ABSALOM SAID TO THE KING.—Some, from Josephus, read four for forty. For so Josephus has, book 7 of the Antiquities, chapter 9: “Absalom in the fourth year after the reconciliation begged his father to go to Hebron.” Josephus is followed by Theodoret, Hugh, Abulensis, Adrichomius and others, who think that this rebellion of Absalom happened in the fourth year after his reconciliation, which was the 32nd of David’s reign, as is plain from what was said in chapter 12, verse 24. But the Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint constantly have forty, not four, and so read St. Jerome, the Gloss, Lyranus, Cajetan, Dionysius, and the other interpreters ancient and modern. But they differ as to whence these 40 years are to be reckoned. For Vatablus counts them from the time when the Hebrews asked Samuel for a king, which he thinks was done in the tenth year of Samuel’s rule. But he errs in the reckoning: for many more years flowed by since then; from the time when Saul killed the priests at Nobe, and overthrew the crowd. Others count from the death of Saul, others from the slaying of Goliath, others from the birth of Absalom. But the number of years does not correspond.
I say, therefore, that these 40 years are to be reckoned from the first anointing of David as king, made by Samuel, 1 Kings 16:13. For this was done when David was in his twentieth year; from thence count these 40 years, and thou wilt come to the sixtieth year of David’s age, in which Absalom’s conspiracy was made, when David was in the thirtieth year of his reign (for he entered on the kingdom in his thirtieth year), after which he reigned ten years more, and died in the 70th year of his age. So Tornielli, Salianus, Emmanuel Sa, Paul of Burgos, Abulensis and others.
Hence some think that Absalom excused his tyranny and rebellion on this pretext, that as his father David had been substituted by God for Saul his father-in-law, who was disobedient to God and therefore ruled impiously and tyrannically, and had been anointed king by Samuel in the 20th year of his age, so likewise he himself should succeed his father, who ruled impiously and tyrannically, and especially when committing adultery with Bethsabee and killing Urias, with equal right and in the same manner. Hence also Semei reproached David with the same when he fled from Absalom.
From what has been said it follows that Absalom, when he made war on David, was nearly thirty years old. For he rebelled when David was in the thirtieth year of his reign. And he himself was begotten by David at the beginning of David’s reign, as is plain from chapter 3, verse 3.
10. ABSALOM REIGNETH IN HEBRON,—because in Hebron Absalom had been born, chapter 3, verse 3, where also his father David had begun to reign, and had offered sacrifices. For Hebron, on account of the Patriarchs buried in it, was held a most holy place, and was frequented by the Israelites: this, therefore, was Absalom’s pretext, and this the convenience for his crime and for the forming of the conspiracy. So Abulensis. See St. Chrysostom, homily On Absalom, vol. 1, or whoever is its author, magnifying Absalom’s crime, tyranny and parricide; for the elegance of its Latin style and its play on words indicate that the author was a Latin, not a Greek.
13. ALL ISRAEL WITH THEIR WHOLE HEART FOLLOWETH ABSALOM.—Abulensis, Question 19, gives as the first cause that Absalom was popular with the people, and enticed their hearts, and had bound them to himself by his kindliness, as is plain from what was said at the beginning of the chapter. The second cause he assigns is God’s punishment: for God in this way wished to fulfil the penalty threatened to David, chapter 12:11. Wherefore he set before the mind of the people the gifts and grace of Absalom, but the faults of David, and the other things in him which displeased the common people: whence it came about that the people, desiring novelty, loathed David, and sought a new king, Absalom. God set these before it for good ends intended by himself, but foresaw that the people would abuse them to rebel against David, and decreed to permit this in order to punish David’s sins. See what is said on Exodus chapter 7, verse 3.
14. AND DAVID SAID, etc.: ARISE, LET US FLY,—The cause of the flight is given by St. Chrysostom on Psalm 3, which David then composed, calling upon God in so great a persecution, as is plain from its title: “David,” he says, “fled from his son, because he had fled chastity; he fled from his son, because he had violated a chaste marriage. He fled from his son, because he had transgressed the law of God, which says: Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, he had fled. For since he had brought another man’s lamb into his house, and killed its shepherd, who was a lamb from his own house, he was assailed on the horn by the shepherd. He brought war on another’s house, but from his own house war is stirred up against himself,” etc. Morally, learn here how vain it is for parents to glory in their children, and how true that saying: “The sons of heroes are a bane.” For often the sons are degenerate, and enemies of their parents. Behold, David begot three sons, of whom the first, Amnon, violated his sister by incest; the second, Absalom, was a fratricide and parricide; the third, Solomon, was an idolater and plainly addicted to women. Which St. Ambrose mystically applies to the Jews, book 1, Apology of David, chapter 3: “David,” he says, “begot two sons, one incestuous, the other a parricide, because the incestuous and parricidal people (of the Jews), having fixed to the gibbet of the cross, was about to slay the flesh of its own author.”
for these I have said in chapter 8, verse 28.
AND ALL THE GETHITES.—These were soldiers, not Philistines but Jews, who in every persecution of Saul had adhered to David. They were called “Gethites,” because they had followed David when he fled from Judea to Geth, a city of the Philistines, and there had dwelt with him a long time. So Abulensis.
20. YESTERDAY THOU CAMEST, AND TO-DAY SHALT THOU BE FORCED TO GO FORTH WITH US?—Hence it seems that Ethai was a Philistine, namely a Gethite, and had a little before migrated from Geth to Jerusalem, and become a proselyte, to join himself to David. Abulensis disputes more about him, but by conjecture.
THE LORD WILL SHEW THEE MERCY AND TRUTH (that is, equity, fidelity), BECAUSE THOU HAST SHEWN GRACE AND FIDELITY,—as if to say: I wish and pray that God may repay thee the grace and fidelity which thou hast shown me, that is, that he may be merciful in thee, and constant in doing good, as thou hast been to me.
23. THE KING ALSO HIMSELF WENT OVER THE BROOK CEDRON.—David here, fleeing from Absalom, crossed the brook Cedron, to flee by the mount of Olivet into the desert, and there hide himself. Hence he was a type of Christ, who, fleeing Judas the traitor and the Jews, crossed the same brook. For Absalom, says Eucherius, was a type of Judas the traitor. Hence also Absalom in Hebrew is the same as “father of peace,” namely feigned and false; because Christ the Father had peace, which Judas did not have, but pretended, when he was betrayed by him to the Jews by a kiss.