How does Absalom gain an audience with David after two years in Jerusalem?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

After Joab ignores two requests to come, Absalom orders his servants to burn Joab’s barley field. Joab comes and carries Absalom’s request to David; the king summons Absalom and kisses him.

Chapter breakdown

Joab, son of Sarvia, understands that the king’s heart has turned toward Absalom. He sends to Thecua for a wise woman and tells her to pretend to mourn. She must wear mourning clothes and use no oil, so she appears to have mourned someone a long time. Joab tells her to go to the king and gives her the words to say.

The woman falls before the king in homage and asks him to save her. Asked what is wrong, she says she is a widow whose husband has died. In her account, her two sons quarrelled in a field with no one to separate them, and one killed the other. Her whole family demands the killer so they can kill him for his brother’s life and destroy the heir. She says they seek to quench her remaining spark, leaving her husband no name or remainder on earth.

David tells her to go home and says he will give orders concerning her. She asks that the iniquity fall on her and her father’s house, leaving the king and his throne guiltless. David tells her to bring him anyone who speaks against her, and that person will no longer touch her. She asks him to remember the Lord his God, so the next of kin do not multiply to take revenge and kill her son. Swearing by the living Lord, David says not one hair of her son will fall to the earth.

With permission to speak further, the woman asks why David has thought this against God’s people and spoken this word while sinning by not bringing home his own exile. She says everyone dies and falls to earth like waters that do not return; God does not want a soul to perish but recalls the cast-off so he does not wholly perish. She says she has come to speak before the people, hoping the king may grant her request. She says he has heard her to deliver her and her son from those who would destroy them out of God’s inheritance. She asks that the king’s word be made as a sacrifice, comparing him to an angel of God, unmoved by blessing or cursing, and saying the Lord his God is with him.

David asks her not to hide what he asks, and she tells him to speak. He asks whether Joab’s hand is in all this. Swearing by the health of David’s soul, she says it is exactly as he has spoken: Joab commanded her and put all the words in her mouth, directing this form of speech. She again praises David’s wisdom as an angel’s, understanding all things on earth. David tells Joab he is appeased and has granted his request, and orders him to fetch Absalom. Joab falls face down in homage, blesses the king and says he now knows he has found favour because the king has fulfilled his request.

Challoner’s separate note explains blessed here as giving thanks to the king.

Joab goes to Gessur and brings Absalom to Jerusalem. David orders Absalom to return to his own house and not see his face; Absalom does so. The passage says no man in Israel is as beautiful as Absalom, without blemish from sole to crown. He cuts his hair once a year because it burdens him, and weighs it at two hundred sicles by the common weight. He has three sons and one very beautiful daughter named Thamar. He lives in Jerusalem two years without seeing the king’s face.

Absalom sends for Joab so he can send him to the king, but Joab will not come, even after a second request. Absalom tells his servants to burn Joab’s barley field near his own. They burn the crop. Joab’s servants come with torn clothes and report that Absalom’s servants have set part of the field on fire. Joab comes to Absalom’s house and asks why. Absalom says he had asked Joab to come so he could send him to the king to ask why he came from Gessur, when it would have been better to stay there. He asks to see the king’s face and says that, if the king is mindful of his iniquity, he should kill him.

Joab tells the king everything. Absalom is called, comes to David and falls to the ground before him. The king kisses him.

The story inside

Joab first uses a prepared appeal to bring Absalom back. The woman obtains protection for the surviving son in her account, then turns the argument toward David’s own exile. David detects Joab’s involvement, and she confirms he supplied the words. He grants Joab’s request, but the return has a limit: Absalom must stay in his own house without seeing David’s face. Two years later Absalom seeks Joab’s help again. After two unanswered requests, his servants burn Joab’s barley. The report by Joab’s servants and Joab’s visit lead to Absalom’s stated request for an audience, with the condition that David may kill him if mindful of his iniquity. Joab reports everything and the audience takes place. The chapter gives this sequence and a kiss, without describing a legal pardon or moral conversion.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The woman’s account has a known source. Joab tells her to pretend to mourn and supplies her words; she later confirms his role. Her claims and arguments should remain attributed rather than treated as verified events in another family.
2
Returning home and seeing the king are separate steps. David allows Absalom back to Jerusalem but initially forbids him to see his face. The two-year period and later audience explain why the return alone does not finish the chapter’s action.
3
Absalom gives a reason for seeking Joab. He wants Joab to carry his request to David, and after two refusals orders the fire that brings Joab to him. The account records coercive acts and his conditional words without requiring an invented feeling or legal outcome.

Test your recall

Why does Absalom burn Joab’s field, and how does Joab’s resulting visit lead to the king’s audience?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 33061–33075
2 Kings Chapter 14 Joab procureth Absalom’s return, and his admittance to the king’s presence. 14:1. And Joab the son of Sarvia, understanding that the king’s heart was turned to Absalom, 14:2. Sent to Thecua, and fetched from thence a wise woman: and said to her: Feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on mourning apparel, and be not anointed with oil, that thou mayest be as a woman that had a long time been mourning for one dead. 14:3. And thou shalt go in to the king, and shalt speak to him in this manner. And Joab put the words in her mouth.
Lines 33077–33091
14:4. And when the woman of Thecua was come in to the king, she fell before him upon the ground, and worshipped, and said: Save me, O king. 14:5. And the king said to her: What is the matter with thee? She answered: Alas, I am a widow woman: for my husband is dead. 14:6. And thy handmaid had two sons: and they quarrelled with each other in the field, and there was none to part them: and the one struck the other, and slew him. 14:7. And behold the whole kindred rising against thy handmaid, saith: Deliver him that hath slain his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother, whom he slew, and that we may destroy the heir: and they seek to quench my spark which is left, and will leave my husband no name, nor remainder upon the earth.
Lines 33093–33106
14:8. And the king said to the woman: Go to thy house, and I will give charge concerning thee. 14:9. And the woman of Thecua said to the king: Upon me, my lord be the iniquity, and upon the house of my father: but may the king and his throne be guiltless. 14:10. And the king said: If any one shall say ought against thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more. 14:11. And she said: Let the king remember the Lord his God, that the next of kin be not multiplied to take revenge, and that they may not kill my son. And he said: As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.
Lines 33108–33130
14:12. Then the woman said: Let thy hand maid speak one word to my lord the king. And he said: Speak. 14:13. And the woman said: Why hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God, and why hath the king spoken this word, to sin, and not bring home again his own exile? 14:14. We all die, and like waters that return no more, we fall down into the earth: neither will God have a soul to perish, but recalleth, meaning that he that is cast off should not altogether perish. 14:15. Now therefore I am come, to speak this word to my lord the king before the people. And thy handmaid said: I will speak to the king, it maybe the king will perform the request of his handmaid. 14:16. And the king hath hearkened to me to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of all that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. 14:17. Then let thy handmaid say, that the word of the Lord the king be made as a sacrifice. For even as an angel of God, so is my lord the king, that he is neither moved with blessing nor cursing: wherefore the Lord thy God is also with thee.
Lines 33132–33153
14:18. And the king answering, said to the woman: Hide not from me the thing that I ask thee. And the woman said to him: Speak, my lord the king. 14:19. And the king said: Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? The woman answered, and said: By the health of thy soul, my lord, O king, it is neither on the left hand, nor on the right, in all these things which my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he commanded me, and he put all these words into the mouth of thy handmaid. 14:20. That I should come about with this form of speech, thy servant Joab commanded this: but thou, my lord, O king, art wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to understand all things upon earth. 14:21. And the king said to Joab: Behold I am appeased and have granted thy request: Go therefore and fetch back the boy Absalom. 14:22. And Joab falling down to the ground upon his face, adored, and blessed the king: and Joab said: This day thy servant hath understood, that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king: for thou hast fulfilled the request of thy servant.
Lines 33155–33155
Blessed.... That is, and gave thanks to the king.
Lines 33157–33176
14:23. Then Joab arose and went to Gessur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. 14:24. But the king said: Let him return into his house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned into his house, and saw not the king’s face. 14:25. But in all Israel there was not a man so comely, and so exceedingly beautiful as Absalom: from the sole of the foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. 14:26. And when he polled his hair (now he was polled once a year, because his hair was burdensome to him) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred sicles, according to the common weight. 14:27. And there were born to Absalom three sons: and one daughter, whose name was Thamar, and she was very beautiful. 14:28. And Absalom dwelt two years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king’s face.
Lines 33178–33195
14:29. He sent therefore to Joab, to send him to the king: but he would not come to him. And when he had sent the second time, and he would not come to him, 14:30. He said to his servants: You know the field of Joab near my field, that hath a crop of barley: go now and set it on fire. So the servants of Absalom set the corn on fire. And Joab’s servants coming with their garments rent, said: The servants of Absalom have set part of the field on fire. 14:31. Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom to his house, and said: Why have thy servants set my corn on fire? 14:32. And Absalom answered Joab: I sent to thee beseeching thee to come to me, that I might send thee to the king, to say to him: Wherefore am I come from Gessur? it had been better for me to be there: I beseech thee therefore that I may see the face of the king: and if he be mindful of my iniquity, let him kill me.
Lines 33197–33201
14:33. So Joab going in to the king, told him all: and Absalom was called for, and, he went in to the king: and prostrated himself on the ground before him: and the king kissed Absalom.