[188]
However, the king sent a message to his son beforehand, as he was
coming, and commanded him to retire to his own house, for he was not yet
in such a disposition as to think fit at present to see him. Accordingly,
upon the father's command, he avoided coming into his presence, and contented
himself with the respects paid him by his own family only. Now his beauty
was not impaired, either by the grief he had been under, or by the want
of such care as was proper to be taken of a king's son, for he still surpassed
and excelled all men in the tallness of his body, and was more eminent
[in a fine appearance] than those that dieted the most luxuriously; and
indeed such was the thickness of the hair of his head, that it was with
difficulty that he was polled every eighth day; and his hair weighed two
hundred shekels 1
which are five pounds. However, he dwelt in Jerusalem two years, and became
the father of three sons, and one daughter; which daughter was of very
great beauty, and which Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, took to wife afterward,
and had by her a son named Abijah. But Absalom sent to Joab, and desired
him to pacify his father entirely towards him; and to beseech him to give
him leave to come to him to see him, and speak with him. But when Joab
neglected so to do, he sent some of his own servants, and set fire to the
field adjoining to him; which, when Joab understood, he came to Absalom,
and accused him of what he had done; and asked him the reason why he did
so. To which Absalom replied, that "I have found out this stratagem
that might bring thee to us, while thou hast taken no care to perform
the injunction I laid upon thee, which was this, to reconcile my father
to me; and I really beg it of thee, now thou art here, to pacify my father
as to me, since I esteem my coming hither to be more grievous than my banishment,
while my father's wrath against me continues." Hereby Joab was persuaded,
and pitied the distress that Absalom was in, and became an intercessor
with the king for him. And when he had discoursed with his father, he soon
brought him to that amicable disposition towards Absalom, that he presently
sent for him to come to him; and when he had cast himself down upon the
ground, and had begged for the forgiveness of his offenses, the king raised
him up, and promised him to forget what he had formerly done.
2
1 Of this weight of Absalom's hair, how in twenty or thirty years it might well amount to two hundred shekels, or to somewhat above six pounds avoirdupois, see the Literal Accomplishment of Prophecies, p. 77, 78. But a late very judicious author thinks that the LXXX. meant not its weight, but its value, Was twenty shekels. — Dr. Wall's Critical Notes on the Old Testament, upon 2 Samuel 14:26. It does not appear what was Josephus's opinion: he sets the text down honestly as he found it in his copies, only he thought that "at the end of days," when Absalom polled or weighed his hair, was once a week.
2 CONCERNING THE INSURRECTION OF ABSALOM AGAINST DAVID AND CONCERNING AHITHOPHEL AND HUSHAI; AND CONCERNING ZIBA AND SHIMEI; AND HOW AHITHOPHEL HANGED HIMSELF.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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