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النشر الإلكتروني

THE DEATH OF ABSALOM.

ABSALOM, taking advantage of his father's indiscreet partiality towards him, determined to usurp the crown, and, sending emissaries throughout Israel, ordered himself to be proclaimed king at Hebron. He was almost immediately acknowledged by the great majority of the nation. Multitudes daily flocked to his standard. David therefore filed from Jerusalem, whither Absalom immediately repaired, and was acknowledged sovereign. Ahithophel advised him to pursue his father with an army: but Hushai, who pretended to take part in his rebellion, and to be a bitter enemy of the deposed monarch, diverted him for the moment from this unnatural purpose. Shortly after, however, Absalom marched against David with a numerous army, and having crossed the river Jordan, encamped near the spot where his father had retired. David had a comparatively small but resolute band, commanded by Joab, Absalom's uncle, one of the most experienced officers of his time. After a short conflict, the rebel army was defeated with the loss of twenty thousand men slain upon the field of battle. When Absalom perceived the sad reverse which had overtaken him, he fled through the forest of Ephraim. "And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away *." Thus, that beautiful hair, of which he felt so vain, ultimately proved his destruction; for while he was suspended from the branch of the oak, Joab, having received information of his disaster from a soldier who had been in pursuit of the retreating troops, took three darts, and coming to the oak on which the rebellious prince was hanging, thrust them through his heart; after this ten of Joab's armourbearers surrounded and despatched him; then taking his body from the tree, they threw it into a pit in the wood and covered it with a heap of stones. When his melancholy end was communicated to David, he mourned for him "with overmuch sorrow."

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