Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 14-15.

As I read today’s passage I find myself thinking about several questions.  First, I wonder when Absalom began plotting his coup.  Did he begin plotting as soon as King David called him back from exile?  It appears to me that Absalom had begun plotting a coup when he reached out to Joab to enlist Joab’s aid in being allowed to leave his own estate.  Which raises the question in my mind as to what degree Joab was aware of Absalom’s efforts to become king and to what degree he approved of them?  From there I wonder whether Joab would have thrown his support behind Absalom if Absalom had asked for it?  If the answer to that question is “yes”, then Absalom’s failure to ask for Joab’s support was his first mistake.  As I think about it, I conclude that Joab would not have thrown his support behind Absalom.  If Joab would have been willing to support Absalom’s coup, Absalom would not have needed to burn Joab’s fields to get Joab to listen to him.  In another vein, I wonder as I read this if Absalom plotted to overthrow his father because he blamed David for Amnon raping his sister, or perhaps just for David’s failure to punish Amnon for that rape.

The final point I want to touch on is not a question, but a thought about why Absalom failed.  Absalom has a strategy for getting the people to back him once he had overthrown his father.  The passage describes how he had ingratiated himself with the common people.  However, the description of what happened when David fled Jerusalem illustrates Absalom’s miscalculation.  I have already touched on Absalom’s failure to get Joab’s backing for his coup, but he apparently failed to gather support from any of the other power bases of the kingdom (If I remember I may compare how those power bases split differently when I read the passage about Solomon becoming king).   First the writer highlights how the elite soldiers of King David’s army remain loyal by pointing out how a unit of Philistine mercenaries went with David into exile.  Additionally, Absalom had failed to gather any support from among the priestly caste.  The whole account of Absalom’s coup indicates that while King David had done a good job of gaining the backing of those who controlled the levers of power in Israel, he had left the rest feeling left out.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.