We left David on the run from Absalom’s coup attempt. Absalom’s counselor, Ahithophel, advises quick action to take David out:

Next Ahithophel advised Absalom, “Let me handpick twelve thousand men and go after David tonight. I’ll come on him when he’s bone tired and take him by complete surprise. The whole army will run off and I’ll kill only David. (2 Samuel 17.1 – 2, MSG)

This plan might have succeeded, but Absalom also consults with Hushai, David’s embedded spy counselor (2 Samuel 15.31 – 37). Hushai buys David some time:

The counsel that Ahithophel has given in this instance is not good. You know your father and his men, brave and bitterly angry—like a bear robbed of her cubs. And your father is an experienced fighter; you can be sure he won’t be caught napping at a time like this. Even while we’re talking, he’s probably holed up in some cave or other. If he jumps your men from ambush, word will soon get back, “A slaughter of Absalom’s army!”…Here’s what I’d advise: Muster the whole country, from Dan to Beersheba, an army like the sand of the sea, and you personally lead them. We’ll smoke him out wherever he is, fall on him like dew falls on the earth, and, believe me, there won’t be a single survivor. (2 Samuel 17.7 – 12, MSG)

Hushai’s quick-thinking works:

Absalom and all his company agreed that the counsel of Hushai the Arkite was better than the counsel of Ahithophel. (GOD had determined to discredit the counsel of Ahithophel so as to bring ruin on Absalom.) (2 Samuel 17.14, MSG)

Hushai gets the word to David via the spy network David left in place, and David crosses the Jordan. He’s met by some little known friends who “prepare him a table in the presence of his enemies” as David recounts later in Psalm 23:

When David arrived at Mahanaim, Shobi…and Makir…and Barzillai brought beds and blankets, bowls and jugs filled with wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey, and curds and cheese from the flocks and herds. They presented all this to David and his army to eat, “because,” they said, “the army must be starved and exhausted and thirsty out in this wilderness.” (2 Samuel 17.27 – 29, MSG)

It’s nice that the Bible often records the names of little-known actors, people who move God’s story along. On the strength of that meal, David’s army, under the command of Joab defeats Absalom’s army:

The army took the field to meet Israel. It turned out that the battle was joined in the Forest of Ephraim. The army of Israel was beaten badly there that day by David’s men, a terrific slaughter—twenty thousand men! (2 Samuel 18.6, 7, MSG)

Joab, against David’s explicit command (2 Samuel 18.5), kills Absalom:

Joab…grabbed three knives and stabbed Absalom in the heart…Joab then blew the ram’s horn trumpet, calling off the army in its pursuit of Israel. They took Absalom, dumped him into a huge pit in the forest, and piled an immense mound of rocks over him. Meanwhile the whole army of Israel was in flight, each man making his own way home. (2 Samuel 18.14 – 17, MSG)

The Absalom rebellion is over except for David’s grief, which we’ll look at tomorrow along with David’s return to Jerusalem.

A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.
¹  O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;
²  many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah
³  But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
⁴  I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
⁵  I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
⁶  I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
⁷  Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
⁸  Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! Selah (Psalm 3, ESV)