And Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab kept back the people.
Absalom's rebellion collapses in a single day. The moment his death is certain, a trumpet blast calls off the fighting instead of pressing it to the last man. Two questions follow: why did the chase stop, and what does it mean that Joab gave the order?
The trumpet in Israel could open a battle or gather an army, but Joab's use of it runs the other way. One writer traces each occasion Joab blew it and finds a single meaning in all of them:
And again, 2 Samuel 20:22: then "they dispersed from the city, every man to his home." In these three cases, as in that of Sheba (2 Samuel 20:1), it was the signal of retreat.
So the sound reaching the field is not "advance" but "enough." Joab stops an army that was winning.
The men running away were Israel — David's own nation, pulled into revolt by one man. Once that man was gone, the reason for the chase was gone too:
Since Absalom was dead there was no longer need to pursue his followers. Joab blew a trumpet to signal a cessation of warfare. Absalom was given no honor whatever in his burial (v.16). The soldiers threw his body into a large pit in the woods and covered it with a very large heap of stones.
The head of the rebellion gets a criminal's grave. The crowd he misled gets to go home alive.
Absalom had already built himself a memorial. The same writer sets it against the pile of stones in the forest:
Perhaps Absalom had expected that others would give him no honor in his death, for he had earlier set up a pillar to keep his name alive, since he had no son (v.18). He sought his own honor, as thousands of others have done before and after him. His monument was really only a reminder of his proud character and of his shameful death. What an example he was of the Lord's warning words: "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled" (Luke 14:11). In contrast, let us follow the example of the Lord Jesus, of whom it was supremely true: "he who humbles himself will be exalted."
The rout the trumpet ended was not the achievement of David's three divisions. More men died in the forest than in the fighting. Commentators read that as more than bad luck:
The victory of David's men was swift and decisive, with 20,000 of Absalom's army killed in one day. The battle was scattered over the whole countryside. The woods gave no protection to those who fled: we are told the woods devoured more than the sword killed. Clearly, it was God's intervention that caused this.
If God settled the outcome, more killing could add nothing to it.
The closing words of the verse carry a hard irony. Joab can hold a whole army back, yet he had just refused the one restraint the king asked of him. Writers point out how little the king's word weighed with him:
We see God's hand in this disaster, but we also see Joab's murderous hand, a terrible thing. He is always committing evil. Here he shows what measure of respect he has for the king's will and person. His self-interest leads him to get rid of Absalom, who had once humbled his pride… A man from among the people has more respect for the king's will than the head of his army does (vv. 12-13).
Joab's authority is real. His obedience is not. A man can serve the king's cause and still refuse the king's will.
With the trumpet silent, nothing stands between David and his throne. The whole crisis is read as correction rather than rejection:
David was to be disciplined, but not removed from the throne. He had been disciplined, and now Absalom's turn came. The very thing he had been most proud of became the means of his capture… So ended the rebellion and David's temporary exile. Preparations were now made for his return.
The son's fall opened the father's road home.
- Trumpet. Joab's trumpet is a recall, not a charge; every time he sounds it in these books, it is the signal to stop fighting.
- Grave. The chase ends because its cause ends. With Absalom dead there was no need to pursue his followers, so the crowd went home and the ringleader got a heap of stones instead of the monument he had built for himself.
- Hand. God halted the rout, not better tactics. The woods devoured more than the sword did, and that was His intervention.
- Irony. Joab can restrain an army but never himself. He shows how much respect he has for the king's will, and an ordinary soldier honoured it more than the commander did.
- Return. God disciplined David but never removed him from the throne. The silence after the trumpet begins the king's journey home.
And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and raised a very great heap of stones upon him. And all Israel fled every one to his tent.
Absalom's revolt ends in a forest pit under a heap of stones, and his followers scatter to their homes. The verse asks what a life spent chasing your own name finally earns.
The forest where Absalom died had already swallowed his men:
The wood of EPHRAIM, in which Absalom was slain, lay east of the Jordan. No one has identified it. Some think a forest was named after that tribe because of the pride and defeat of Ephraim in Judges 12:1-6. Its swamps, bogs and pits 'devoured' the Israelites, because they could not escape.
The stones piled over him were not a mark of honour but the treatment given to a convicted man:
Absalom's body was cast into a pit and covered with a very great heap of stones, a criminal's monument.
Absalom had already built himself a pillar so his name would survive him. God gave him a different marker:
He had taken and raised up for himself a pillar in the king's valley. He called it after his own name, because he had no son to keep his memory alive in the earth. But the Lord was now giving him another and a far different memorial — a memorial in shame and not in glory. His body was cast into a pit in the wood, and a great heap of stones was laid on him. So all his glory was tarnished. He was hung by the hair of his head, which had been his boast in the flesh. Instead of a pillar to his own name, he is made a pillar to us — a witness of the shame and ruin of turning away from God. — "The wise will inherit honour, but fools get disgrace."
What happened to Absalom was not bad luck. It was God's government in plain sight:
His violent dealing has come down on his own head. One of his own kind is the fitting instrument, the bloodthirsty Joab... with three arrows he puts him to a shameful death, and he was cast into a still more shameful grave. Ah! the righteous government of God, and His retributive justice, as also in His Fatherly care. "God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." Such was the end of the man so beautiful to the eyes of the world.
This warning reaches far beyond one prince. Absalom reached for honour and got the opposite. Christ took the opposite road:
He sought his own honour, as thousands of others have done both before and after him, and his monument was really only a reminder of his haughty, proud character and of his shameful death. What an example he was of the Lord's warning words, "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled." Let us instead follow the example of the Lord Jesus. Of Him it was supremely true, "he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Absalom lifted himself up and ended in a nameless grave. One writer traces that pattern forward to the last great rebel against God:
In his youth, before he had any sons, this man set up a monument "to keep [his] name in remembrance." Now he lies buried under an unknown heap of stones in the wood of Ephraim, while his monument, which remains to this day, is a reminder of his humiliation and his terrible judgment. So it will be with the Antichrist and the Beast who will rise up against the Lord. Their fall will be all the more terrible because they will have exalted themselves to be as God (Isa. 14:12-20).
Absalom's supporters do not fight on. They go back to their own houses, and the king's exile ends with them:
So ended the rebellion and David's temporary exile.
- Pride — his beauty, his hair and his pillar were all bids for lasting fame. Each one became part of his disgrace.
- Pit — the forest that devoured his army gave him a hole in the ground, not a throne.
- Stones — the heap over him was a criminal's monument, the burial of a condemned man rather than a king's son.
- Harvest — God's righteous government runs its course. What a man sows, he reaps, and public charm changes nothing.
- Pattern — everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. Absalom's end points ahead to the last rebel's fall. It stands opposite the One who humbled Himself and was exalted.