2 Samuel 13:23-39

Mike, you don't mind opening us up with a word of prayer, do you? I don't. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we love You. We thank You for this time that You've blessed us with to come together and open Your Word. We pray that You'd be with our brother as he has prepared this week. We pray that You'd use him to expand Your Word to us.

We pray that we'd be ready to receive it. We pray that You'd use it to make us more like Your Son. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Reading 2 Samuel 13 and Setting Up the Story

Second Samuel, chapter 13. I'm going to read the whole chapter again. Even though we only got through about 22 verses last week, I'm going to read the whole thing because it's all connected. Now, it was after this that Absalom, the son of David, had a beautiful sister.

Her name was Tamar, and Amnon, the son of David, loved her. Amnon was so frustrated because of his sister Tamar that he made himself ill, for she was a virgin. And it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her, but Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shemaiah, David's brother.

And Jonadab was a very shrewd man. He said to him, O son of the king, why are you so depressed morning after morning? Will you not tell me? And then Amnon said to him, I am in love with Tamar, the sister of my brother Absalom.

Jonadab then said to him, lie down on your bed, pretend to be ill, and when your father comes to see you, say to him, please, let my sister Tamar come and give me some food to eat, and let her prepare the food in my sight, that I may see it and eat it from her hand.

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill, and when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, please, let my sister Tamar come and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat it from her hand.

And then David sent to the house for Tamar, saying, go now to your brother Amnon's house, prepare food for him. So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, and he was lying down, and she took dough. She kneaded it and made cakes in his sight, baked the cakes.

She took the pan and dished them out before him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, have everyone go out from me. So everyone went out from him. And Amnon said to Tamar, bring the food into the bedroom, that I may eat it from your hand.

And so Tamar took the cakes, which she had made, and brought them into the bedroom to her brother Amnon. And when she had brought them for him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, come, lie with me, my sister.

But she answered him, no, my brother, do not violate me, for such a thing is not done in Israel. And do not do the disgraceful thing. As for me, where could I get rid of this reproach? And as for you, you will be like a fool, and one of the fools of Israel.

Now therefore, please, speak to the king, for he will not withhold you from me. However, he would not listen to her, and since he was stronger than her, he violated her and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her with a very great hatred, for the hatred which he had hated her was greater than the love which he had loved her.

And Amnon said to her, get up and get out. But she said to him, no, because this wrong by sending me away is greater than the other that you have done to me. Yet he would not listen to her. Then he called his young man who attended him and said, now throw this woman out of my presence and lock the door behind her.

Now she had a long-sleeved garment, for in the manner in which the virgin daughters of the king dress themselves in robes. Then his attendant took her, locked the door behind her, and Tamar put ashes on her head, tore her long-sleeved garment which was on her, and she put her hand on her head and went away crying aloud as she went.

Then Absalom, her brother, said to her, has Amnon your brother been with you? But now keep silent, my sister. He is your brother, and do not take this matter to heart. So Tamar remained desolate in the house of Absalom.

Now when David heard of this matter, he was very angry. But Absalom did not speak to Amnon, either good or bad. But Absalom hated him, because he had violated his sister. Now it came about that after two full years, that Absalom had sheep shears in Baal Hazor, which is near Ephraim.

And Absalom invited all the king's sons. And Absalom came to the king, and he said, Behold, now your servant has sheep shears. Please let the king and his servants go with your servant. But the king said to Absalom, No, my son, if we will go with you, it will be a burden to you.

Although he urged him, he would not go. But he blessed him. Then Absalom said, If not, please let my brother Absalom go with us. And the king said, Why should he go with you? But when Absalom urged him, he let Amnon and all the king's sons go with him.

So Absalom commanded his servants, saying, See now, when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, Strike him, then you put him to death, and do not fear. Have I not commanded this to you?

Be courageous and be valiant. And the servants of Absalom did to Amnon, just as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons arose, and each mounted his mule and fled. Now it was that while they were on the way, that a report came to David, saying, Absalom has struck down all the king's sons, and not one of them is left.

Then the king arose, tore his clothes, and lay on the ground, and all his servants were standing by with their clothes torn. But Jonadab, the son of Shemiah, David's brother, responded, Do not let this, my lord, suppose that have put all the king's, the young men to death, and the king's sons, for Amnon alone is the one who is dead.

Because by the intent of Absalom, this has been determined since the day that he had violated his sister Tamar. Now therefore, do not let my lord take this, I'm sorry, do not let the lord, my king, take this thing, this report to heart.

Namely, all the king's sons are dead, but it is only Amnon. For Absalom had fled, and the young men who was with him, the watchman raised his eyes, and looked, and behold, many people were coming from the road behind him by the side of the mountain.

And Jonadab said to the king, Behold, the king's sons have come, according to your servant's words. So it happened. As soon as he had finished speaking, behold, the king's sons came, they lifted up their voices and leapt, and also the king and all his servants wept very bitterly.

Now Absalom fled and went to Talmah, the son of Amahud, the king of Jeshur. And David mourned for his son every day. So Absalom had fled and gone to Jeshur, and he was there for three years. The heart of King David longed to go out to Absalom, for he was comforted concerning Amnon since he was dead.

Tamar, Amnon, and Absalom After the Rape

Well, last week we saw that Amnon had raped Tamar. I've got to slide this back. It's not too heavy. I feel like I was sitting right on top of this. Last week we saw that Tamar was raped by a brother. And not only was his rape wrong, he raped a sister.

So we see that not only did he have an infatuation towards not just a female body, but an unnatural, unorthodox desire for something that was prohibited. Not only was it prohibited outside the confines of marriage, but it was prohibited that you shouldn't want your sister.

And that's very disturbing. And as we saw the plan that was laid out by Jonadab, and it says he is a shrewd man, and I would say, some translations may say wise. Subtle. You said subtle? Slick. Yeah, he's slick.

So when it says he was a shrewd man, I would probably say he was street smart. He had some street smarts about him. And he seems to be somewhat of a man that can fix whatever your situation is. And I'm going to hopefully show you that by inference, and I could be wrong, I think he may have played a part in taking care of Amnon, because he knew from the beginning that this was Absalom.

So just as he set up the situation for Amnon to rape his sister, he may have said, hey, you want to take care of your brother, you might just have him come when you're partying and having sheep share and take care of it then.

Don't know for sure, but it's obviously he knew from the beginning. And we'll talk about it a little bit more. So he raped Tamar, then he sent her away, and what I did say last week about Absalom, like I said, what Absalom does is wrong, but there are some things about Absalom that I like.

Dude, he took care of his sister. He knew that she was going to be rejected by the people, she would never be able to be married, she was damaged goods, and that culture, and he took care of her. And me and Meg talked a little bit just right after class last week, and when I say naive, as I said last week, she had an innocent naivety.

She was innocent, really. When we're seeing this unfold, we're going, man, shouldn't there have been some red flags? Until Meg, I was like, look, if your brother says, hey, why don't you cook me something and bring it in the bedroom?

Isn't that a little odd? But maybe in that culture, it was maybe no big deal, but when we see everything that took place, she cooked it in his sight, there was people there, then had everybody leave, he wouldn't eat everybody, I want everybody to go out, I'm going to go to the bedroom, and then I want her to bring it in the bedroom.

Just her innocence in the matter was just to serve her brother, and her hospitality to him is to be admired. She is in no way, shape, form, I said this last week, she is culpable in any way of this. This is all at him.

But we can see there was some red flags. It's interesting, too, that Absalom says, is this your brother that has done this to you? So there had to be something. Hubbub on the street had to be that there was this unnatural desire for her from Amnon.

He does what he does to her. Absalom's going to take care of her. Absalom doesn't say a word. He mums the word. He just, what does it say, two years? He had cultivated this hatred and anger in his heart.

Sheep Shearing, Festive Time, and Absalom's Plan

And that leads us to chapter 13, verse 23, where we left off last week. And it says, Now it came about that after two full years that Absalom had sheep shears in Belhazor, which is near Ephraim, and Absalom invited the king's sons.

Now, sheep shearing would have taken place at the time of the spring. And obviously, this is not part of the liturgical calendar of the Israelites, like the wheat harvest and the barley harvest and all that.

This does take place at the same time. But harvest time actually was part of the liturgical calendar where they worshipped. But this, too, was an actual time where they partied, they got together. The same thing is that they grabbed all the wheat and the barley, and they had a festive time because of the harvest that the Lord had brought.

Same way, they did this with the sheep shearing that, hey, if your sheep were full of wool, was that not a blessing of the Lord? Well, most certainly. So, sheep shearing, if you remember back in when Judah, I think it was Judah and Tamar, matter of fact, when he was going to shear his sheep with a friend of his and Abdul something, he was going to the party to shear his sheep.

Same thing. They were going to have a festive time to party. And if you remember, the time of shearing the sheep, too, was when David wound up getting angry at Nabal. They were shearing their sheep, and they said, hey, the whole time we were shearing our sheep, nothing happened, and now this guy's come wanting provisions and you're unwilling to do it.

So, there was a time of partying, festive food, dancing, having a good time because the Lord had been very gracious by blessing them. So, it is that time. Verse 24 says, Absalom came to the king and he said, Behold, your servant, and I think that's significant, your servant has sheep shears.

Please let the king and his servants go with your servant. Although 12 and 13 have to deal with immorality and murder. We need to remember, too, that 13 through 18 will be the rise and fall. It's interesting, his name, Son of the Peace of the Father.

That's what his name means. He's not very peaceful to his father. But this is where we begin to learn a lot about Absalom and his very short time that we have in Scripture. So, he came to the king and he says, Behold, your servant.

Why wouldn't he have said your son? Don't know. But as the story unfolds, I think it's very significant. He has a dislike for his father. And if you disagree with me on that, that's fine. But as he desires to kill his father, that seems like a strong dislike for someone.

You don't kill people you like. It never comes explicitly out and says he hated David, his father, as it does with Amnon. But we know this. His desire is to overthrow his father, usurp his authority, and to see him killed.

Because in the conspiracy that will unfold in the next few chapters, that's exactly what he tries to do. He said, So your servant will have sheep shears. Please let the king and his servants go with your servant.

But the king, David, said to Absalom, Know my son. See how he addresses him. He doesn't say, Know my servant. Know my son. He addresses him in a loving, kind way, knowing that his position is not, you're not a servant, you're my son.

Know my son. We should not all go, for we will be a burden to you. Why do you think he says they'd be a burden? Any thoughts on that? Imagine when the king comes, the entourage that has to come with him.

Okay? We're not talking about David hopping on a mule and just galloping off to Baal Hazor to do some sheep shearing. Oh, man. You've got the inner court. You're going to have bodyguards. You're going to have whatever he wants to sit and lay on.

You're going to have to have his tent. You're going to have to have his bed, his couch. He's coming in pomp and circumstance. Let's just say, for instance, if the president, which I would not like him to come here, but let's say the president came here.

Okay? Imagine the entourage that would be here and the people that we would have to entertain as long as he... Oh, sure. Of their people. We wouldn't even have a place to park. Yeah. We wouldn't have a place to park.

Secret service and everything would be out there. It'd be blocked. Yeah. We'd be blocked off from down there at Max Leggett all the way to Airport Center. All right? So he's saying, hey, I'm going to be a burden to you, whether it be the food as well.

He's going to have to entertain. Obviously, they could go out there and slay a lamb at any time and go to chow and down, but that still takes time. I mean, if you ever clink field dressed anything, that doesn't happen like that.

Yeah. And it ain't like busting open some instant biscuits. They're going to have to knead it and get it ready and fires have to be hot. So anyway, there's a lot more to go into it than just sit down and eat.

So he says, hey, I don't want to be a burden to you. But it says that he urged him, but he would not go. But he blessed him, meaning, okay, I'm not going to go. This is what you want to do. That's fine.

I'm not going to go, but y 'all enjoy yourself. Have a good time. And then he says in verse 26, but then Absalom said, if not, please let my brother Amnon go. Interesting that he doesn't say all the brothers.

And I think David catches on to that because he says, the king says, let my brother Amnon go. And the king said to him, why should he go with you? Now, you don't think that there was obviously some animosity between Absalom that was noticeable, although he did not say anything to him.

You don't think that the interaction between the brothers at that point for two years was not the same. I would say that the interaction between Amnon and the rest of the family was probably somewhat odd from that point on.

And he says, why him? And he says, when Absalom urged him, he said, all right, let Amnon go and all the sons go with him. So if that's what David is saying, all right, you want Amnon to go, you're going to have to take all your brothers with you.

In my mind, okay, my mind can be wrong, but he can keep an eye on what's going on. Look, if something goes down, at least the brothers will be there to maybe try to curtail the situation. Verse 28 says, Absalom commanded his servants, saying, see now when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, strike Amnon, then put him to death.

Now, the partying, the eating, the dancing, the enjoying, and it says here when his heart is merry. So that means he's going to have to drink enough wine to make his heart merry. Psalm 104 says, God has made wine for man to make his heart merry, and you're to be thankful.

Now, it doesn't say for him to be a drunken Babylon fool, but they had to have enough drinking of wine for them to be happy, to be enjoying themselves, have a great time. What happens when people have had a little to drink or be buzzing per se, your inhibitions come down a little bit, you're a little more jovial, you're not looking over your back, you're not worried about, yeah, you're just having a good time.

And that's what he's saying, hey, we're going to get him just enough to take advantage of him. Somewhat, Absalom's doing to Amnon what David did to Uriah to send him home. Let's get him liquored up, send him home, no doubt.

He's had a few drinks in him, he'll sleep with Bathsheba. No doubt. Well, he was wrong. In this case, Amnon's going to have a few drinks and he's going to make himself right for the killing. He says, see, now when it's hard to marry, you strike Amnon, put him to death.

Do not fear, have I not commanded you? And listen to how Absalom talks to his servants. Be courageous, be valiant. Those are words that are used when going to battle for Yahweh. You remember what happened when Joshua would come across, they were going to go across to Jordan and they were going to start their conquest into Jericho and all that.

You remember how many times it said, he was told, you be courageous and you be valiant. You be courageous and be valiant. These are words of war that he is using for his men. And he assures them, do not fear.

In other words, look, I'm the king's son. I'm going to tell you to do something. You're going to do it. And you ain't got nothing to worry about. I'm going to handle that. And you think back two years from what's happening here to what happened with Tamar.

And I said last week how he responded to her. Some people may think that he was being gutless to her when he said, don't take it to heart. Don't take it to heart. It's your brother. Well, I believe what he was saying was, don't worry about it.

Brother's going to take care of that. Brother's going to handle it. Basically, he's saying the same thing here. Don't fear. You're going to do this for me. You're going to do what I ask you to do and I'll take care of it.

I'll take care of all the consequences. And it says that the servants of Absalom did to Amnon just as Absalom had commanded. And then the king's sons arose and each one mounted his mule and fled. So here it is.

All of a sudden they're drinking, partying, having a good time and however they hit him, was it a whack in the neck, cut off the head, thrust the sword through? We have no idea. It doesn't give us any details.

It just says he was strucken and he was dead. Could they have smashed his head? We don't know. We know whatever they did, it was quick. It was to the point. Imagine all the dancing and partying, okay, and then the mass chaos that would have erupted when that happened.

Here it is. Absalom's doing his thing, over here drinking, having his little good time with his friends and family and the next thing you know, they do that and Absalom and his buddies at that point, yeah, he's like, hey, time to get him.

And they whack him. And then it says the chaos ensues. They mounted his mule and fled. Interesting, they're on mules. Why would they not be on horses? Anybody have why they rode mules, when they rode mules and when they rode horses?

Anybody have any? Mules were peacetime traveling. Horses were for wartime. So when you see a guy come riding on a horse, be prepared. Yes, it's battle. Normally, they're riding on mules. It was no big deal.

You ever seen a mule? They hang real fast. And they're not real big. They're usually not as big as one of the Arabian stallions. So they got on and they fled. Now, it was while they were on the way that the report came to David saying Absalom has struck down all the king's sons and not one of them is left.

How that happens, you go, what? Yeah, immediately you go, typical news report. Typical news report. What actually happened is not what's being conveyed. But imagine David, he has two or three years earlier, he had lost his son.

God struck his son dead. Now, in his mind, he still has to remember, God told me the sword will not depart from my house. And then now, it has come to him that all of his kids are dead. Not just the baby that was born seven days old.

Now, we're talking about all of his kids, all of his boys. And immediately, he obviously is in great anguish. He is in great bereavement. And the king arose, he tore his clothes, he lay on the ground and all of his servants were standing by him with his clothes torn.

Remember last time he did this, he laid on his face praying that the Lord would spare his son. And he fasted. So this is, once again, we're seeing David just absolutely broken. And verse 32. Now, Jonadab, the son of Shemaiah, David's brother, responded, Do not let the Lord suppose they have put to death all the young men.

The king's son, for Ammon alone, is dead. Well, who was there? Okay? Whoever this heralder is that comes running in, however far that was, it was in Ephraim, so it would have been somewhere right here.

And he came to Jerusalem. He wasn't far, at least I would say maybe an hour or two travel on a horse or on a mule. They get there. So Jonadab comes up. Why? He's lying on the ground grieving with his cohort, probably with him.

Remember, when the king's grieving, who's grieving with him? Everybody else that's around him. If the king's laughing, what's everybody else doing around him? He's laughing. If the king's drinking and partying, they're drinking and partying.

You're going to do whatever the king's doing. So Jonadab shows up. Hey, don't take it to heart. Don't suppose all the boys are dead. It's only one. Well, once again, we're going to make a conclusion that Jonadab was there.

Why would Jonadab have been there? Well, his family. He was Amnon and Absalom's cousin. It wouldn't be uncommon for all of those guys to be hanging out together. I know earlier in the chapter, it said that he was Amnon's friend, but it's actually his cousin.

He said, suppose that all the young men were dead. It was not. It was only Amnon alone. Because by the intent of Absalom, this has been determined since the day he had violated his sister. Does anybody say anything different than intent or this was his purpose or anything?

What does yours say, Mike?

By the appointment of Absalom, this has been determined from the day he forced his sister Tamlin. Yeah, so basically,.

I'm going to do this. Predetermined. Yeah, this is...

Malice of forethought with the lawyers.

And developing a time frame, what will be the perfect time to do this? Hey, I would even say, if Absalom would have done it, like I said last week, I'm not saying what Absalom did was right. I understand, okay?

I'm not saying it's right. I'm not making light of it. I understand. If Absalom would have done it immediately after, would that not have been a little bit easier to swallow? A crime of passion. Exactly.

That was my point. Yeah, a crime of passion. Here it is. He's raped my sister. I'm going to go take care of that right now. Anger. Immediately just outburst of wrath. Well, in this case, he's had two years to stew on that.

I mean, just imagine every time he saw him. He got something for you. I mean, you've got to remember, this has been two years. They've probably sheared sheep. They've probably seen each other somewhere, although we know the family dynamic has had to be kind of screwed up at this point.

But hey, this isn't the first time he has seen Amnon. And it says he did not say anything to him, good or bad. So he never led on to believe that he was going to whack him. But his intent from the time that it happened, when he told Tamar, don't take this to heart, it was from that point that he knew that he was going to kill his brother.

He says in verse 33,. Now therefore, do not let my Lord take the report to his heart, namely, all the king's sons are dead, for only Amnon is dead. So at this point, now David knows that he has two sons dead, the seven day old.

Amnon's now dead. He was the heir to the throne. Remember last week, I think there's two reasons why you had Amnon. He would have been first heir to the throne. Something happens to him, Absalom. Oh yeah!

This is like, man, I can get... kill two birds with one stone. Well remember, he had asked the king to come too. He did. Yeah, he had asked the king to come too. And I wonder if that was not part... Maybe he was going to whack him too.

No, no, I got... Yeah, when we get to that point, that's why I don't think Absalom, when I say think, I don't... My conclusion, based on the whole thing with Absalom, I don't believe Absalom loves his dad anymore.

I think maybe at this point, up until two years this has happened, I think he loved his dad. I mean, you go on, you see that David actually really loved Absalom. He was the only one we hear in Scripture, as far as the king's... without blemish.

Like I said last week, as far as a man's man, Absalom is a guy you would like. Soul of his feet, man, there was not a blemish on him. He was whimsical. He's not a coward, obviously. He's not a coward.

He did want to take care of his family, although I think the way he went about doing it now was very wrong. But there was a desire to be valiant from streets, from humanistically speaking. What he is doing is righteous indignation.

Biblically speaking, this is wrong. But from street smarts, this is the right thing to do. Somebody didn't take care of the justice, I'm going to do it. I'm going to take justice into my own hands, and he should not have done that.

Now, we see at times when David did not dispense justice. Remember when Joab killed Abner? Abishai and Joab killed Abner. Should David have put Joab and Abishai to death? He should have. He should have.

His job was to dispense justice, but as the king, he did not have to. But there is a statement in that to where David says, you know what, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to leave that. The Lord will handle those wicked men.

In this case, Absalom has no right to take matters into his own hand and kill his brother. He did not. Now, did David have, did he have the obligation to take care of this matter? Yeah, he did. He did.

Now he's got two things he needs to take care of. He should have taken care of the rape of his daughter. Now, what am I going to do with my son being a murderer? There's no doubt that Absalom's a murderer.

I do believe if I can get rid of this guy here, I'm next. And if Dad don't give it to me, I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take it. Now, Absalom fled, verse 34. Now, Absalom fled, and a young man who was with the watchman raised his eyes, and he looked, and behold, many people were coming from the road behind him by the side of the mountain.

Jonadab said to the king, Behold, the king's sons have come, according to your servant's words. So it happened. Hey, okay, I got a dead son. Absalom's killed him. But imagine seeing the relief of David to see his other sons come.

Now, no, the narrative doesn't tell this, but I can imagine them just vomiting details of what had happened. Dad, you're not going to believe this. Here's what was happening. We were partying, we were dancing, we were having a good time.

Next thing you know, Absalom's servants killed Amnon. And then Jonadab had told us before he got here that he knew this was going to happen as well. And once again, how did Jonadab know? How did Jonadab know that this was going to be the time in which it would happen?

Yeah, we decided not to stay for dessert. Yeah. It's like, man, I know Jonadab set up the one to get Amnon raped. I mean, for Amnon to rape Tamar, man, it sure seems like he may have dipped his toes in this one as well.

Remember, he's a street smart guy. It says in verse 35, Jonadab said to the king, Behold, the king's sons have come, according to your servant's word. So it has happened. Look, just like I told you. They're not all dead.

Here they are. I'm your guy. I'm the man that speaks truth. That's what Jonadab's saying. Look at me. Look at me. I'm the one that spoke the truth to you. Verse 36, As soon as he had finished speaking, behold, the king's sons came.

They lifted up their voices and they wept. Also the king and all his servants wept bitterly with him. Two things they're weeping over. One, no doubt, their brother, regardless of what you feel about Amnon, their brother is dead.

And it was in a brutal way. Now they know that Absalom has fled. So now they've really lost in their minds two brothers. What's dad going to do? How's dad going to handle this? I can't help but in my mind go, the children, they're obviously adult children, man, dad really didn't do anything when Tamar was raped.

Is he going to do anything with this? How's dad going to handle this? What's this going to look like on the kingdom? What's the media outlet going to make this out to be? Absalom's saying, hey, don't say a word because we don't want this out on the street and make the king's court look bad.

That's basically what Absalom said. Now what are you going to do with this? There's no holding this in. So they have, it says in verse 37 that Absalom fled. He went to Tamar, king of Jashar. Remember, who's this guy?

That's his granddaddy. Why wouldn't he go to Hebron? Yeah. Who was Hebron? Hebron was a city of refuge if a man had killed somebody in the heat of passion. Two people struggling. They fight. Killed him.

He can't. He can't go to Hebron or any other city of refuge to set trial. Why? Two years have transpired. He set up a premeditated murder and not only is he culpable of it, but his servants are culpable of it.

Absalom actually didn't shove the sword in him, but just like David didn't actually kill Uriah, he's responsible for the murder of Uriah. Same in this case. Absalom's responsible for the murder of Amnon because he had his servants do it.

I mean, do we see the similarities that have taken place? We see Amnon desiring what he could not have and raped her by force. David, wanting another man's wife, and how I understand it, he raped her by flattery, okay?

See the similarities. Now you have Absalom who kills, who basically brings a man in, takes advantage of him by getting him drunk to kill him. David takes advantage of a man who's innocent, though, sends him to the wall, knowing that the wall is where the hottest of the archers and the battles take place, and he was killed.

There's some similarities. In the middle of a siege you're going to have a battle? Yeah, in the middle of a siege. Yeah, you should wait until those guys are starving. Now, I understand the city's a refuge, right?

If he had a flat there, the evidence would have come behind him. Very quickly. That would have killed him in the city, yeah. So the city of refuge... It's not a safe place. No, it is not because two years have transpired.

So he knew he could not go to the city of refuge, but he knew that he could go here. Why did he know he could go here? Granddaddy's there. Granddaddy's there. As we go on through this, he even says, hey, once he comes back and he can't see the king and David doesn't want to see him, okay, bring him back and we'll get into all that when we get to that point.

He says, I'd have been better off to stay there. Look, if I'm going to come here and I can't be in the king's court, I'd have been better off to stay up there with Granddaddy where I was in the king's court doing whatever I wanted to do, having all the luxury of life I wanted, having anything that I wanted.

Well, that's where he flees to. Verse 37, Absalom fled. He went to Thalmah, the son of Ahimeid, the king of Jeshur. And David mourned for his son every day. Son. Now, I'm not sure if he is mourning for Amnon or if he's mourning for Absalom.

I'm not sure. What do you think? It's kind of debatable. Yeah, because normally what you try to do is you're looking at it and you say, okay, he mourned for his son. The son would point back to the nearest proper noun or noun which would be Absalom.

That's why the hymn would point back to the pronoun and that's what I'm looking at. I'm going, well, man, is it Absalom or was it Amnon? Because in this section, Amnon's not even mentioned. It's at the bottom.

So I don't know for sure. I would say he is mourning for both in a real sense. Mourning that Amnon is dead. There is a part of me that goes, David says, now at least I don't have to handle that. Runs David out of the city.