II Samuel 18:18
A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →
During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Absalom had erected a monument to himself in the king's valley during his lifetime; "for he said, I have no son to preserve the remembrance of my name, and he called the monument by his own name; and so it was called hand (memorial) of Absalom unto this day." The לקח before ויּצּב is apparently pleonastic; but it belongs to the diffuse and circumstantial character of the antiquated Hebrew diction (as in Num 16:1). מצּבת, a memorial of stone; whether in the form of a column, or an obelisk, or a monolith, cannot be determined (vid., Gen 28:22; Gen 31:52). The king's valley, which received its name from the event narrated in Gen 14:17, was two stadia from Jerusalem according to Josephus (Ant. vii. 10, 3), and therefore not "close to the Dead Sea," or in regione transjordanensi (Ges. Thes. pp. 1045, 1377), or "in the Jordan valley in Ephraim" (Tuch and Winer). It was on the eastern side of Jerusalem, in the Kidron valley; though Absalom's pillar, which ecclesiastical tradition has transferred thither, a monument about forty feet in height and pointed like a pyramid, is not of early Hebrew, but of Grecian origin. On the words "I have no son," see at Sa2 14:27.
Open source ↗This chapter puts a period to Absalom's rebellion and life, and so makes way for David to his throne again, whither the next chapter brings him back in peace and triumph. We have here, I. David's preparations to engage the rebels (Sa2 18:1-5). II. The total defeat of Absalom's party and their dispersion (Sa2 18:6-8). III. The death of Absalom, and his burial (Sa2 18:9-18). IV. The bringing of the tidings to David, who tarried at Mahanaim (Sa2 18:19-32). V. His bitter lamentation for Absalom (Sa2 18:33).
Open source ↗18:18 I have no son: See study note on 14:27. In the absence of a lineage, Absalom hoped a monument would preserve his name and memory. • to this day: The narrator was probably writing during Solomon’s reign; the monument’s location is now unknown.
Open source ↗Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built by the might of my power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”
Three sons were born to Absalom, and a daughter named Tamar, who was a beautiful woman.
Early in the morning Samuel got up to confront Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel, and behold, he has set up a monument for himself and has turned and gone down to Gilgal.”
May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.
Their graves are their eternal homes— their dwellings for endless generations— even though their lands were their namesakes.
“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”
That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.
This is what the LORD says: “Enroll this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will prosper to sit on the throne of David or to rule again in Judah.”