{"id":60820,"date":"2019-08-08T22:05:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T19:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=60820"},"modified":"2023-03-05T09:29:31","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T07:29:31","slug":"david-between-two-gates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/david-between-two-gates\/","title":{"rendered":"David Between Two Gates\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[914,454,452,834],"acf":{"old_id":"60820","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34245,"related_cahpter":"281","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The king is helpless, while he leaves others to do his bidding - or not...","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Absalom must die.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We, the readers, already know it: Nathan predicted disaster, and so the disaster must come.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Joab, the general, already knows it: as he will imply in the following chapter, Absalom\u2019s death is required to save David\u2019s life. Like Machiavelli, he knows that one can\u2019t forgive rebels; pardoning usurpers creates new revolts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(One day, this very truth will come back to haunt him, dooming him as surely as it dooms Absalom now.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But King David does not know it. Or if he does, he tries to tell himself otherwise. If the grand drama that unfolds before us is a variation on the story of the Akedah, David doesn\u2019t want to be an Abraham; he wants to play the angel and stay the would-be-killer\u2019s hands. \u201cDeal gently with my boy Absalom,\u201d he tells the troops as they march out to battle, echoing the angel\u2019s \u201cDo not raise your hand against the boy.\u201d (Genesis 22:12)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the angel couldn\u2019t save Isaac; only Abraham had the power to heed the angel\u2019s words and spare his child. By assuming the role of the angel, David surrenders this final decision into other people\u2019s hands. He makes his speech in everyone\u2019s hearing, but then must wait while others act.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As he waits, David is \u201csitting between the two gates,\u201d (2 Samuel 18:24) a description that overflows with suggestiveness. Two gates immediately evoke the image of two options: which road will be taken? Which future will unfold? The king sits between them, suspended between hope and dread and threat and promise. Will his words serve his purpose? Will his \u2018boy\u2019 live &#8212; or die?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The king is sitting \u2013 and it marks him as helpless. Eli used to sit, in the beginning of 1 Samuel. He sat and was helpless while his sons sinned \u2013 and died. Like Eli, David sits and awaits news from the battlefield. Like Eli, he has no power to shape the events. Like all the parents who came before and after him, he can\u2019t save his children from life and from themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this painful moment of helpless suspense, Absalom, too, is powerless to act. Like Isaac, he is bound. Like Isaac, he is silent. But no ram will appear, \u201ccaught in the thicket by its horns\u201d, (Genesis 22:13) to take the place of the \u2018boy\u2019 whose hair is caught in \u201cthe tangled branches of a great terebinth.\u201d (2 Samuel 18:9) Joab is no Abraham; he won\u2019t heed the king\u2019s warning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this variation on the ancient Akedah, the words of the \u2018angel\u2019 will fall on deaf ears.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":60844,"id":60844,"title":"2sam18-two gates","filename":"2sam18-two-gates.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-two-gates.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/david-between-two-gates\/2sam18-two-gates\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam18-two-gates","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":60820,"date":"2019-08-08 19:04:51","modified":"2021-08-10 11:27:06","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1115,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-two-gates-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-two-gates-300x174.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":174,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-two-gates-768x446.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":446,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-two-gates-1024x595.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":595,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-two-gates.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":892,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-two-gates.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1115,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-two-gates-1200x697.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":697,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-two-gates-723x420.png","home_baner-width":723,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"David Between Two Gates\u00a0","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"The king is helpless, while he leaves others to do his bidding - 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