{"id":60849,"date":"2019-08-08T22:47:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T19:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=60849"},"modified":"2023-03-05T09:34:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T07:34:47","slug":"the-forest-devoured-more-than-the-sword","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-forest-devoured-more-than-the-sword\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Forest Devoured More than the Sword\u201d"},"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":[366,434],"acf":{"old_id":"60849","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"281","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But not a hair of his fell to the ground\u2026","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The denouement of Absalom\u2019s rebellion was at hand. David divided his forces among his three commanders: the stalwart Joab, Joab\u2019s brother Avishay, and a newcomer named Ittay the Gittite, intimating that he either ran a wine press\u2014<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gat<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014or was a mercenary from the Philistine city of that name. (Recall that Uriah the Hittite, erstwhile husband of Batsheba, was also employed by David as a soldier.) Before dispatching them to the field of battle, David publicly instructed them to \u201cgo easy\u201d on Absalom (5).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The battle took place in the Ephraim forest, and 20,000 of Absalom\u2019s soldiers were killed in what the text calls a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>magefah<\/em> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(7), the customary word for plague or pestilence, which, as a derivative of the verb <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">N-G-P<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (to gore, as an ox), may also signify a slaughter. A postscript, however, notes \u201cthe forest devoured more than the sword\u201d (8).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rashi, following the venerable Aramaic version (Targum) of Yonatan ben Uziel, interpreted this to mean \u201cthe wild animals of the forest.\u201d Radak, however, offered an alternative explanation; namely, that \u201cthey were scattered about in their flight and wounded by the trees of the forest.\u201d I believe that if we read just a bit further we can determine which of the two interpretations is more consistent with the context.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Absalom, astride a donkey, rode beneath a tree and his hair got entangled in a branch, leaving him suspended \u201cbetween heaven and earth\u201d (9). (Recall 14:26, an earlier foreshadowing concerning his luxuriant hair.) Joab, in direct disobedience to David\u2019s earlier instruction, stabbed Absalom three times in the heart, and ten of his armor bearers finished him off (15). There is a very subtle reminiscence here as well. In response to the wise woman of Tekoah\u2019s plea for her ostensible son, David had sworn \u201clest one hair of his head fall to the ground\u201d (14:11). The fictitious son, of course, represented Absalom who now died without his hair falling to the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In light of this, Radak\u2019s interpretation that the soldiers were felled by the trees themselves appears to be more consistent with the context than Rashi\u2019s suggestion that they were killed by wild animals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: Gustav Dore, The Death of Absalom, 1866 \/ 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