Bible Strands
2 Samuel 18:9
Now Absalom was riding on his mule when he met the servants of David, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so that he was suspended in midair.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrative places Absalom on his mule during a chaotic forest engagement against David’s forces, capturing the exact moment his path intersects the king’s men.
The words — רֹכֵב (ro.Khev) means [was] riding, and וַ/יִּקָּרֵא֙ (va/yi.kare') literally means and/ he was met or encountered.
The thread — This entrapment motif runs alongside the judgment warnings in Job 31:3 and Proverbs 30:17, while directly following the account of Absalom’s heavy hair in 2 Samuel 14:26.
Why it lands — The text records a literal entanglement where the mule continues forward and leaves Absalom suspended, forcing the reader to note how physical obstruction precedes his narrative defeat.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 14:26 And when he cut the hair of his head—he shaved it every year because his hair got so heavy—he would weigh it out to be two hundred shekels, according to the royal standard.
- Job 31:3 Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?
- Proverbs 30:17 As for the eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother, may the ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures devour it.
- Deuteronomy 21:23 you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
- Deuteronomy 27:16 ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- Deuteronomy 27:20 ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- 2 Samuel 17:23 When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his affairs in order and hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father’s tomb.
- 2 Samuel 18:14 But Joab declared, “I am not going to wait like this with you!” And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak tree.
- Job 18:8 For his own feet lead him into a net, and he wanders into its mesh.
- Psalms 63:9 But those who seek my life to destroy it will go into the depths of the earth.