2 Samuel 18 · a question people ask
Was Joab right to kill Absalom?
The king had said, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom" (18:5), and all the people heard it (18:5, 18:12). Joab said, "I’m not going to wait like this with you" (18:14), and Absalom died (18:14-15). This chapter doesn't say whether Joab was right, and he gives no other reason here. Christians read him in two main ways. Both agree on what the text says: the king commanded one thing, Joab did another, and then "Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel" (18:16).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
He ended the war
Those who read it this way point to what followed at once: "Joab held the people back" (18:16), and "all Israel fled, each to his own tent" (18:17). In the chapter before, Ahithophel's plan had been to end the war by striking one man: "I will strike the king only" (17:2). In the next chapter Joab tells David that his servants "today have saved your life" (19:5). On this reading Joab did a hard thing the king would not do, and it ended the fighting.
2 Samuel 18:16-17 · 2 Samuel 17:2 · 2 Samuel 19:5
He defied the king
Those who read it this way point to the command all the people heard (18:5), and to the man who would not break it: "for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai" (18:12). Joab had killed before without David's knowledge: he brought Abner back "but David didn’t know it" (3:26-27), and David had said, "These men, the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me" (3:39). At the end of his life David charged Solomon about "what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me" (1 Kings 2:5), though that verse names Abner and Amasa, not Absalom. On this reading Joab set his own judgment above the king's word.
2 Samuel 18:5 · 2 Samuel 18:12 · 2 Samuel 3:26-27 · 2 Samuel 3:39 · 1 Kings 2:5
The verses
“The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.”
“The man said to Joab, “Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn’t stretch out my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Beware that no one touch the young man Absalom.’”
“Then Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this with you.” He took three darts in his hand and thrust them through Absalom’s heart while he was still alive in the middle of the oak. Ten young men who bore Joab’s armor surrounded and struck Absalom, and killed him. Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab held the people back.”