Songs for Tamar

Chapter Eight

Chapter 8

(Amnon's men attack Jesse.)

Absalom and Jesse prepared to leave the king's palace on another occasion when Absalom turned aside to speak with Joab. "Jesse, I will join you on the way if you wish to depart with the good news."

"Yes, but Farah cannot endure your absence in the evenings," he said in a playful mood.

Jesse proceeded down the steps and down the long hill toward Absalom's house. As he walked, he thought he heard footsteps keeping time with his. Whenever he stopped, his followers would also. When he resumed walking, so did they. With caution he reached for his sword, but had not the extra protection of his shield. Drawing his sword, he turned around.

Five armed men with faces blackened with charcoal from a fire stood facing Jesse. This was not the time to negotiate with men in assassins' garb. To their surprise, Jesse without hesitation lopped off the head of his nearest opponent. It hit the ground with a thump while his body shot blood as it lingered a moment before falling backward. This startled his adversaries just long enough for Jesse to dispatch still another who hesitated too long.

Undaunted, the remaining attackers proved more difficult. They had recovered and spread themselves out so as to gain a tactical advantage over their lone prey. Time after time Jesse forced them back but then had to give ground. In time Jesse almost lost his footing. As he looked down to regain his balance, one of them knocked away his sword. They began to close on him for the kill.

Without warning a spear pierced the neck of the man nearest Jesse. The two remaining would-be assassins standing turned to confront their new adversary. There was but a moment for the man nearest him to comprehend that it was Absalom. In a flash, his sword split another attacker in two. Jesse then threw himself without his sword against the last attacker standing. The force of his body was hard enough to dislodge his sword.

Jesse was on him in an instant while Absalom joined in.

Jesse held a small dagger at the man's man throat as Absalom searched the bodies of the fallen assassins. By that time, a townsman brought a torch. Absalom asked the man for soap and water. Receiving that, he gave the man all the shekels he found on the assassins. He then asked him to return to his house. In a few minutes he would return the items the man had loaned him. Meanwhile Absalom instructed the man to talk aloud among his family within his house and have a light in his front room. He must not come out until everyone was gone.

Absalom then returned to the man and washed the charcoal off of his face. Turning to Jesse, he said, "Do you know this man?"

"Yes," Jesse replied, "he was among Amnon's lackeys that attacked you so many years ago near Tekoa. Many times I have seen him conferring with Amnon. Because he does not live here in Jerusalem, Amnon thought that no one would know him."

Absalom stepped up to him and asked, "Have you known the love of a woman, the pain of waking with a headache from strong drink after a night of merry making, or the longing for your mother in the night?"

The man nodded yes.

"Think on these things once more." Absalom paused and then spoke again. "Rejoice before God that your last thoughts before you die are good ones, not like those who fell around you." Still holding the frightened assassin by the back of his head, the would-be assassin looked around at the others who lay dead. Absalom looked back around to see his eyes still fixed on the bodies and his mind in thought.

Without hesitation, Absalom shoved his sword through the man's abdomen so hard that it came out his back. His eyes widened but he made little noise other than gurgling from within. He fell to the ground and was dead after his lips formed words to a silent, but familiar prayer.

Oh, Lord God of Israel, take me down to Sheol in peace.

Absalom then walked back to the door of the man who had offered help. Rousing him once more from his house, Absalom said to him, "Here are five more shekels by the king's weight. Please take these men's bodies out of the city and bury them. They have tried to murder my innocent friend this night. Say nothing to anyone about what you did. The guard at the nearby city gate is my friend. Give him my name, and he will ask you no questions." Absalom then said to him, "If I were king in Israel, a man would feel safe on the streets at night."

Absalom left him standing at his door and rejoined Jesse. They hugged and kissed each other on the cheek.

"Absalom, I can understand why Amnon would like to kill you. He knows you would rule Israel with more ability than he. But why would he send men after me?"

"Oh, my dear friend Jesse," Absalom said, "you are the only other man to accuse Amnon of lying with my lovely sister. If you were dead, and I offered Tamar to another, Amnon would come forth to accuse her of playing  the harlot in Israel.  He would then get his thugs  to have her dragged outside the city gate and stoned in the Kidron Valley."

"But she has the tokens of her virginity that Amnon stole from her."

"Oh, my friend, do you not realize that they are of no consequence without you to swear that Tamar departed Amnon's house with that blood on her clothes?"

"Without you, Amnon could say that I had killed a swine and smeared its blood on Tamar's clothes. He would stand with his paid men, like those worthless men who lie dead here, and insist that the king allow the elders and worthless of the city to drag her to her execution. Even King David may not be able to resist the will of a mob."

Absalom then turned and walked with Jesse. He spoke in a low voice, "I am going to bring certain vengeance on Amnon for his sin against Tamar. I am so sorry for the oath I made you to take and so thankful that you love Tamar. My vengeance will come when neither Amnon nor you expect it. You must not ask me about it anymore because you must never know my plans. When you stand before the king to answer questions about how he died, I want you ignorant of how it will happen and therefore innocent of his blood. There will be no guilt in you if you do not hear a word of vengeance. The king will assume that of me in a brief moment of rage. For your safety, you must not know the plans themselves."

"What about Tamar?"

"The king will continue your duty to keep Tamar safe and will trust your loyalty to him." Absalom paused and thought, "The king must never doubt your loyalty even if I ever rebel against him. If that ever happens, again you will not know about it."

Absalom paused, smiled, and put his hand Jesse's shoulder. "Now, my friend, let us go home to our women: my beautiful wife Farah and your loving Tamar." They resumed their way to Absalom's house.

Tamar and Farah both kissed their men with extra passion. "We heard of a commotion in the streets and feared for your lives!"

Absalom dismissed their concern, "Just some men from far away. There was indeed a loud commotion, but now they are resting in peace."

No one else brought up the news of the evening as they ate and talked afterward. Tamar thought to ask Jesse to play.  But seeing some bruises on both men convinced her that there was more to the story about the commotion in the streets. Further, Jesse had the same look as at Amnon's house, one of fatigue. She invited him up to the upper balcony early in order to leave Absalom and Farah alone.

They then slept on separate mattress holding hands in peace.