That's the story of King David and his son Absalom.
David, the shepherd-turned-king, the sweet singer of Israel…he faced many trials. But according to Legends of the Jews, as retold by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, nothing cut him so deeply as the uprising of his own son.
Now, Absalom wasn't just any son. He was larger than life, quite literally. Ginzberg paints a picture of a man of immense stature. So immense, in fact, that a person of considerable size could stand inside the hollow of his eye socket and sink down to their nose! Can you picture that? It’s a striking image meant to convey Absalom’s almost mythical proportions.
But it was Absalom's hair that truly captured the imagination. The biblical account (II Samuel 14:26) mentions its weight, but Ginzberg suggests it doesn't quite convey the sheer abundance of it. Why was his hair so significant? Well, Absalom was a Nazir (Nazarite). A Nazir takes a vow, often for a specific period, to abstain from certain things, including cutting their hair.
However, Absalom’s vow, we are told, was for life. And because his hair grew so thick and heavy, he was permitted to trim it slightly each week. And even this small, weekly trimming weighed two hundred shekels – a considerable weight! The shekel was a unit of weight, and later currency, used in ancient Israel. Two hundred shekels of hair…that’s a lot of hair!
It’s easy to get caught up in the fantastical details – the giant son, the unbelievably heavy hair. But beneath the surface lies a deeply human story of love, betrayal, and the crushing weight of familial conflict. The physical descriptions serve to amplify the emotional weight of the narrative. Absalom’s imposing presence mirrors the immense challenge he poses to David's reign and, more importantly, to David's heart. A father's love tested by the ambition of his son. It's a timeless theme, isn't it?