ere faithful to him, and put them under the command of
Joab and Abishai. The king's veterans were more than a match for
the undisciplined rabble which opposed them, and in the action which
followed at Mahanaim Absalom was defeated: in his flight through
the forest of Ephraim he was caught in a tree, and before he could
disentangle himself was pierced through the heart by Joab.

David, we read, wished his people to have mercy on his son, and he wept
bitterly. He spared on this occasion the family of Saul, pardoned the
tribe of Judah, and went back triumphantly into Jerusalem, which a few
days before had taken part in his humiliation. The tribes of the house
of Joseph had taken no side in the quarrel. They were ignorant alike of
the motives which set the tribe of Judah against their own hero, and of
their reasons for the zeal with which they again established him on the
throne. They sent delegates to inquire about this, who reproached Judah
for acting without their cognisance: "We have ten parts in the king, and
we have also more right in David than ye: why then did ye despise us,
that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king?"
Judah answered with yet fiercer words; then Sheba, a chief of the
Benjamites, losing patience, blew a trumpet, and went off crying: "We
have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of
Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel." If these words had produced
an echo among the central and northern tribes, a schism would have been
inevitable: some approved of them, while others took no action, and
since Judah showed no disposition to put its military forces into
movement, the king had once again to trust to Joab and the Philistine
guards to repress the sedition. Their appearance on the scene
disconcerted the rebels, and Sheba retreated to the northern frontier
without offering battle. Perhaps he reckoned on the support of the
Aramaeans. He took shelter in the small stronghold of Abel of Bethmaacah,
where he defended himself for some time; but just when the place was on
the point of yielding, the inhabitants cut off Sheba's head, and threw
it to Joab from the wall. His death brought the crisis to an end,
and peace reigned in Israel. Intrigues, however, began again more
persistently than ever over the inheritance which the two slain princes
had failed to obtain. The eldest son of the king was now Adonijah, son
of Haggith, but Bathsheba exercised an undisputed sway over