Zadok

As David flees his son Absalom's rebellion, angels within the Ark show their guardian, the High Priest Zadok, hopeful visions of reconciliation.

Context

• Reference: 2 Samuel 15:25

• King David's son Absalom, after having David's firstborn, Amnon, killed, rebelled and claimed the kingship for himself.

• David and those loyal to him fled the king's city of Jerusalem.

• The high priest Zadok went partway, bringing the Ark of the Covenant with him, but David told him to bring it back into the city.

Aftermath

• Absalom did ride out alone on a mule. But his hair caught in the branches of a terebinth tree., Men loyal to David found him there and killed him, against David's orders.

Notes

This story is one of the less self-contained pieces in The Book of Voices since it depends on an ironic twist that readers would have to know the Biblical story (or read the Aftermath statement above) to understand. Zadok's vision of Absalom riding out to make peace with his father may indeed have happened, but had Shimei's rocks not interrupted the vision, it might have continued so that Zadok would have seen the mission fail. And having seen it fail, he might have been able to action action to make it succeed (assuming, of course, that he wasn't simply viewing an inevitable future).

Shimei is drawn directly from the Biblical text, where he repeatedly curses and throws rocks at David's group. But when he is brought before David after Absalom's death, David surprises his court by sparing Shimei's life.

David's mourning over Absalom was the source for the beautiful and moving choral work "David's Lamentation" by William Billings.