Second Samuel 14:27 says Absalom had three sons; 2 Samuel 18:18 says he had none. Which is right?
2 Samuel 14:27 says, “And to Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter whose name was Tamar.” But 2 Samuel 18:18 states, “Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself a pillar which is in the King’s Valley, for he said, ‘I have no son to preserve my name.’ So he named the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom’s monument to this day”–that is, to the time of the final composition of 2 Samuel, which may have been in the middle of the eighth century B.C. This establishes the fact that by the time he set up his monument (which may have been a year or two before his rebellion against his father, David), Absalom had no male heirs surviving to him. But it does not prove that none had been born to him previously (and died in infancy). Consequently, as Absalom had no sons, he afterwards erected a pillar to preserve his name. Apparently he endured the heartbreak of losing all three little boys in their infancy, and it had become apparent that his wife woul
