How old was David when Absalom rebelled?

Answer 1

2 Samuel 5:4 says:

4David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years.

Thus, he died at age seventy. The Reese Chronological Bible dates David's death to 985 BC and Absalom's rebellion to 993 BC. Therefore, David must have been around 62. Pretty old to be fighting a young buck.

Answer 2

About 30 years old - here's how I got that as The Bible doesn't say exactly - nor does it give other dates arounf events to pinpoint it, but you can get close. In the Bible is says Davidruled 40 years total starting when he was 30 years old (he died at 70). The first 7 years he led as king from Hebron - where Absalom was born, so Absalom was born to David between the age of 30-37.If David had him at 30 he could not be older than 40 because David was dead by the time he'd be 40. Given all the events the rebellion was after, and the years Absalom held a grudge, killed his brother, years in exile andtime after that to plan his rebellion, he couldn't have been under 25. So at the onset has us guarenteed between 25-40.

Given that Absalom was the 3rd son doesn't mean he was born much later than his brothers as he is the first son of that wife. David now being king and at relativepeace in Hebron no longer needed to abstain from women as was their practice during war time. So he likely got all of his wives pregnat in Hebron in a short time after being king. So that likely puts his birth in David's early 30's vs. his late 30's. The Bible does not have David's or Absalom's age at the rebellion.

Given all the happenings of David's rule and the placement of the rebellion, he was most certainly over 50 and likely in his 60's (he died at 70 and years of events happened after the rebellion, so likely early 60's). To get a firm date, you are going to have to go outside the bible (which is not God's word, so take it with a grain of salt) wheresome history scholars put David's age at the rebellion at 62 - which is resonable biblically. So if 62 is correct, than Absalom was between 25-32 years old... but given that I (my opinion - which is not God's word) think he was born to David early in his rule as noted above, that puts Absalom around 30 years old. Which is young enough to be called 'young' - which he was called, and it's old enough to be a viable king in the eyes of the people - which he was.