Verse 7
The massoretic text has 40 years here. The question is the starting point for these forty years. Two possibilities are the beginning of the state of Israel as a kingdom under Saul and the anointment of David as king. There may be a significance to the idea that forty is often used to represent a period of testing, such as the forty years of the Israelites in the wilderness. It is unlikely that the starting point is the ascension of David to the throne because that would compress all the rebellions at the end of David’s life into only a year. This is because David’s reign lasted forty years and six months. An alternate possiblility is that this represents a copying error and that the correct number is four. The Syriac, Vulgate and the writings of Josephus have the number four in this location. The starting point is still not clear, even if one uses this reading, but it is most reasonable to assume that it refers to the amount of time Absalom was campaigning for kingship, starting when he prepared the chariots and the fifty men.
