Civil War ISN'T! Of course! If it is CIVIL, it is not WAR. If it is WAR, it is anything but CIVIL. And every war that has ever been fought with that designation, from our own a century-and-a-half ago, to some of the horrific conflicts we see on the news from Africa and the Middle East.

Our lesson tells the story of Israel's ancient Civil War, the attempted overthrow of King David by his son, Absalom. Absalom was David's third oldest son, the child of a union with the princess of a neighboring city-state,(1) no doubt to consummate a political alliance, as was the practice of the day.

The first time we hear anything of Absalom beyond his brief birth announcement is as the avenging hero in a tawdry family drama.(2) It seems that David's eldest son, Amnon, had become romantically obsessed wi…