And when he polled his head, &c.— Houbigant remarks, that it is a mistake to suppose that Absalom polled his head every year: the Hebrew, ימים מקצ mikkets yamim, which we render at every year's end, signifies only at the return of a certain season, and he renders the passage, for there were certain seasons when he polled it, that he might deliver himself from the weight; and when he polled it, the weight was two hundred shekels. This seemingly prodigious weight of hair, according to Bochart, if computed by the Jewish shekel, amounted to three pounds and two ounces of our weight.
But Bishop Patrick remarks, that when the books of Samuel were revised after the Babylonish captivity, such weights were mentioned as were then known to them; and therefore, when the historian speaks of this weight of Absalom's hair, he adds, by way of explanation, that it was after the king's weight; i.e. after the weight of the king of Babylon, whose shekel was only one-third of that of the Jews; and therefore this large quantity of hair, which has given so much occasion to the enemies of revelation to ridicule the sacred text, is reduced so as not to seem at all enormous. Besides, we should recollect, that the hair, being in those days reckoned a great ornament, was perfumed with large quantities of fragrant oils, which would make it more heavy than otherwise it would have been: and further we should remark, that it is very evident from the peculiar manner in which it is mentioned in the sacred text, that there must have been something extremely singular, even at that time, in this large quantity of Absalom's hair. Those, however, who are desirous to enter further on the subject, which has been very thoroughly examined, may find full satisfaction in Michaelis's Comment. Gotting. tom. 2: or in Stackhouse on the place.