Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom's place.
Absalom in his life-time had ... reared up for himself a pillar, х matsebet (H4678), in the first clause, and yad (H3027), hand, in the latter] - (see the notes at 1 Samuel 15:12.)
In the king's dale (cf. Genesis 14:17) - i:e., the valley of Jehoshaphat. This pillar was made of marble, according to Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 7:, ch. 10:, sec. 3).
For he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. It is elsewhere said that Absalom had three sons, and a daughter of great beauty, called Tamar (2 Samuel 14:27); but this pillar was in all likelihood raised previously to the appearance of this family; because Josephus expressly asserts that it was erected with the view of keeping alive his memory, even if he should have no children ('Antiquities,' b. 7:, ch. 10:, sec. 3). In the valley of Jehoshaphat, on the east of Jerusalem, is a tomb or cenotaph, said to be this "pillar" or monument: it Isaiah 24 feet square, dome-topped, and reaches 40 feet in height. This may occupy the spot, but cannot itself be the work of Absalom, as it evidently bears the style of a later architecture. It is substantially Doric, with an Ionin volute, and has been supposed to have been built about the time of the Maccabees (see Hardy's 'Notices of the Holy Land,' p. 137; Olin's 'Travels,' 2:, p. 145.) Some, however, maintain (Bonar's 'Land of Promise,' p. 132) that this is the very monument which Absalom constructed for himself, and that the architectural orders exhibited on it, and the other adjoining tombs, some Ionic, others Doric, were in a rude form found in Syria and Phoenicia, as well as in Egypt, long before they were imported into Greece, where they were carried to a high pitch of perfection.