The Second Book of Samuel, otherwise called the Second Book of the Kings
2 Samuel 17
Chapter XVII · Vol. II, pp. 700–701
1 Ahithophel's counsel is overthrown by Hushai's, according to God's appointment. 15 Secret intelligence is sent unto David. 23 Ahithophel hangeth himself. 25 Amasa is made captain. 27 David at Mahanaim is furnished with provisions.
1 Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men,1 and I will arise and pursue after David thisa night:
2 And I will come upon him while he is bweary and weak-handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and cI will smite the king only:
3 And I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned:2 so all the people shall be din peace.
2 'As the return of the whole is the man whom thou seekest'—the meaning appears to be that the return of those who had fled with David, and the pacification of the whole nation, depended upon David. If he could be captured or slain, they would all acknowledge Absalom.—P.
d 1 Th.5.3. Is.57.20,21; 48.22.
4 And the saying epleased3 Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.4
e 1 Sa.23.21. Es.5.14. Ro.1.32.
3 Heb. was right in the eyes of.
4 Mark the malicious cunning of Ahithophel in this counsel. He does not say, 'I will pursue after' thy father, but 'after David.' He does not say, 'I will smite' thy father, but 'the king only.' How depraved must Absalom have been, when the counsel and the promise 'pleased him well.'—Note, Ambition, indeed any bad passion, blinds the eye, and hardens the heart; being 'enmity against God,' it cannot work otherwise towards man.—C.
5 Then said Absalom, Call now fHushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.5
f ch.15.32-37; 16.16-19.
5 Heb. is in his mouth.
6 And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spake unto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying?6 if not, speak thou.
6 Heb. word.
8 For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy 8father and his men, that they be hmighty men, and they be chafed in their iminds, kas a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
8 Hushai, acting contrary to Ahithophel, always addresses Absalom with 'thy father,' and thus seeks to awaken every feeling of remorse or tenderness, if such there were—or at least of caution, from the recollection of his military prowess.—C.
h ch.15.18; 23.8-39.
i Heb. bitter of soul, Ju.18.25.
9 Behold, he lis hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, mwhen some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom.
10 And he9 also that is nvaliant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall outterly melt: for all Israel knoweth that thy father is pa mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men.
11 Therefore I counsel, that qall Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as rthe sand that is by the sea for multitude, and sthat thou go to battle in thine own person.
q Ju.20.1. ch.24.2. 1 Ki.4.25.
r Ge.22.17; 15.5. Jos.11.4. ch.24.9. 1 Ch.21.5,6.
s Heb. that thy face or presence go, &c. Ps.9.15,16; 7.15,16.
12 So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew1 falleth on the ground: and of him, and of all the men that are with him, there shall not be left so much as one.
1 An apt and beautiful emblem, descriptive of the sudden appearance and unexpected attack of a hostile army. The reader of history will recall the manner in which David Leslie surprised Montrose at Philiphaugh, and Napoleon the Austrians at Aosta, after crossing the Great St. Bernard. The dew in warm countries falls fast, sudden, and heavy. The Romans called their light-armed soldiers rorarii, dew-beaters.—I.
13 Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will tdraw it into the river, until there be not one small stone found there.
t 1 Ki.20.10. Mat.24.2. Ob.3.
14 And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel:2 for the LORD had uappointed to xdefeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.3
A.M. 2983. B.C. 1021.
2 The speech of Hushai is an astonishing specimen of simple eloquence. It is remarkable first for suggesting every topic of fear, and then for touching every spring of Absalom's vanity, while it carefully seems to consult for the general safety of his followers, and the certain success of his schemes.—C.
u Heb. commanded, Ps. 33. 9; 111. 9; 148. 5. Am.6.11; 9.3. Na.1.14.
x ch.15.31,34. Ps.33.10,11; 82.1; 111.7. 1 Co.1.19,20; 3.19. Job 5.11-13. Pr.21.30; 19.21. Is.8.9,10.
3 The counsel of Ahithophel was good, not in principle, but for the purpose to be accomplished. God, who works by means and instruments, defeats it by a counsel, not in itself so well suited to the end, but better suited to the feelings and principles of the vain prince and his wicked conspirators and fellow-rebels.—C.
15 Then said Hushai unto yZadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled.
y ch.15.35.
16 Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness,4 but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him.
4 'In the Arabah of the desert,' i.e. in that section of the Arabah or Jordan valley which adjoins the wilderness of Judah. He counselled him to pass over Jordan and take refuge in the mountains of Gilead.—P.
17 Now zJonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by aEn-rogel;5 (for they might not be seen to come into the city:) and a wench went and told them; and they went and told king David.
18 Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Absalom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man's house in bBahurim, which had a well in his court; whither they went down.
b ch.3 16; 16.5; 19.16.
19 And the woman took and cspread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known.
20 And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said unto them, dThey be gone over the brook of water.6 And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
d Jos.2.4,5. Ex.1.19. Ro.3.8. Ep.4.25. Col.3.9. Zec.8.16.
6 The well may have been a subterraneous brook—a thing very common, especially in limestone ranges—and therefore it is most probable the woman considered herself as literally speaking truth in one sense, though she expected or knew she would be understood in another. Every word that is, in the intended sense, untrue, is sin. The sacred writer, however, states the fact, not to approve, but record. For the quality of the fact we are left to the unchanging judgment of the divine law.—C.
21 And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David, and said unto David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water:7 for ethus hath Ahithophel counselled against you.
7 That is, over the Jordan. The king appears to have intended to have spent the night on the west side of the river.—P.
e ver.1-3.
22 Then fDavid arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over Jordan: by the morning light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over Jordan.
f Pr. 27. 12. Mat. 10. 16. Ac.27.31. ver.24; ch.18.6. Nu.31.49. Jn. 17. 12; 10.27-29.
23 And when Ahithophel gsaw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and hput his household in order,8 and hangedi himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.
h Heb. gave charge concerning his house, ch.15. 12. 2 Ki. 20.1.
8 He deliberately made his will; his worldly wisdom remaining till the last. Thus Satan triumphs over Ahithophel through his ambition and the love of power, as he triumphed over Judas through avarice and the love of money.—C.
i Job 31.3. Ps.59.12; 55. 23. Pr. 10. 28; 11. 7. Mat.27.5. 1 Sa.31.4,5.
24 Then David came to kMahanaim: And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.
k ch.2.8. Ge.32.2.
25 And Absalom made lAmasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in9 to Abigail the daughter of Nahash,1 sister to Zeruiah, Joab's mother.
l 1 Ch.2.16,17; 12.18. ch.19.13.
A.M. 2983. B.C. 1021.
9 Perhaps he had not married her.
1 A second name for Jesse the father of David. See 1 Ch.2.13,16.—C.
27 And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of nNahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and oMachir the son of Ammiel of 2Lo-debar, and pBarzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,
Notes
[Ver. 29. It is a remarkable fact that the fortress of Mahanaim, which had formerly sheltered the rival dynasty of Saul, now affords an asylum to David. 'Three potentates of that pastoral district come forward at once to his support. Shobi, the son of David's ancient friend, Nahash, king of Ammon, perhaps put by David in his brother Hanun's place; Machir, the son of Ammiel, the former protector of Mephibosheth; Barzillai, an aged chief of vast wealth and influence. They brought, with the profuse liberality of Arabs, the butter, cheese, &c., with which the forests and pastures of Gilead abounded.' P.]
Reflections.—Some men have large capacities for contriving or executing mischief, or for imposing on their neighbours: yea, when men are once involved in sin, they drive deeper and deeper, till the most horrid crimes become, as it were, necessary for their own safety. Dangerous is the case of those princes who have rebellious subjects and unnatural children: but vain is their counsel who aim at the ruin of God's church and people. By the most secret ways He can divert their blows, and make them unanimously to alter their mind, and applaud what is for his glory and their own ruin: and the weakest instruments in his hand can answer the greatest of purposes. Good intelligence in war is as necessary as good advice. In my spiritual warfare, let the all-knowing Jesus, whose despatches neither hell nor earth can stop, communicate to me my necessary informations. While we depend on God's protection, we must give all diligence to save ourselves. But not one follower of Jesus Christ shall be lost in the Jordan of trouble or death. The prayers of his saints are often indeed answered in a more awful manner than they could have wished. Disappointed pride produces self-murder to such as sought their life. But how much more terrible is their disappointment, who meet with everlasting shame and destruction by fleeing to death, as their refuge from present contempt or hazard! In the time of their greatest trouble God unexpectedly provides for his people. And it is very honourable to assist a sovereign or a saint when almost everybody is become his enemy.