2 Samuel 16

David at Mahanaim. An Army Organized under Joab. Absalom’s Host Smitten by David’s Army. Absalom, Caught in a Great Oak, is Slain by Joab. David’s Lament over Absalom. 2 Sam. 17:24-29; 18:1-33.

16 15 And Absalom, and all the people the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. And it came to pass, when Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, was come unto Absalom, that Hushai said unto Absalom, God save the king, God save the king. And Absalom said to Hushai, Is this thy kindness to thy friend? why wentest thou not with thy friend? And Hushai said unto Absalom, Nay; but whom the Lord, and this people, and all the men of Israel have chosen, his will I be, and with him will I abide. And again, whom should I serve? should I not serve in the presence of his son? as I have served in thy father’s presence, so will I be in thy presence. Then said Absalom to Ahithophel, Give your counsel what we shall do. And Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Go in unto thy father’s concubines, which he hath left to keep the house; and all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy father: then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong. So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel. And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counselled in those days, was as if a man inquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.

17 1 Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night: and I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only: and I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace. And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel. Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith. And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spake unto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying? if not, speak thou. And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given this time is not good. Hushai said moreover, Thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people. Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them be fallen at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say,

10. There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom. And even he that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt : for all Israel knoweth that thy father 11 is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men. But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together unto thee, from Dan even to Beer sheba, as the sand that is by the sea for 12 multitude ; and that thou go to battle in thine own person. So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falleth on the ground : and of him and of all the men that are with him we will not leave so much as one. 13 Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will 14 draw it into the river, until there be not one small stone found there. And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom. 15 Then said Hushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel 16 counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel ; and thus and thus have I counselled. Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night at the fords of the wilderness, but in any wise pass over ; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him. 17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-regel ; and a maidservant used to go and tell them ; 18 and they went and told king David : for they might not be seen to come into the city. But a lad saw them, and told Absalom : and they went both of them away quickly, and came to the 19 house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his court ; and they went down thither. And the woman took and spread the covering over the well’s mouth, and strewed bruised corn 20 thereon ; and nothing was known. And Absalom’s servants came to the woman to the house ; and they said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan ? And the woman said unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they re- 21 turned to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David ; and they said unto David, Arise ye, and pass 22 quickly over the water : for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you. Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over Jordan : by the morning light 23 there lacked not one of them that was not gone over Jordan. And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home, unto his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself ; and he died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.

18. 19. Hushai might have been a useful guide, but Absalom is bent on evil, and Ahithophel helps him in his wickedness. Hushai only seeks to defeat the evil counsel of the latter. This he attempts for David’s sake, as well as Absalom’s. Absalom could, if he had been true, have had a most valuable counsellor in Hushai, but, under the circumstances all Hushai can do is to endeavor to help David, or to give him time to escape, by counselling delay on the part of Absalom. F. Hastings.

There is no way but to engage Absalom in some further act incapable of forgiveness. Ordinary crimes are for vulgar offenders : let Absalom sin eminently ; and do that which may make the world at once to blush and wonder. Who would ever have thought that Ahithophel had lived at court, at the council-table of a David ? Who would think that mouth had ever spoken well ? Yet had he been no other than as the oracle of God, to the religious court of Israel ; even while he was not wise enough to be good. Policy and grace are not always lodged under one roof. This man, while he was one of

David’s deep counsellors, was one of David’s fools, that said in their hearts, “There is no God ;” else he could not have hoped to make good an evil with worse, to build the success of treason upon incest. Bp. H.—While recoiling with horror from this unnatural crime, we cannot but call to mind the judgment predicted upon David (ch. 12 : 11, 12), and note how, as so often was the case, the event, supernaturally foretold, happened, not by some sudden interference, but through a succession of natural causes. A. E.

23. When wickedness is armed with wit and power, none but a God can defeat it. If the bounty of God have thought good to furnish his creatures with powers to war against himself, his wisdom knows how to turn the abuse of those powers to the shame of the owners and the glory of the giver. Bp. H.

Ch. 17. Absalom is in peaceable possession of Jerusalem, the palace royal is his own, and the thrones of judgment, even the thrones of the house of David. His good father reigned in Hebron, and only over the tribe of Judah, above seven years, and was not hasty to destroy his rival; his government was built upon a Divine promise, which he was sure of the performance of in due time, and therefore he waited patiently in the mean time. But the young man, Absalom, not only hastens from Hebron to Jerusalem, but is impatient there till he has destroyed his father; cannot be content with his throne till he has his life; for his government is founded in iniquity, and therefore feels itself tottering, and thinks itself obliged to do everything with violence. H.

Ahithophel’s Counsel Defeated by Hushai.

Verses 1-14.

1. This night.** The night following David’s flight and Absalom’s entrance into Jerusalem, Ahithophel’s advice was excellent. The success of the rebellion would be insured by striking a sudden blow, and securing the king’s person. A small body of picked troops might easily have overtaken David, who was not likely to get more than twelve or fifteen miles from Jerusalem the first day. A. F. K.

1-3. Ahithophel advises that he be pursued immediately with a flying army, which he himself undertakes the command of, that the king only be smitten, and his forces dispersed, and then the people that were now for him, would fall in with Absalom, of course, and there would not be such a long war as had been between the house of Saul and David (verses 1-3). The man whom thou seekest, is as if all returned. By this, it appears that Absalom had declared his design to be upon David’s life, and Ahithophel concurs with him in it. H.

Ahithophel’s counsel was a masterpiece alike of sagacity and of wickedness. He proposed to take a select body of twelve thousand out of the troops that had already flocked to Absalom’s standard, and follow the fugitive king. That very night he would set out; and in a few hours they would overtake the king and his handful of defenders; they would destroy no life but the king’s only; and thus, by an almost bloodless revolution, they would place Absalom peacefully on the throne. The advantages of the plan were obvious. It was prompt, it seemed certain of success, and it would avoid an unpopular slaughter. W. G. B.

7-12. How plausibly Hushai reasons; he insists much upon it, that David was a great soldier, a man of great conduct, courage, and experience; all knew and owned this, even Absalom himself: Thy father is a man of war, a mighty man, and not so weary and weak-handed as

Ahithophel imagines. His retiring from Jerusalem must be imputed, not to his cowardice, but his prudence. His attendants, though few, were mighty men, men of celebrated bravery, and versed in all the arts of war. They were all exasperated against Absalom, were chafed in their minds and would fight with the utmost fury; so that with their courage and their rage there would be no standing before them. Thus does he represent them as formidable as Ahithophel had made them despicable. He suggests that probably David and some of his men would lie in ambush, and fall upon Absalom’s soldiers before they were aware, and the defeat, though but of a small party, would dispirit all the rest. First. He advises that all Israel should be gathered together, his taking it for granted that they were all for him, and giving him an opportunity to see them all together under his command, would gratify him as much as anything. Secondly. He advises that Absalom go to battle in his own person, as if he looked upon him to be a better soldier than Ahithophel, more fit to give command and have the honor of the victory, insinuating that Ahithophel had put a slight upon him in offering to go without him. He counselled that which seemed to secure success without running any hazard. For if they could raise such vast numbers as they promised themselves, wherever they found him, they should not fail to crush him. H.

The pretences were fairer, though the grounds were unsound. First, to sweeten his opposition he yields the praise of wisdom to his adversary in all other counsels, that he may have leave to deny it in this; then he suggests certain apparent truths concerning David’s valor and skill, to give countenance to the inferences of his improbabilities: lastly, he cunningly feeds the proud humor of Absalom in magnifying the power and extent of his commands, and ends in the glorious boast of his fore-promised victory. As it is with faces, so with counsel, that is fair that pleaseth. Bp. II.—The counsel of Hushai pleased better than that of Ahithophel, and so it was preferred. Absalom’s overweening vanity becomes the means of defeating the scheme and laying the foundation of Absalom’s ruin. W. G. B.

The most dexterous and shrewd part of this advice was the proposal to make a general levy of all Israel to be commanded in person by Absalom—thus presenting him with a picture of alluring magnificence and glory, mixed up with such an assurance of success as completely carried the acquiescence of this ambitious and wicked prince.

14. Hushai’s advice was the proximate cause of Absalom’s ruin; but it was the Lord who had appointed to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel, and this to the intent that He might bring evil upon Absalom. It was not only He who put the counter-advice into the heart of Hushai, but it was He who inclined Absalom and the men of Israel to follow it. T. C.—God made use of a wicked son to punish the father’s offences, and then cut off the very instrument of his vengeance, who, by the means he took to distress and destroy his father, had rendered himself the abhorrence of God and man. Chandler.

15,16. Hushai, as if apprehensive that his advice might not be followed, sends off to David to be prepared for the worst. He bids him speedily pass over Jordan. It is interesting to mark the geographical track of every movement recorded in Scripture; and to learn how the incidental notices, as “of the plains in the wilderness,” tally with the descriptions of travellers. En-regel is in the immediate environs of Jerusalem, S.S.W., and on the brook Kidron. Bahurim, again, is the place where Shimei cursed David, after he had passed the ridge of Olivet. T. C.

17-19. Jonathan and Ahimaaz are sent, described, pursued, preserved. The fidelity of a maid instructed them in their message; the subtlety of a woman saved their lives. At the well of Rogel, they received their message; in the well of Bahurim, were their lives saved. The sudden wit of a woman hath choked the mouth of her well with dried corn, that it might not bewray the messengers.

22. And now David hears safely of his danger, and prevents it; and though weary with travel and laden with sorrow, he must spend the night in journeying. God’s promises of his deliverance and the confirmation of his kingdom, may not make him neglect the means of his safety. If we be faithful, we may not be careless; since our diligence and care are appointed for the factors of that Divine providence. The acts of God must abate nothing of ours; rather must we labor by doing that which he requireth, to further that which he decreeth. Bp. H.

Ahithophel, foreseeing the fatal result of delay, his ambitious hopes all frustrated, with the certain infamy and punishment of his treason in clear view, deliberately goes to his own city of Giloh, and, setting his household affairs in order, puts an end to his life. B.—He saw in exercise of his shrewd discernment that all was now over with the cause; and what, perhaps, was sorer to him than this, there was the mortification of wounded vanity in that the counsel of Hushai was preferred before his own; and so, in the extremity of his agonized feelings, he, like another traitor of still greater notoriety, went and hanged himself. He is the Judas of the Old Testament; and herein we behold the like fate of these two men—the one who betrayed David his king, and the other who betrayed the Son of David his Lord. T. C.—His name has passed into a byword for the truth that “God taketh the wise in his own craftiness;” and his unscrupulous treason forbids all sympathy with his fate. We may apply to him what was said of one of our own party leaders: “His great crimes were enhanced by his immense talents, of which God gave him the use, and the devil the application.” P. S.

What a mixture do we find here of wisdom and madness! Ahithophel will needs hang himself; there is madness: he will yet set his house in order; there is an act of wisdom. And could it be possible that he, who was so wise as to set his house in order, should be so mad as to hang himself? that he should care for his house, who cared not for either body or soul? How vain it is for a man to be wise, if he be not wise in God! How prosperous are the cares of idle worldlings, that prefer all other things to themselves; and, while they look at what they have in their coffers, forget what they have in their breasts! Bp. H.—His name, Ahithophel, signifies, the brother of a fool. Nothing indicates so much folly as self-murder. Observe how deliberately he did it, and of malice prepense against himself; not in a heat, but he went home to his city, to his house, to do it; and, which is strange, took time to consider of it, and yet did it. H.—In the trouble of a righteous man there is hope; but in the trouble of the wicked there is none. He had no courage to make any further trial; but, giving the whole matter up for lost, to avoid an ignominious death, which he knew was what he merited, he went home to put an end to his life, as many others have since done under the like circumstances. Jones of Nagland.

Repentance and remorse, how terrible is the gulf which divides these two, terrible well-nigh as that which separates heaven and hell—remorse, of the earth earthly, of the flesh fleshly; and it is scarce too much to say of the devil devilish; born as it is, not of grief to have offended a loving Father and done despite to a Spirit of grace; but born of wounded pride, of anger against ourselves that the proud idol of self, so long the secret object of our worship, lies by our own act shattered in the dust, and as we too surely feel, never to be set on its feet again. Remorse, if it have tears at all, they are tears scorching, withering, drying up with their fierce heat every green thing in the soul. But the tears of repentance, when the hard rock of some sinner’s heart has been smitten by Christ’s cross as by a rod, and these waters gush freely forth, how different an operation is theirs, healing, quickening, reviving all that they touch and whithersoever they come. Remorse is that sorrow of the world whereof the apostle speaks as a sorrow working death, which literally wrought death in that unhappy one of whom we are meditating now. Trench.

DAVID HOSPITALLY RECEIVED AT MAHANAIM. AN ARMY ORGANIZED UNDER JOAB. ABSALOM’S HOST, ENCAMPED IN GILEAD, IS ATTACKED AND SMITTEN BY DAVID’S ARMY. ABSALOM, CAUGHT IN A GREAT OAK, IS SLAIN BY JOAB. TIDINGS BORNE TO DAVID. HIS LAMENT OVER ABSALOM.