2 Samuel 17)
1: Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose out (the Sept. and Vulg. read "choose for myself") twelve thousand men, and I will (Ahithophel manifests personal vengeance. See 16:21 and 17:11) arise and pursue after David this night (cp. Ps.4:8. Ps.4 is concerning inheritances. David's was in jeopardy [v.3], but his trust was in Yehovah's favor [15:25; 22:20. Ps.18:19]):
2: 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 (He's become a traitor):
3: And I will bring back all the People to you: the man whom you seek is as if all returned: so all the People shall be in peace.” (He's playing on Absalom's pride. He would like to take credit for this)
4: And the saying was good in the eyes of Absalom, and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel.
5: Then said Absalom, “Call you now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he says.”
6: And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, “Ahithophel has spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying? if not; speak you.”
7: And Hushai said to Absalom, “The good counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good at this time. (He's using psychology)
8: For,” said Hushai, “you know your father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be bitter in their souls, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the People.
9: Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the People that follow Absalom.’ (He's going to get blamed for it and not get David)
10: And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are sons of valor.
11: Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered to you, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you yourself go to battle (Heb. karãb, never used of battle [which is milhãhãh]. Bikkrab, rendered "to battle", is an abbreviation for bekirbah = "in the midst of them", which is the rendering of the Sept. and Vulg.) in your own person. (By all this emphasis Hushai represents Ahithophel's personal malice [which need not disturb Absalom] as being personal pride aimed against Absalom. See vv.1-3, "I will arise"; "I will come"; "I will smite"; "i will bring back", &c. He's playing on his ego to go get credit for it)
12: So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him according as the dew falls on the ground: and of him and of all the men that are with him there shall not be left 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 draw it into the river, until there be not one small stone found there.” (Cp. Matt.2:24. Mark 13:2. Reference to false Messiah.)
14: 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 appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring the evil upon Absalom. (This is irony)
15: Then said Hushai to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, “Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counseled.
16: Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, ‘Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over (the Jordan); lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him.’ ”
17: Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel (now the Virgin's Fount, on east side of Ophel, or Jebus, from which the Zinnor runs up to the citadel. See 5:6. Cp. Josh.15:7; 18:16); for they might not be seen to come into the city: and a maidservant went and told them (Cp. Matt.26:69. Mark 14:66. Luke 22:56. John 18:17); 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 Bahurim, which had a well in his court; to which place they went down (wells mostly dry in summer).
19: And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known. (Truth-bearers covered with seed, i.e. another key of David)
20: And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said, “Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them (probably misdirecting them), “They are gone over the brook of water.” And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
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 to David, “Arise, and pass quickly over the water (the Jordan): for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you.”
22: Then David arose, and all the People that were with him, and they passed over Jordan (cp. Ps.42:6 and 43; Both Pss. referring to this period): by the morning light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over Jordan. (This is what covert activity does. Gives you victory when you know about the enemy)
23: And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and got him home to his house, to his city, and gave charge to his household, and hanged himself (not so much because his counsel was not taken, but because his revenge was not taken on David [see 11:3; 16:21, and 17:1], and that the conspiracy must fail. He hanged himself because he was a traitor), and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.
J O¹ 17:24-18:5. Mahanaim. David. Preparation.
P 18:6-8. The battle.
O² 18:19-19:8. Mahanaim. David. Report to.
O¹ y 17:24-. Mahanaim. Arrival.
z 17:-24-26. Camp of Absalom.
y 17:27-29. Mahanaim. Refreshments.
z 18:1-5. Camp of David.24: Then David came to Mahanaim. (near where Jacob and Esau had their gathering)
And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him (Fig., the whole put for the greater part).
25: And Absalom appointed Amasa captain over the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was Jethrer an Ishmaelite (a son of the tribe of Esau. See 1 Chron.2:17), that went in to (probably meaning seduced. If so, it would be during David's stay in Moab [1 Sam.22:3,4]) Abigail the daughter of Nahash (David was probably half-brother to Abigail and Zeruiah, having the same mother; he having Jesse for his father, they having Nahash), sister to Zeruiah (implying that she was not sister to David) Joab's mother. (Amasa was an illegitimate cousin to Joab)
26: So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead. (This was kind of a civil war)
27: And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the sons of Ammon (cp. 10:2), and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar (he had brought uo Mephibosheth. Cp. 9:5), and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,
28: Brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentils, and parched feed,
29: And honey, and butter (scarce in Lo-debar. Cp.9:4. The word means place of "no pasture"), and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the People that were with him, to eat: for they said, “The People is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness (or jungle).