2 Samuel 17
David's rebellion is in full motion. His own son Absalom has seized the throne. The kingdom is splitting. And in Absalom's tent, his counselor Ahithophel lays out a plan that should work perfectly: take twelve thousand men tonight, catch David tired and unprepared, strike down only the king, and bring the rest of the people back to Jerusalem in peace. The plan is sound. The timing is right. And it should have worked.
But standing in the way is David's prayer. In the last chapter, David asked the Lord to make Absalom's counselors give foolish advice. And God sends a man named Hushai to answer that prayer - not with a miracle, not with a sign in the sky, but with words. Hushai listens to Ahithophel's counsel and then offers another counsel that sounds even better. Absalom chooses Hushai's words over the wisdom of a man known to be as sure as the oracle of God. The chapter teaches a profound truth: God works through human choice, through the faithfulness of people who stand in the gap, through counsel that speaks to what people already want to believe.
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
2 Samuel 17:1-13Counsel of War: Ahithophel vs. Hushai
1Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night: 2I 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: 3And 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.
Ahithophel's plan is clear and ruthless. He wants to move tonight, catch David exhausted and unprepared, kill the king alone, and let everyone else come back unharmed. The people will follow Absalom not out of fear but out of relief - their king will be dead, and they can go home. It is the counsel of a military strategist who has thought through the problem completely.123
The text later notes (verse 14) that Ahithophel's counsel was considered "as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God." He has a reputation as someone whose advice is infallible, as reliable as a direct word from God. That reputation is about to work against him.
4And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
Ahithophel's plan appeals to Absalom. It appeals to the elders. It makes sense. It will work. But Absalom does something unexpected: he asks for another opinion.
5Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, let us hear likewise what he saith. 6And 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.
Hushai is David's friend (verse 14 confirms this later). He has infiltrated Absalom's court as a spy, sent by David to "defeat the counsel of Ahithophel." Now he is called to give his opinion. He listens to Ahithophel's perfectly good plan - and he is about to reject it.
7And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time. 8For, said Hushai, 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, will not lodge with the people.
Hushai appeals to what Absalom knows but Ahithophel has ignored: David is not weak. David is a warrior. He has spent his whole life in battle. He will not be caught unprepared.
9Behold, 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 heareth it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom. 10And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men.
11Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person. Then will we light 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 there shall not be left so much as one. 12Moreover, 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.
Hushai's counter-counsel sounds even more appealing than Ahithophel's. Instead of a quick strike with twelve thousand men, Hushai suggests gathering "all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba," an enormous force that will be impossible for David to hide from. Absalom himself will lead the armies. The language is grandiose and flattering: Absalom at the head of all Israel, a force as countless as sand. And as for any city where David hides, they will destroy it stone by stone. It appeals to Absalom's vanity and his desire to be seen as the chosen leader of all Israel.
13So 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 evil upon Absalom.
Absalom chooses. The choice seems reasonable - Hushai's plan is thorough, it flatters the king, and it seems more complete than Ahithophel's quick strike. But the Bible tells us the real reason for the choice.
Here is the invisible hand: "For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel." God is working through Hushai's words, through Absalom's choice, through human counsel that sounds wise but leads to destruction. Providence is not coercion - Absalom genuinely chooses. But his choice is guided by God toward the end God intends.
2 Samuel 17:14-22The Message Sent in Secret
14And Hushai said unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; thus and thus have I counselled. 15Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him.
Hushai runs to the priests Zadok and Abiathar - men loyal to David. He tells them the truth: this is what Ahithophel wanted to do, and this is what I told Absalom instead. But now Absalom has chosen my counsel, which means Ahithophel's quick strike is not coming. David has a window, but only if he moves immediately.
16Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel; 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.
Jonathan (the son of the priest Abiathar) and Ahimaaz (the son of Zadok) are waiting at En-rogel, a spring outside Jerusalem. They cannot come into the city openly without being noticed. So a servant girl brings them the message from Hushai, and they prepare to run to David.
17But a lad saw them, and told Absalom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man's house in Bahurim, who had a well in his court; thither they went down.
A servant boy sees them and reports them to Absalom. The couriers run for their lives and reach a house in Bahurim whose owner has a well in his courtyard. They climb down into the well to hide.
18And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known.
The woman of the house spreads a cloth over the well and scatters grain on top of it - making it look like grain is simply being dried there. It is the kind of quick, practical deception that appears throughout Scripture when the faithful must hide God's anointed.
19And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, saying, Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan? the woman said unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
Absalom's men arrive and demand to know where the couriers are. The woman lies. She says they went over the brook. The men search and find nothing. They return to Jerusalem. The deception holds.
20And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, saying, Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan? the woman said unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. 21And 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 him, Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you.
Once Absalom's men have left, Jonathan and Ahimaaz climb out of the well and rush to David. They deliver the message: Ahithophel was planning to strike tonight. You must move. Now.
22Then David 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.
David does not hesitate. He and all his people rise up and cross the Jordan River. By dawn, not a single person remains on the western bank. The king and his followers have escaped.
2 Samuel 17:23Ahithophel's End
23And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.
Ahithophel learns that Absalom has chosen Hushai's counsel over his own. This is not merely a loss - it is a catastrophe. A man whose advice has been considered infallible, "as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God," has been rejected. His counsel was good. It would have worked. But it was not followed.
Rather than watch his rejected counsel play out into failure, Ahithophel goes home, puts his household in order (settling his affairs), and hangs himself. He chooses death rather than witness. It is the first suicide of a major counselor in Scripture - and it will be read, centuries later, as a foreshadowing.
2 Samuel 17:24-29The King Cared For
24And David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.
David reaches Mahanaim, a city east of the Jordan. The name means "two camps" - and it was here that Jacob, fleeing his brother Esau, saw the angels of God and said, "This is God's host" (Genesis 32:2). It is a place of refuge, a place where the exiled heir finds protection.
25And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab.
Absalom appoints Amasa as his general, replacing Joab (who remained loyal to David). Amasa is a relative of Joab and of David - the son of Ithra (or Jether), an Ishmaelite. So even in this rebellion, David's kinsmen are divided.
26So Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, 27Brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse, 28And honey, and butter, 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.
Three men come to David with supplies: Shobi (an Ammonite, whose father was the king of Ammon - normally an enemy of Israel), Machir (a man from Lo-debar who had sheltered Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson, and became his adopted son), and Barzillai (a wealthy Gileadite). They bring a massive provision: beds, vessels, grain, legumes, honey, butter, sheep, cheese. They see that David and his followers are exhausted and hungry.
This is a moment of profound grace. Shobi, son of an Ammonite king (from a nation that had been at war with Israel), chooses to serve David. Machir, who had hidden Saul's grandson and shown him kindness, now shows the same kindness to the anointed king. Barzillai, a man of wealth and standing, brings everything he has. The king who has been abandoned is now surrounded by the faithful.
29For they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.
The text does not say they were commanded to do this. It says they saw the need. The king is in the wilderness, weary and thirsty. These three men choose to care for him.
Further study
- David as King of IsraelSefariaDavid's consolidation of power and establishment of monarchy over united Israel.
- City of David ExcavationsIsrael Antiquities AuthorityContinuous excavation revealing David-era structures and urban development in Jerusalem.
- Jerusalem CapturedBible Odyssey/SBLDavid's capture of the Jebusite city and establishment as Israel's capital.