CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES.
2 Samuel 17:1. “This night,” “The night following David’s flight and Absalom’s entrance into Jerusalem, as we may see very clearly from 2 Samuel 17:16.” (Keil)
2 Samuel 17:3. “Bring back.” “Ahithophel regards Absalom’s government as the only lawful one to which those fugitives must submit; their flight is in his eyes an act of insubordination, from which they are to be brought back.”—(Erdmann and others). “The man whom thou seekest,” etc. This is a very obscure phrase, but many expositors understand it to mean—“the removal of David is tantamount to the return of all the people to thee.”
2 Samuel 17:7. “At this time.” “His former advice was good (2 Samuel 16:21), but not this.”
2 Samuel 17:8. “Will not lodge,” etc. So that it would be impossible to surprise and slay him, as Ahithophel suggests.
2 Samuel 17:9 “Some of them be overthrown,” etc. Hushai suggests that David, from his hiding place will surprise and defeat Absalom’s followers. “It is likely that Absalom was not a man of courage, and Hushai, knowing this, adroitly magnified the terror of the prowess of David and his men.” (Biblical Commentary).
2 Samuel 17:11. “Thine own person.” Hushai insinuates that Ahithophel by his counsel had been indulging in an egotistical vaunting, Ahithophel had said, “I will arise; I will come upon him,” etc.; and he insinuates also that Ahithophel had been desirous of robbing Absalom of the glory of the victory over David, and of assuming it to himself. And thus Hushed practises on Absalom’s vain glory and self love. (Wordsworth).
2 Samuel 17:12. “As the dew.” “This figure, together with that of the sand, fitly sets forth the swift and quiet settling of the huge host upon the enemy. And with this accords perfectly the statement of the success of the attack.” (Erdmann).
2 Samuel 17:13. “Draw it into the river.” A bold hyperbole, designed to produce a momentary effect.
2 Samuel 17:14. “The Lord had appointed,” etc. “All that Hushai had said about the bravery and heroism of David and his followers was well founded. The deception lay in the assumption that all the people from Dan to Beersheba would crowd around Absalom as one man; whereas it might easily be foreseen that after the first excitement of the revolution was over, and greater calmness ensued, a large part of the nation and army would gather around David. But such a possibility as this never entered into the minds of Ahithophel and his supporters. It was in this that the Divine sentence was seen.” (Keil.)
2 Samuel 17:16. “The plains,” Rather, the fords or ferries. “Lest the king,” etc. Lit., les there be a swallowing up. “Either destruction to the king, it will fall upon him, or, if we supply the subject from the previous clause, that it (the transit) may not be swallowed up or cut off from the king.” (Keil.)
2 Samuel 17:17. “En-rogel” Or “Fuller’s fountain.” Many identify this with the modern fountain of Job, or Nehemiah, situated at the junction of the Valleys of Kedron and Hinnon, but Josephus describes the incident recorded in 1 Kings 1:9, as taking place in the royal garden, and Dr. Bonar identifies En-rogel with the present “Fountain of the Virgin,” the perennial source from which the pool of Siloam is supplied. Among other arguments in favour of this view he remarks that the fountain of Job is a well and not a spring, and that it is too far off from Jerusalem and from the road over Olivet to Jordan and too much in view of the city to meet the requirements of this chapter. Mr. Grove (Biblical Dictionary) adds to these considerations the fact that the fountain of the Virgin is still the great resort of the women of Jerusalem for washing and treading their clothes, and that Rogel is generally held to be derived from the Hebrew Ragel to tread. “Wench.” Hebrew, the maid servant, one belonging to the high priest’s household.
2 Samuel 17:18. “A well.” “A cistern, then empty. It seems to have been summer time.” (Wordsworth.)
2 Samuel 17:19. “The woman.” The man’s wife. “Ground corn.” Groats or peeled barley. The article before the noun indicates that she was occupied at the time with the grain. Josephus says she laid fleeces of wool over the men.
2 Samuel 17:21. “The water,” i.e., the Jordan. “The circumstances of that distressing flight, aggravated by the lone hour of midnight, and the roar of the numerous cataracts of the Jordan, are graphically depicted in Psalms 13, 43, which, although bearing the name of the sons of Korah, represent vividly and fully the feelings of the disconsolate but pious monarch.” (Jamieson.) “Mahanaim” (See on 2 Samuel 2:8.) “Probably a fortified city.” (Keil.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 2 Samuel 17:1-24
THE DEATH OF AHITHOPHEL
The account given here of Ahithophel is very brief, and is a record of only a few weeks of his life, yet it is enough to enable us to see what manner of man he was. He exhibits in a large degree three characteristics found in most godless men—in men who are not governed by a desire to please God—who are, in fact, so far as it is possible, a law unto themselves.
I. They are fickle men. If self-interest be the guiding principle of a man’s life, even his most intimate acquaintance can never be quite certain what his next step in life may be. For a man who makes his temporal well-being the pole-star of life will not be sure long together which is the road to it. What may seem expedient to-day may appear inexpedient to-morrow, and he will often be found giving up the pursuit of one prize to follow after another which looks more tempting. The downward road is not only broad, but it has many by-paths and windings, so that one never knows exactly where to find him who walks in it. Only the man who follows after righteousness—who takes God and his conscience for his guides, can be safely trusted in as unchangeable in the great purpose and direction of his life. Ahithophel had been implicitly trusted by David, and there had doubtless been a time when it would have seemed impossible to others and perhaps to himself that he should even be found among the king’s enemies. But circumstances had changed, and Ahithophel had changed his front with them.
II. They are proud men. This sin is, perhaps, at the root of all ungodliness, for it was the sin of the angels that kept not their first estate and “is,” says Thomas Adams, “the first thing that lives and the last that dies in us.” In some form or other it is a characteristic of all ungodly souls, leading them, as it did Ahithophel, to be mortified at any depreciation of themselves and their doings, and oftentimes hurrying them on to some desperate deed of wickedness. While their wishes are followed and their advice sought before all others, they are content and active, but as soon as they meet with a check they are driven by conflicting passions like a vessel struck by cross seas, and like it, shipwreck is often the end. Like every other form of ungodliness, pride is a foolish passion which recoils upon him who gives it the mastery over him. The counsel of Ahithophel had hitherto been as the oracle of God, first to David and then to Absalom, but a little reflection might have shown him that his present master was, like himself, governed by no sense of duty or motives of gratitude, and was not likely to be more true to him than he himself had been to David. It was then very unlikely that Absalom would give him unlimited control over the rebellion any longer than his supposed interest was served by it. This is the way of the world, and he who does not take it into account in the shaping of his life is as unwise a man as he who puts out to sea expecting no contrary winds. But it is only in the service of the world that pride can be gratified at all; there is no place for it in the service of God. Pride, then, in all cases, as in the one before us, “goeth before destruction “—the destruction of the proud man’s schemes and sometimes of himself.
III. They are cowardly men. What a despicable exodus from the world does Ahithophel make! He is afraid to face the consequences of his own actions. Probably the rebellion would never have gone to the length which it did if Ahithophel had not been associated with it, and now, at the most critical point he leaves it to the direction of others, because he foresees its defeat. How different is the attitude of a man who embarks in an enterprise from a godly motive! He knows that he is not responsible for its success or failure, but only for his own faithfulness unto the end, and as he has not undertaken the cause to promote his own ends or gratify personal ambition, his own fate is the last thing that he thinks about. This enables him to meet reverses with fortitude and to be defeated without being disgraced. But those who are prompted by Ahithophel’s motives find themselves in the day of adversity destitute of that sustaining principle without which there can be no true and lasting courage, and often close very ignominiously a career which was once influential and prosperous.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
2 Samuel 17:5. It was not unwise in Absalom to seek the advice of another experienced counsellor also (Proverbs 24:6); his fault was that he did not know which advice to follow, and was misled by high sounding and flattering words. In choosing counsellors, and in judging of their counsel, lies great part of the wisdom of life.—Translator of Lange’s Commentary.
2 Samuel 17:23. 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 be careful to order his house, who regarded not to order his impotent passions? 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 preposterous 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. Hall.
This is the first recorded case of deliberate suicide. Saul, already mortally wounded on the battle-field, fell upon his sword, but this is the earliest instance in history of premeditated self-murder. Perhaps there was a mingling of remorse with those other emotions of pride. He had left a master who loved and valued him, who, indeed, regarded him as his equal and guide, and he had transferred his services to one who, as he now discovered, had not the wisdom to appreciate his worth, but preferred the gaudy glitter of empty rhetoric to the substantial wisdom of unadorned speech. This contrast, thus forced upon him, might awaken his conscience to the value of the friendship which he had forfeited when he turned against David, until at length remorse and shame so overwhelmed him, that, like a deeper traitor, of whom he was only the feeble prototype, he could not endure life, and hurried himself into eternity. It never occurred to him to ask, “If I cannot face David, how shall I look upon Jehovah?”—Dr. Taylor.