And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.
When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed - his vanity was wounded, his pride mortified, on finding that his ascendancy was gone; but that chagrin was aggravated by other feelings-a painful conviction that, through the delay which had been resolved on, the cause of Absalom was lost. Hastening home, therefore, he arranged his private affairs, and knowing that the storm of retributive vengeance would fall chiefly upon him, as the instigator and prop of the rebellion, he hanged himself. It may be remarked that the Israelites did not at that time refuse the rights of sepulture even to those who died by their own hands. He had an imitator in Judas, who resembled him in his treason as well as in his infamous end.