2 Samuel 17:1-14
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 is not good at this time. For, 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, 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 overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom. And 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. Therefore 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. 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 there shall not be left so much as one. 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.
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 evil upon Absalom.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Having two such able counsellors as Ahithophel and Hushai, Absalom directs his speech to Ahithophel, as being his first and chief counsellor: “give counsel among you what we shall do,” 2 Samuel 16:20. He orders them to form a counsel, consult among themselves what was proper to be now done at Jerusalem, whether it was right to stay here or pursue after David and his men. Absalom did not send to the high priest to ask counsel of God, by Urim and Thummim before the ark, but wholly confided in his privy council.
THE EDITOR: From 2 Samuel 16:15-23, it is evident that Hushai had been accepted by Absalom in Jerusalem, and was consulted when Ahithopel advised Absalom to defile his father’s concubines. But “to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak,” Ecclesiates 2:1,7. Hushai’s silence allowed Ahithopel’s revengeful advice to stand unopposed, and Absalom acted on it immediately; thus God answered David’s prayer “to turn Ahithopel’s counsel into foolishness,” 2 Samuel 15:31, for “he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly,” Proverbs 14:29. Then, after Absalom had committed that outrageous sin, he asked his counsellors what to do next. And again, Ahithopel’s counsel was tainted by his desires of personal revenge—Ahithopel himself would go forth to battle against David. There is a time for prudent caution, but there is also a time to strike, as Napoleon Bonaparte famously advised, “Audacity, always audacity.” Ahithopel had rightly assessed David’s present vulnerable situation and recognized that this was a time for immediate action.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Nothing could be more fatal to David than the taking of these measures. It was too true that he was weary and weak-handed, that a little thing would make him afraid, else he would not have fled from his house upon the first alarm of Absalom’s rebellion—this saying, “I will smite the king only,” pleased Absalom well, and then the people that were now for David 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. It is past dispute that David must be destroyed; the question was, how he may be destroyed.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): It was indeed as the advice of an oracle, but very different from that dictated by the Spirit of God: and yet, horrid as it was, it pleased that vile son and his associates.
JOHN GILL: There is something very remarkable in the providence of God, to incline Absalom to seek Hushai’s opinion, when the counsel of Ahithophel was so universally approved. Hushai was well known to have been David’s intimate friend and confident, and not so established in the interest of Absalom, and such a sworn friend of his as Ahithophel was; this can only be ascribed to the will of God, to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel, and the wisdom of divine Providence in blinding the mind of Absalom, and inclining it to take Hushai’s opinion: “and let us hear likewise what he saith,”—which he might say without any diffidence about the counsel given, but knowing that “in the multitude of counsellors there is safety,” Proverbs 11:14. Hushai being a wise and good counsellor, Absalom might hope and expect that he would give the same advice and so strengthen and confirm it.
THE EDITOR: Now came Hushai’s “time to speak.” Hushai audaciously contradicted Ahithopel’s counsel as being bad advice—not in itself, but particularly “at this time.” Next, he marshalled his logical arguments like regiments lined up for battle. He cited the military skill of David and all David’s mighty men—men like Joab, Abishai, and the others who were with him, noting that they were bitterly angry and ready for a fight. Then he suggested that they would be waiting in ambush for Ahithopel’s expeditionary force, and if it were defeated, Absalom’s own position would be in grave danger. Therefore, he advised prudent caution.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Hushai was obviously “playing for time.” The slower Absalom was in moving, the more time would David have for putting greater distance between himself and Jerusalem, to increase his own forces, and to select to best advantage the site for the coming conflict. We are shown here that “pride goeth before destruction,” Proverbs 16:18. It was this very detail which issued in Absalom’s losing his own life.
THE EDITOR: Having stoked Absalom’s fears by dangling a threat of imminent disaster, Hushai now baited his hook by appealing to Absalom’s vain-glorious ambitions; he described a scene of Absalom riding to battle at the head of all Israel and gaining the victory himself—on the tantalizing barb of satisfying his own lusts, his fish was fatally hooked. No supernatural miracle was performed here; God simply answered David’s prayer by using Hushai’s plausible arguments to convince Absalom to act according to his own inclinations. “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand,” Proverbs 19:21
A. W. PINK: Had Absalom followed Ahithophel’s counsel, he would have remained at Jerusalem; but by accepting the advice of Hushai, he went forth to his death. How true it is that “God taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong,” Job 5:13. No doubt Absalom was priding himself in his prudence by obtaining the advice of both these experienced counsellors, yet that was the very thing that led to his destruction. Such a plan seemed to guarantee success without any risk at all—“There is safety in numbers” would be their comforting slogan. Folly often prevails over wisdom in the counsels of princes and in the houses of legislators. Why? Because God has appointed the rejection of sound counsel in order to bring on nations the vengeance which their crimes call down from heaven. It is thus that God rules the world by His providence…It was so here in Jerusalem long ago; it is so, just as actually, now—in London, Washington, Paris, Moscow, Berlin, and Rome.
THE EDITOR: So it is also in Beijing, Pyongyang, Havana, Tehran, Beirut, and Gaza.
A. W. PINK: Surely there are no darker places than the conference chambers of politicians: God “setteth up over the kingdom of men, the basest of men,” Daniel 4:17, where His claims and the interests of His people are either totally ignored or blatantly defied. Yet even there the Most High is supreme and has His way. Only so far are they allowed to go in their evil schemings.
MATTHEW HENRY: God can soon nonplus the deepest politicians and bring the greatest wits to their wits’ end, to show that wherein they deal proudly, He is above them, Exodus 18:11. Thus are the revolutions of kingdoms wonderfully brought about by an overruling Providence.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): There is no contending with that God who can arm a man against himself, and destroy him by his own mistakes and passions, without any other help.
THE EDITOR: “And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed—he put his household in order, and hanged himself; and Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him,” 2 Samuel 17:23,24.