Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of 2 Samuel
Chapter 17: The LORD Had Appointed to Defeat the Good Counsel
Ahithophel's shrewd advice would have finished David that very night, but God had other plans. Through Hushai's counsel, the LORD Himself defeats the wisest head in Israel to save His anointed. Ahithophel, his counsel spurned, goes home and hangs himself, and David is preserved and provided for in the wilderness.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of 2 Samuel chapter 17. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Chapter 17 shows God overruling the counsel of the wise to preserve His king, and the tragic end of the betrayer. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
The LORD Defeats Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:1-14)
Ahithophel urges a swift strike, but God turns Absalom to Hushai's slower counsel, to bring evil upon the rebel.
The Counsel of Hushai Is Better
"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."
Word Study
"the LORD had appointed to defeat," Hebrew tsavah (צִוָּה), "to command, ordain, appoint." The decisive verse is a window into heaven: "the LORD had appointed (tsavah, commanded, ordained) to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom." Humanly, Ahithophel's plan was excellent, a swift night strike on the weary David would likely have ended the war. Hushai's counsel of delay was persuasive but militarily inferior; yet Absalom chose it. Why? Because God had decreed it. This is the direct answer to David's prayer, "O LORD, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness" (chapter 15:31). God can make the wisest counsel seem unconvincing and the weaker counsel prevail, turning hearts as He wills, "the king's heart is in the hand of the LORD" (Proverbs 21:1). No cleverness of man can stand when God has purposed otherwise; "there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD" (Proverbs 21:30). Behind the debate in Absalom's court, the true decision was being made in heaven, and God was answering the prayer of His hunted servant.
Explanation
Ahithophel gives Absalom brilliant advice: let him take twelve thousand men and strike David at once, this very night, while he is weary and weak, killing only the king and bringing the people back peacefully. The plan pleases Absalom and the elders. But Absalom, providentially, also calls for Hushai. Hushai, David's secret ally, cunningly argues that Ahithophel's plan is too risky, David and his mighty men are dangerous and hidden; better to gather all Israel first and overwhelm him with numbers, with Absalom leading in person. The flattering vision of a grand, sure victory wins the day: Absalom and the elders judge Hushai's counsel better. The narrator lifts the veil on why: "the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel," to bring ruin on Absalom. God has answered David's prayer and, behind the scenes, turned the tide of the war.
Gospel Focus
This chapter pulls back the curtain to show God ruling over the counsels of men. David had prayed that Ahithophel's advice be turned to foolishness, and here, unseen, God answered, making sound counsel seem unconvincing so that His purpose might stand. The wisest human strategy is powerless when God has decreed otherwise. This is enormous comfort to the people of God: the plans of the enemy, however shrewd, cannot prevail against the Lord's purpose for His own. "The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations" (Psalm 33:11). When you have prayed and committed your cause to God, you may rest, for He can turn kings' hearts and confound the counsel of the mighty to save His people. What looked like a mere palace debate was God defeating the enemy and preserving His anointed. Trust the God who overrules every scheme, and who answers the prayers of His hunted, humbled servants in ways they cannot see.
David Warned and Delivered (2 Samuel 17:15-22)
Through a chain of faithful messengers and a brave woman, the warning reaches David, and he escapes across Jordan.
Arise, and Pass Quickly Over the Water
"Then said Hushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled. Now 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. Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by Enrogel; 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. 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; whither they went down. And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known. And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And 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. 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 unto David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you. Then 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."
Word Study
God's providence working through a chain of faithful and unlikely helpers. The warning reaches David not by a miracle but through a chain of ordinary, faithful people, each risking much. Hushai relays the counsel to the priests Zadok and Abiathar; their sons Jonathan and Ahimaaz wait secretly at Enrogel; a servant girl (a "wench") carries the message; and when the young men are nearly caught, a brave woman of Bahurim hides them in a well and covers it with grain, throwing off the pursuers with a quick word. By this human relay David is warned in time to cross Jordan by morning, "there lacked not one." It is a beautiful picture of how God ordinarily works, not usually by spectacular intervention, but through the courage and faithfulness of many hands, great and small, named and unnamed. The girl and the woman of Bahurim will never be famous, yet the LORD's anointed was saved partly by their nerve. God delights to preserve His people through the humble faithfulness of ordinary servants; "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love" (Hebrews 6:10). No faithful act in His cause is too small to matter.
Explanation
Hushai, not knowing whether Absalom might still follow Ahithophel's advice, prudently sends the whole situation to David through the secret line arranged in chapter 15. He tells the priests to warn David not to linger but to cross the Jordan at once. Their sons, Jonathan and Ahimaaz, waiting outside the city, receive the message from a servant girl and set out, but are spotted. Fleeing to Bahurim, they hide in a courtyard well, and the woman of the house covers it and sends the pursuers off in the wrong direction. Once the danger passes, they emerge and deliver the urgent word to David. David and all his people cross the Jordan overnight, and by daybreak not one is left behind. The delay God engineered through Hushai has given David just enough time; he is safe across the river, out of Absalom's immediate reach.
Gospel Focus
God's deliverance of David came through a chain of faithful people, most of them obscure. The priests, their sons, a servant girl, a quick-thinking woman, each played a small part, and together they saved the king. This is how the LORD usually works His purposes: not by lightning from heaven, but through the courage and faithfulness of ordinary believers doing their part. Never despise the small, hidden service; the woman of Bahurim covering a well may seem a footnote, but without her David might have died. In the kingdom of God, "the members should have the same care one for another" (1 Corinthians 12:25), and every faithful hand matters. And behind all these human links stands the God who preserves His own, weaving providence through willing servants. If you feel your service is unseen or insignificant, take heart: the God who used a servant girl to save His anointed sees and remembers every labor of love, and He is working His great purposes through your small faithfulness.
Ahithophel's Death and David's Provision (2 Samuel 17:23-29)
Ahithophel hangs himself, and at Mahanaim loyal friends generously provide for the weary David.
He Put His Household in Order, and Hanged Himself
"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. Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab's mother. So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead. And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, Brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse, And 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."
Word Study
"hanged himself," Hebrew chanaq (חָנַק), "to strangle, hang." Ahithophel, seeing his counsel rejected and rightly foreseeing Absalom's coming defeat, coldly orders his affairs and "hanged (chanaq) himself." He is one of only two men in Scripture who die this way, and the other is Judas Iscariot (Matthew 27:5). The parallel is striking and surely intended: Ahithophel, David's trusted counselor who "did eat of my bread" and yet "lifted up his heel against me" (Psalm 41:9), betrayed the LORD's anointed and ended by his own hand; so Judas, one of the twelve who dipped in the same dish, betrayed the greater David and hanged himself. Betrayal of the King leads to a dark and self-destroying end. In stark contrast, the same section shows the kindness of loyal friends, Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai, who lavishly provision the weary David at Mahanaim. Two responses to the rejected king stand side by side: the betrayer who perishes, and the faithful who minister to him in his need. "The way of transgressors is hard" (Proverbs 13:15), but "he that watereth shall be watered also himself" (Proverbs 11:25).
Explanation
Ahithophel, the brilliant counselor whose advice was once esteemed as the oracle of God, cannot bear that his counsel was spurned, and, reading the doom now coming on Absalom's cause, he goes home, sets his affairs in order, and hangs himself. Meanwhile David reaches Mahanaim east of the Jordan, and Absalom crosses over in pursuit with his army, having replaced Joab with Amasa as commander. At Mahanaim, three men, Shobi (an Ammonite), Machir (who had sheltered Mephibosheth), and old Barzillai the Gileadite, come to David's aid, bringing beds, vessels, and abundant food for the hungry, weary, thirsty company in the wilderness. So the chapter closes with the betrayer dead by his own hand and the true king sustained by the generosity of faithful friends, the two ends of loyalty and treachery laid side by side.
Gospel Focus
Ahithophel's end is a solemn foreshadowing of Judas: the trusted intimate who betrays the LORD's anointed and perishes by his own hand. Betrayal of the King is a road that ends in darkness; "it had been good for that man if he had not been born" (Matthew 26:24). Let every heart beware of the Ahithophel spirit, using nearness to the King for one's own ends, and turning against Him when self-interest calls. Yet set against the betrayer are the faithful, Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai, who ministered to the rejected king in his need, and their kindness is remembered and rewarded (David would later honor Barzillai, chapter 19). To minister to the King in His humiliation is never forgotten; "inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these... ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40). Which are you, the betrayer who uses the King, or the servant who ministers to Him and His people in the wilderness? One road ends in a lonely rope; the other in the King's own remembrance and reward.
Chapter 17 in Review
2 Samuel 17 shows God ruling over the counsels of men to save His king. Ahithophel's shrewd advice, to strike the weary David that very night, would likely have ended the war; but God turned Absalom to Hushai's inferior counsel of delay, "for the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel," answering David's prayer. Through a chain of faithful helpers, priests, their sons, a servant girl, and a brave woman of Bahurim, the warning reaches David, who crosses the Jordan by morning, not one left behind. Ahithophel, his counsel spurned and Absalom's doom foreseen, goes home and hangs himself. And at Mahanaim, loyal friends lavishly provide for the weary king.
For the Apostolic reader, the chapter is a testament to God's overruling providence. The wisest human counsel cannot stand when God has decreed otherwise; He turns hearts and confounds the mighty to preserve His own, often through the humble faithfulness of ordinary servants. Ahithophel's suicide foreshadows Judas, the intimate betrayer of the King who perishes by his own hand, while the generosity of Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai shows the blessedness of ministering to the rejected King. Two roads diverge, betrayal that ends in darkness, and faithful service that the King remembers and rewards.
- "The LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel", God overrules the wisdom of the wise.
- This was God's answer to David's prayer; no counsel stands against the LORD.
- David was saved through a chain of ordinary, faithful helpers; no small service in God's cause is forgotten.
- Ahithophel's suicide foreshadows Judas; betraying the King ends in darkness, but ministering to Him is rewarded.
Questions for Reflection
- Do you rest in the God who can defeat the enemy's wisest plans and answer your prayers unseen?
- Do you value the small, hidden acts of faithfulness by which God so often works?
- Are you an Ahithophel who uses the King, or a Barzillai who ministers to Him in His need?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The LORD defeats Ahithophel's counsel; God overrules the wise: 2 Samuel 17:1-14; 2 Samuel 15:31; Proverbs 21:1; Proverbs 21:30; Psalm 33:11.
- David warned through faithful helpers; God's providence in small service: 2 Samuel 17:15-22; Hebrews 6:10; 1 Corinthians 12:25.
- Ahithophel's suicide foreshadowing Judas; ministering to the King: 2 Samuel 17:23-29; Psalm 41:9; Matthew 27:5; Matthew 26:24; Proverbs 11:25; Matthew 25:40.