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2 Samuel 17 Bible study: Two counsels
In one verse the book calls Ahithophel's counsel good and says the LORD had ordained to defeat it (17:14), with the same Hebrew verb David used when he sent Hushai back (15:34); and by morning not one of David's people was left who hadn't crossed the Jordan (17:22).
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“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 ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil on Absalom.”
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“In 2 Samuel 17:14, the book calls Ahithophel's counsel good.”
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What's really going on
Two counsels
Ahithophel's counsel is short. "Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight" (17:1). "I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will make him afraid. All the people who are with him will flee. I will strike the king only" (17:2) (tap only), "and I will bring back all the people to you" (17:3). "The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel" (17:4). Then Absalom asks for a second voice: "Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let’s hear likewise what he says" (17:5). Hushai's counsel is long. Set beside Ahithophel's, it differs point by point. Ahithophel wanted twelve thousand men tonight (17:1); Hushai counsels "that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude" (17:11) (tap sand). Ahithophel would strike the king only (17:2); Hushai says, "we will not leave so much as one of him and of all the men who are with him" (17:12). Ahithophel would go himself: "I will arise and pursue" (17:1). Hushai asks "that you go to battle in your own person" (17:11).
Where it leads to Jesus
One man for the people
2 Samuel 17:2leads toJohn 11:50
Ahithophel counseled Absalom, "I will strike the king only" (17:2), "and I will bring back all the people to you" (17:3), and "All the people shall be in peace" (17:3). When the chief priests and the Pharisees "gathered a council" (John 11:47) about Jesus, Caiaphas said, "it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish" (John 11:50). John adds, "Now he didn’t say this of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation" (John 11:51), "and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad" (John 11:52). John doesn't cite 2 Samuel 17, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some see a likeness in the counsel: in each, a counselor sets one man against all the people, the one to fall and the people to be kept (17:2-3; John 11:50). Others read each on its own terms: Ahithophel's counsel was to strike David, the king, for Absalom (17:1-3), and "the LORD had ordained to defeat" it (17:14); Caiaphas answered a council afraid that "the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation" (John 11:48), and John reads his words as a prophecy he didn't speak of himself, of Jesus' death for the nation and for the scattered children of God (John 11:51-52).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 2 Samuel 17
That was a taste
The rest of 2 Samuel 17 is waiting in Favor
- The LORD had ordained
- Word gets through
- Food for the weary
- Counsel brought to nothing
- Remembered later
- 11 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
עֵצָה'etsahsay e-TSAH
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "counsel, advice". Strong's: "advice; by implication, plan". This is the chapter's word: it comes five times in the Hebrew of this chapter, and ten times in 2 Samuel, all in chapters 15-17. Hushai opens with it: "The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good" (17:7). Then 17:14 has it three times: "The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel", and "the LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel" (17:14). A chapter before, the book said, "The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the inner sanctuary of God" (16:23). Proverbs uses the word in "There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD" (Proverbs 21:30).
For your group
2 Samuel 17 Bible study questions
- 1Absalom heard two counsels and chose the one that called for all Israel and had him "go to battle in your own person" (17:11). What makes advice attractive to you, and how do you tell good counsel from counsel that simply pleases you?
- 2The word reached David through a female servant, two young men, and a woman with a covering and some grain (17:17-19). Where has someone's small, unseen faithfulness made a difference for you?
- 3Three men said, "The people are hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness" (17:29), and brought what was needed. Who around you is weary right now, and what could you bring them?
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home