Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
Chapter 17. Synopsis of the Chapter
Achitophel gives Absalom crafty and useful counsel; but Chusai scatters it, and, verse 15, has it reported to David, that he may provide for himself by flight and cross the Jordan. Wherefore, verse 22, David crosses it, and Absalom follows. Soon, verse 27, Sobi, Machir and Berzellai bring provisions to David’s camp.
1. Moreover Achitophel said to Absalom: I will choose me twelve thousand men, and will arise and pursue after David this night. 2. And coming upon him (for he is weary and weak-handed) I shall strike him; and when all the people that are with him shall flee, I will kill the king, who will be left alone. 3. And I will bring back all the people, as if they were one man; for thou seekest but one man, and all the people shall be in peace. 4. And his saying pleased Absalom, and all the ancients of Israel. 5. But Absalom said: Call Chusai the Arachite, and let us hear what he also saith. 6. And when Chusai was come to Absalom, Absalom said to him: Achitophel hath spoken after this manner: Ought we to do it, or not? what counsel dost thou give? 7. And Chusai said to Absalom: The counsel that Achitophel hath given this time is not good. 8. And again Chusai said: Thou knowest thy father, and the men that are with him, that they are very valiant, and bitter in mind, as a bear raging in the wood when her whelps are taken away; and thy father is a warrior, and will not lodge with the people. 9. Perhaps now he lieth hid in pits, or in some other place where he pleaseth; and if any one fall at the first onset, every one that heareth it will say: There is a slaughter among the people that followed Absalom. 10. And the most valiant man, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall be struck with fear; for all the people of Israel know thy father to be a valiant man, and all that are with him to be stout. 11. But this seemeth to me to be good counsel: Let all Israel be gathered to thee, from Dan to Bersabee, as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered; and thou shalt be in the midst of them. 12. And we shall come upon him in what place soever he shall be found, and we shall cover him as the dew falleth upon the ground; and we shall not leave of the men that are with him so much as one. 13. And if he shall enter into any city, all Israel shall bring ropes round about that city, and we will draw it into the river, so that there shall not be found so much as one small stone thereof. 14. And Absalom and all the men of Israel said: The counsel of Chusai the Arachite is better than the counsel of Achitophel; and by the will of the Lord the profitable counsel of Achitophel was defeated, that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. 15. And Chusai said to Sadoc and Abiathar the priests: Thus and thus did Achitophel give counsel to Absalom, and the ancients of Israel; and I gave such and such counsel. 16. Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying: Tarry not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but without delay pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that is with him. 17. And Jonathan and Achimaas stayed by the fountain Rogel; and a maidservant went and told them, and they went to carry the news to king David; for they could not be seen, nor enter into the city. 18. But a certain boy saw them, and told Absalom; but they made haste, and entered into the house of a certain man in Bahurim, who had a well in his court, and they went down into it. 19. And a woman took, and spread a covering over the mouth of the well, as if drying hulled barley; and so the thing was hid. 20. And when Absalom’s servants were come into the house, they said to the woman: Where are Achimaas and Jonathan? And the woman answered them: They passed on in haste, after tasting a little water. And they who sought them, not finding them, returned to Jerusalem. 21. And when they were gone, they came up out of the well, and going on told king David, and said: Arise, and pass quickly over the river, for Achitophel hath given such counsel against you. 22. Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over the Jordan, till it was light; and there was not one missing that was not gone over the river. 23. But Achitophel, seeing that his counsel was not followed, saddled his ass, and arose and went home to his house and to his city; and putting his house in order, he hanged himself, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father. 24. And David came to the camp, and Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. 25. And Absalom appointed Amasa instead of Joab over the army; now Amasa was the son of a man who was called Jetra of Jezrahel, who went in to Abigail the daughter of Naas, the sister of Sarvia, who was the mother of Joab. 26. And Israel camped with Absalom in the land of Galaad. 27. And when David was come to the camp, Sobi the son of Naas of Rabbath of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodabar, and Berzellai the Galaadite of Rogelim, 28. Brought him beds, and tapestry, and earthen vessels, wheat, and barley, and meal, and parched corn, and beans, and lentils, and fried pulse, 29. And honey, and butter, sheep, and fat calves, and gave to David, and to the people that were with him, to eat; for they suspected that the people were faint with hunger and thirst in the wilderness.
1. I WILL PURSUE AFTER DAVID.—This was useful counsel. For if Achitophel had pursued the fleeing David immediately, with picked soldiers, he would certainly have overwhelmed him unarmed, forsaken and unprepared: but when, at Chusai’s persuasion, delay intervened, David called together his subjects from all sides, armed them, drew them up in line, and so, joining battle with the raw people of Absalom, laid him low. For speed in wars is worth very much. Whence that saying of Julius Caesar: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” And that of Charles V: “I came, I saw, but Christ conquered.” Hear Caesar himself fighting against Pompey, in Lucan, book 1:
While the parties tremble, with no firm strength to steady them, Away with delays: delay has ever harmed the prepared.
For when, as Plutarch narrates in his Roman Apophthegms, Pompey had ordered his drawn-up line at Pharsalus to stand there and await the enemy, Caesar said that he had erred, who had relaxed by delay the force, impetus and divine afflatus of minds prepared for the charge.
Even if we invade David’s camp, as Achitophel advises, perhaps we shall not find him, because he will have hidden himself in caves; for he knows that he is sought by thee, and cannot resist thee. Let us delay, therefore, until we gather all Israel, who, with the lines distributed, may search through all the mountains, valleys, woods, caves and dens, besiege and take him.
11. LET ALL ISRAEL BE GATHERED TO THEE.—Chusai did not want this, but he put it forward as a pretext for his opinion, that delay might be given David to flee and prepare for battle. Let princes learn politically here that rebellion and sedition are to be guarded against by every reason and means, and care taken that they do not arise; but if once arisen and kindled, delays and hindrances are to be cast in their way; both because the fury of the people and the ardour of minds languish and subside with time; and because the prince can meanwhile fortify and arm himself against it, and seize on many counsels to scatter it. I could show this by many examples. I will bring only that of Fabius Maximus, who, from the delay which he cast in the way of the tumultuous, and especially of Hannibal eager and burning for battle, was surnamed Cunctator, of whom that saying:
One man by delaying restored the state to us.
For he himself, as Plutarch says in his Life, “when he understood that the enemy laboured under difficulty of pay, judged that the Romans should delay, and not fight with a man who had an army hardened for that very purpose by many battles; but that auxiliaries should be sent to the allies, and the towns held in power, till that vigour of Hannibal’s of itself, like a little flame raised by a light force, should wither.” Hear again what Julius Frontinus writes of him, book 6 of the Stratagems, chapter 1: “Fabius Maximus, not ignorant that the Gauls and Samnites prevail at the first onset, but that the unwearied spirits of his own men grow even hotter during the delays of fighting, ordered the soldiers to be content to sustain the first encounter, that they might weary the enemy by delay; which when it succeeded, reinforcement being also brought up to his men, he overwhelmed with all his forces and routed the enemy in the first line.” So Chusai here, casting delays in the way of Absalom’s rebellion, scattered it.
13. ...—It is a hyperbole signifying the greatness of forces and army, as if to say: We shall gather so great a number of the people, so great forces, that we can encircle a city with ropes (so to speak) and draw it into ruin.
14. AND BY THE WILL OF THE LORD THE PROFITABLE COUNSEL OF ACHITOPHEL WAS DEFEATED.—In what way God did this I said in chapter 14, verse 31.
15. AND CHUSAI SAID TO SADOC AND ABIATHAR THE PRIESTS,—namely the highest, that is, the Pontiffs; there were then two Pontiffs, namely Sadoc, descended from Eleazar the firstborn son of Aaron, and Abiathar, descended from Heli and Ithamar, the younger son of Aaron: wherefore Sadoc was the superior and more worthy, whence he is always placed before Abiathar. I gave the cause above.