The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 411

wholB is the man 1nhom tliou, seelcest. Both too practised El soldier to let liimBolf ho sur- the amendments of the text and the various prised. In his adventures with Saul he and translations offered are innumerable, but his men had been trained to hold largo nothing is really moro satisfactory than the bodies of pursuors at bay, 1tnd ovade them. litoral ronduring of the words, virtually given The men, too, who were with him were war- us in the Authorized Version. Natnrally, riors of despere.te valour, whose first thought Ahithophel did not wish to parado David's would be_ the king's personal safety, and to death too openly. In his heo.rt Absalom ensure this they would conceal him in some must he.ve known that the safe possession of pit, some cave orravine, safe and inaccessible the kingdom could be assured him only by by nature; or in some place (omit the in- his father's death, but yet he might have serted word "other"), that is, in some camp- shrunk from publicly avowing this, and ing-place, made strong with ramparts, so ae having it talked of before his courtiers e.s a to resist the first attack. "To smite the settled purpose. One reason why he adopted king only" is, therefore, an impossibility; the counsel of Huslie.i may have been his and if the attack fail, and David's mightics, reluctance to commit parricide ; for plainly in their irritation, slaughter a large number the one me.in purpose of Ahithophel we.a of their assailants, and a pa.nic he the result, David's death. This thorough traitor may men will hesitate before they attack such he.ve seen even a tremor of alo.rm in Absa.- redoubtable champions a second time. A lom's countenance when he spake out his check is fatal to a rebellion, and Absalom purpose so frankly of "smiting the king was staking his chance on one hasty en- only," and may have felt the.t, slumbering in counter. Better leave the decision to all the bosom of the son, was something of tha.t Israel. Their hearts were with A bsalom, generous spirit which had made the father and, when there has been time for them to condemn the Amalekite to death for boasting gather in their thousands, success is certain. that he had slain Saul. At all events, he Their numbers will be countless aa the sands was unwilling to dilate upon so ghastly a on the shore, or as the dew upon the grass; theme, and this general reference to David, while David and his heroes will shrink to so as the me.n whom Abee.lorn sought, without small a body as to be scarcely able to man dwelling upon the subject, is in far better the walls of one small city. And fighting taste than the coarse open villainy so unre- there will be none; for the myriads of Lrael servedly expressed in ver. 2. The reading, will drag city and fugitives with ropes down however, of~ the Septuagint has many fol- into the nearest torrent-bed, where the next lowers : " And I will bring back all the floods will wash all away. There was more people to thee as a bride returns to her in this tha.n an appeal to Absalom's vanity. husband, excepting the lifo of the one man If all Israel did take bis side, then David's thou seekest; and for e.11 the people there cause would soon be hopeless, and there she.11 be peace." Abit.hophel was bad enough, would be no need of parricide. David's but sce.rcely so brutal as to compare to a death would be the act of Israel, and not of bridal procession the sad return of David's Absalom. Evidently Absa.lom believed that mourning friends and companions-in-arms all Israel was on his side, a.nd his success weeping round the corpse of their master hitherto had been so rapid as e.lmost to murdered at the bidding of his own son. justify the assumption. To us this success Ver. 4.-All the elders of Israel. Their is almost unaccountable, but it suggests that presence seems to show that Absa.lom pro- there were great faults in David's adminis- fessed to act in an orderly e.nd constitutiona.l tration. Yet even so we wonder at the ma.nner, and with the e.dvice of those in existence of such genera.I dissatisfaction. authority. It was possibly this wish to keep At this time. A wrong translation. The up appearances which me.de him command Hebrew is, Ahithopliel' s counsel this time is Hushai to be summoned, as he we.s one whose not good, whereas last time, wha.t he advised advice would eerte.inlv have been asked had about the concubines was good. matters gone on in their ordinary cha.nnel. Ver. 9.-When some of them be over- So again in vers. 14, 15, Abse.lom acts only thrown at the first; Hebrew, in the falling with the popular consent. Very proba.bly on them; thC1t is, at the first onslE1ught of the royal power was gradually superseding David's champions. Even though over- llie.t of the tribal authorities, o.nd this may powered fineJly by force of numbers, they have ma.de David unpopular with many of are sure to make a lC1rge slaughter at first. the grea.t noLles. Absalom would thus go.in which may ea.sily lead to a panic. many adherents by associating "elders" and Ver. 11.-And that thou go to battle in "men of Israel" with him in his counoils. thine own person; Ii terally, and that thy Ver. 7.-And :e:uehe.i ea.id. Hushai gives presence go to the battle. Tho versious have his e.dvice with mueh Oriente.l exaggeration, preserved a much better rclltliug, ·• And such as ought to have put Absalom on his that thy prescnco go in the midst of them." guard. His main points aro that David was Ver. 12.-In some place; Hebrew, fa 011e II, SAMUEL, 2 E  418 THE SECOND DOOK OF SAMUEL. [ell, XVII, 1-20.