Poole on 2 Samuel 17:1-4: The Deadly Counsel of Ahithophel

Verse 1:[1]  Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night…

[I will choose for myself twelve thousand]  That is to say, Grant to me the authority to choose (Vatablus); out of that multitude, which Absalom had brought with himself from Hebron (Sanchez).  Advice briefly stated:  he posits the thing and the causes of the thing.  And he is so confident in his counsel, that he himself is willing to put it to the test (Martyr).

Let me, etc.:  I am so well assured of the goodness of this counsel, that I will venture my own person and life in execution of it.

[I will this night pursue]  1.  To instill dread; 2.  for swiftness (Martyr).  It is frequently asked in wars, Whether it is better to hasten to wage war, or to await larger armies; the Othonians are remembered for just such a deliberation, Tacticus’ Histories 2.[2]  Now, this was undoubtedly the day for the legitimate King:  First, flight from the city had undoubtedly instilled a great fear in those following him; with which being recent he was easily able to be overwhelmed.  Then, that was having place here, which the same Tacitus has in Histories 1, Let him give space for the repentance of evil men, and for the consent of good men:  for wickedness grows in strength through rashness, but good counsels through delays.  Livy:  There are never going to be wanting those that want the favor of the better part sought for the public good[3] (Grotius).  This counsel was advantageous and opportune (Sanchez, Lapide):  Occasion means more in war than in virtue, says Vegetius, Military Institutions of the Romans[4] 3:28.  Cæsar said of Pompey, Victory was in the hands of the enemy today, if he had known how to make use of it (Martyr).  If they had immediately pursued David, they would have fallen upon him defenseless, deserted, and unprepared (Lapide).

Verse 2:[5]  And I will come upon him while he is (see Deut. 25:18; 2 Sam. 16:14) weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid:  and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will (Zech. 13:7) smite the king only…

[He is weary]  He was perceiving this clearly.  He was weighed down, 1.  by vexation of soul; 2.  by the toil of the journey; 3.  by scarcity of supplies.  But he was not considering that God was able to refresh David, etc. (Martyr).

[He is of slack hands (thus Pagnine, Montanus, Syriac, Jonathan, similarly the Septuagint), ‎וּרְפֵ֣ה יָדַ֔יִם]  And weak in hands, that is, with a slack spirit; that is to say, whom I will find weary and relaxed (Vatablus).  His former strength is not available to him.  The hand signifies strength (Martyr).

Weary and weak-handed; tired with a tedious march on foot, and destitute of men and military provisions; and disheartened by his own small numbers, and by the general defection of his subjects.

[I will smite him]  Hebrew:  I will make him afraid[6] (Martyr, similarly Malvenda), by my sudden arrival.  It was also night, and he was seeing that many defected (Martyr).

Verse 3:[7]  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 I will bring back, etc.]  This verse is quite difficult.  The Septuagint is not able to be reconciled with the text;[8] nor the Vulgate, although it comes closer[9] (Dieu).

[‎כְּשׁ֣וּב הַכֹּ֔ל הָאִישׁ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אַתָּ֣ה מְבַקֵּ֔שׁ כָּל־הָעָ֖ם יִהְיֶ֥ה שָׁלֽוֹם׃]  [They render it variously:]  According to the returning of every man, whom thou sleekest, etc. (Montanus); when is brought back every man that thou seekest, etc. (certain interpreters in Dieu).  It does not satisfy; for, 1.  הַכֹּ֔ל/all by the accent, the Zaqeph Gadol ( ֔ ), is distinguished, so that it might not cohere with the following הָאִישׁ/man.  2.  It would have had to have been expressed in this way, כָּל־הָאִישׁ, every man, not הַכֹּל־הָאִישׁ, just as twice in this verse it is said, ‎כָּל־הָעָם, all the people:  for, just as among the Arabs and Syrians, so among the Hebrews, כָּל־ is used substantively, and governs the other substantive in the Genitive; neither does it then admit an emphatic ה [10] before itself (Dieu).  [But the Syriac and Arabic appear to neglect the accent in their versions, thus translating it, as if every one whom thou desirest was returning (Syriac); just as the whole people turned back, whomever thou willest and desirest (Arabic):  So also some others:]  Whensoever every man will have returned, just as thou art seeking, etc. (Osiander).  (Whensoever all the men that thou desirest will have been returned to thee, there shall be peace, etc.) (Tigurinus).  [They enclose in parentheses.]  After all will have been returned to thee, just as thou desirest, the whole people shall live in peace (Strigelius).  [Others separate הַכֹּל/all from הָאִישׁ, the man, and make an Ellipsis:]  And, when all will have returned, and thou wilt have killed the man whom thou art seeking…the people shall be in peace (Pagnine, similarly Jonathan, as Kimchi testifies in Dieu).  Just as if I were returning whatever thing; and when I will have smitten the man that thou art seeking, etc. (Munster).  Just as is returned every thing that a man wisheth to bring back to himself, so easily will it be to me to bring back to thee all the people (Kimchi in Dieu).  The man that thou art seeking, understanding, let thy petition be concerning him, and he shall be killed (Rabbi Salomon in Dieu).  But such Ellipses are not vainly to be devised (Dieu).  When all will have returned, the man that thou art seeking shall come into thy power.  Others, with the order reversed, the man that thou art seeking shall be regarded as the returning of all, that is, the killing of David will be the reason why all are returned, etc.  Others likewise, with the order of the sayings reversed, and when all will have been returned, the whole people will be in peace (that is, saved); for he whom thou art seeking is the very man, that is, the head and captain of the people:  that is, thou art seeking the prince alone (Vatablus).  The restoration of all things, as it were, is the man that thou art seeking (Junius and Tremellius).  But restoration would be הֵשִׁיב, in the Hiphil, while שׁוּב here is in the Qal; and הַכֹּל/all is rather to be referred to persons, concerning whom it is here treated, than to things (Dieu).  The returning of all, as it were, is a man, or he, whom thou art seeking (Piscator, Dieu out of Rabbi Levi and the Geneva).  Or, he is as if all returned (English, Rabbi Levi in Dieu), for the killing of David draws this along with itself, that all are returned to thee, etc. (Rabbi Levi in Dieu).  Or it is able to be translated in this way, when all are returned, whoever that thou art seeking, the whole people shall be safe.  The הָאִישׁ, the man, is taken for whoever, even with the emphatic ה, as in Psalm 1:1, Blessed is the man, הָאִישׁ, that is, whoever, etc. (Dieu).  The sense:  one shall die, the multitude shall be spared (Martyr).  Civil war is often ended by the blood of one man.  Thus, with Piso killed, the mind in all solicitude was lifted to Otho.[11]  But that especially has place, when the nearest to the succession of the kingdom does not suffer the kingdom to be detained by the old age of the father.  For, such an one is absolved by the very crime for which he should have been condemned.  Success makes certain crimes honest[12] (Grotius).  He promises peace to himself, as the impious are wont to do:  but the matter falls out far otherwise (Martyr).

The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned, that is, the death of that man whom thou seekest to destroy is no less considerable to thee, than if all the people that follow him should desert him and return unto thee.

Verse 4:[13]  And the saying pleased (Heb. was right in the eyes of,[14] etc.; 1 Sam. 18:20[15]) Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.

[And it pleased, etc.]  Hebrew:  it was right.  What things are right please (Vatablus).

[1] Hebrew: ‎וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֲחִיתֹ֖פֶל אֶל־אַבְשָׁלֹ֑ם אֶבְחֲרָ֣ה נָּ֗א שְׁנֵים־עָשָׂ֥ר אֶ֙לֶף֙ אִ֔ישׁ וְאָק֛וּמָה וְאֶרְדְּפָ֥ה אַחֲרֵי־דָוִ֖ד הַלָּֽיְלָה׃

[2] In 69 AD, Emperor Otho’s forces engaged Vitellius’ troops in northern Italy.  However, there was a division among Otho’s generals, whether they ought to press the fighting to a conclusion, or to delay until additional troops could arrive.  Otho chose the former, with disastrous consequences.

[3] History of Rome 2:44.

[4] Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus was a fourth century author.  He wrote Military Institutions of the Romans (De Re Militari).

[5] Hebrew:  ‎וְאָב֣וֹא עָלָ֗יו וְה֤וּא יָגֵ֙עַ֙ וּרְפֵ֣ה יָדַ֔יִם וְהַֽחֲרַדְתִּ֣י אֹת֔וֹ וְנָ֖ס כָּל־הָעָ֣ם אֲשֶׁר־אִתּ֑וֹ וְהִכֵּיתִ֥י אֶת־הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ לְבַדּֽוֹ׃

[6] 2 Samuel 17:2:  “And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid (‎וְהַחֲרַדְתִּי; percutiam, I will smite, in the Vulgate):  and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite (‎וְהִכֵּיתִי; percutiam, I will smite, in the Vulgate) the king only…”

[7] Hebrew:  ‎וְאָשִׁ֥יבָה כָל־הָעָ֖ם אֵלֶ֑יךָ כְּשׁ֣וּב הַכֹּ֔ל הָאִישׁ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אַתָּ֣ה מְבַקֵּ֔שׁ כָּל־הָעָ֖ם יִהְיֶ֥ה שָׁלֽוֹם׃

[8] The Septuagint:  Καὶ ἐπιστρέψω πάντα τὸν λαὸν πρὸς σέ, ὃν τρόπον ἐπιστρέφει ἡ νύμφη πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα αὐτῆς· πλὴν ψυχὴν ἑνὸς ἀνδρὸς σὺ ζητεῖς, καὶ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ ἔσται εἰρήνη, and I will return all the people to thee, as a bride returns to her husband:  only thou seekest the life of one man, and all the people shall have peace.

[9] The Vulgate:  Et reducam universum populum, quomodo unus homo reverti solet:  unum enim virum tu quaeris:  et omnis populus erit in pace, and I will bring back all the people, as one man is wont to be returned:  for thou sleekest but one man:  and all the people shall be in peace.

[10] The definite article.

[11] In 69 AD, Galba chose Piso Licinianus as his successor.  Shortly thereafter, Galba was killed with Piso, and Otho was proclaimed Emperor.

[12] Seneca the Younger’s Phædra 598.

[13] Hebrew:  ‎וַיִּישַׁ֥ר הַדָּבָ֖ר בְּעֵינֵ֣י אַבְשָׁלֹ֑ם וּבְעֵינֵ֖י כָּל־זִקְנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ ס

[14] Hebrew:  ‎וַיִּישַׁ֥ר הַדָּבָ֖ר בְּעֵינֵ֣י.

[15] 1 Samuel 18:20:  “And Michal Saul’s daughter loved David:  and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him (‎וַיִּשַׁ֥ר הַדָּבָ֖ר בְּעֵינָֽיו׃, and the thing was right in his eyes).”