2 Samuel 15:30-37

Hushai commissioned to defeat Ahithophel

30. the ascent ofmount Olivet Lit. by the ascent of Olives: the name mount Olivetis derived from mons olivetiin the Vulgate of Acts 1:12. The "mount of Olives" is the ridge which rises on the east of Jerusalem above the Kidron ravine, screening the city from the desert country beyond. With the exception of this touching scene, there is little of interest connected with the Mount of Olives in the O. T. On it, perhaps on the spot already consecrated for worship (2 Samuel 15:32), Solomon erected high places for the false gods of his foreign wives (1 Kings 11:7-8), which were desecrated long afterwards by Josiah (2 Kings 23:13-14). A passing allusion to the woods which covered it (Nehemiah 8:15), and the details of the scenery in two prophetic visions (Ezekiel 11:23; Zechariah 14:4), complete the references to it in the O. T. "Its lasting glory belongs not to the Old Dispensation but to the New." See Stanley's Sinai and Pal.p. 185 ff.

had his head covered, and he went barefoot The muffled head marks the deep grief which shuts itself up from the outer world: the bare feet still a sign of mourning in the East betoken affliction, self-humiliation, penitence. Cp ch. 2 Samuel 19:4; Esther 6:12; Ezekiel 24:17.