_ABSALOM, CONSULTING WHAT WAS TO BE DONE, NEGLECTS THE COUNSEL OF AHITHOPHEL, AND PREFERS THAT OF HUSHAI; WHO INFORMS DAVID SECRETLY OF WHAT IS DOING AT JERUSALEM. AHITHOPHEL HANGS HIMSELF._ _Before Christ 1023._... [ Continue Reading ]
MOREOVER, AHITHOPHEL SAID UNTO ABSALOM— Ahithophel, aware of the advantages of dispatch, advised an immediate pursuit of David, without suffering him to breathe from the fatigues that he had just gone through; and his advice well justifies the character given of him in the Scripture. It was in its s... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MAN WHOM THOU SEEKEST IS AS IF ALL RETURNED— That is, David being destroyed, the main business is performed; he is, as it were, the life of the whole body, and when he is taken off, the rest will of course return and submit themselves. Houbigant renders this verse, _and I will cause all the peop... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN HUSHAI WAS COME TO ABSALOM, &C.— Ahithophel proposed all imaginable advantage to the evil cause in which he was engaged, from expedition, upon the principle mentioned by Tacitus, that "nothing determines civil discords so happily as dispatch." Hushai, on the contrary, wholly laid himself out to... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY BE CHASED IN THEIR MINDS, AS A BEAR ROBBED OF HER WHELPS— The curious have, in general, long since remarked the coarseness of the images used in the Eastern writings. I have met with instances of this kind, which may serve to illustrate some passages of Scripture more perfectly than I have yet... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, HE IS HID, &C.— See the note on 1 Samuel 26:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
WE WILL LIGHT UPON HIM, AS THE DEW FALLETH ON THE GROUND— This is very beautiful and expressive. The _dew_ in Palestine, as in several other climates, falls fast and sudden, and is therefore no unapt emblem of an active expeditious soldiery. It was, perhaps, for this reason, that the Romans called t... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SHALL ALL ISRAEL BRING ROPES TO THAT CITY— The meaning of this exaggerated threat, which Hushai seems to employ in conformity with the taste of a young and vain prince, appears to be, that they would come before that city into which David would betake himself, with those cranes or hooks which t... [ Continue Reading ]
EN-ROGEL— Or, _The fuller's fountain,_ a place near Jerusalem; so called, as we are told, because the fullers trod their cloth there with their feet; deriving the word _rogel_ from רגל _regel,_ which signifies _a foot._... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SPREAD GROUND CORN THEREON— See the note on 2 Samuel 17:28.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY BE GONE OVER THE BROOK OF WATER— _They passed away quickly._ Houbigant. According to Josephus and the Vulgate, the meaning is, that they just drank a little water and hasted forward. _Note;_ (1.) The weakest instruments in God's hand can answer the greatest purposes. (2.) A lie, though told to... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN AHITHOPHEL SAW, &C.— Ahithophel had too much penetration and experience not to see what must be the consequence of Absalom's imprudence in preferring Hushai's advice to his own. Piqued therefore with furious jealousy, and not doubting that David would soon be victorious, and punish his perfidy,... [ Continue Reading ]
BROUGHT BEDS, AND BASONS, &C.— Dr. Russell tells us, "that _burgle_ is very commonly used among the Christians of Aleppo;" and in a note he informs us, "that this burgle is _wheat boiled,_ then bruised by a mill, so as to take the husk off, then _dried_ and kept for use." The usual way of dressing i... [ Continue Reading ]