📖 2 Samuel 17 : 💎 A chapter showing that the war between David and Absalom was a tragic war, tangled up in family and kinship ties among the people of Israel themselves

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📖 2 Samuel 17

💎 A chapter showing that the war between David and Absalom was a tragic war, tangled up in family and kinship ties among the people of Israel themselves

Previously, in chapter 16

• The humiliation David suffers while fleeing
• And David quietly accepting it, believing that God had told the man to do it

Meanwhile, on Absalom's side, Ahithophel's counsel leads to David's concubines being disgraced..

• Ahithophel was in fact Bathsheba's grandfather, and Uriah, whom David had killed, was his granddaughter's husband.

👉 Ahithophel's second counsel

A surprise attack to strike down only King David

Ahithophel asks Absalom to let him choose twelve thousand men and pursue David that very night, strike down only King David, and bring all the people back to Absalom.

• In other words, the people's return to Absalom depended on King David's death.
• Absalom and all the elders of Israel think this plan is good.

👉 Hushai opposes Ahithophel's counsel and offers a different plan

Absalom summons Hushai, tells him Ahithophel's counsel, and asks whether they should follow it or whether he has another idea. Hushai says Ahithophel's counsel is not good, and proposes gathering all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, around Absalom, so that not one of the men with David is left alive..

➔ Absalom and all the men of Israel say, "The counsel of Hushai is better than the counsel of Ahithophel."

• This outcome came about because the LORD, intending to bring disaster on Absalom, had ordained that the good counsel of Ahithophel be defeated (v. 14).

After this, Hushai tells the priests Zadok and Abiathar to report everything to David, so that David crosses the river quickly.

📌 When Ahithophel sees that his counsel has not been followed, he goes home to his own city and hangs himself.

👉 Amasa, the commander Absalom appointed, and Joab, David's commander: how are they related? (v. 25)

Absalom's side

Amasa's mother is Abigail.

Joab's side

His mother is Zeruiah, and Abigail is the sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother.

✔️ The record in verse 25 tells us that Abigail and Zeruiah were sisters, so Amasa and Joab were cousins. 💎

👉 When David arrives at Mahanaim.. several names are recorded

Shobi son of Nahash.. Machir son of Ammiel.. Barzillai the Gileadite..

✔️ The record of the son of Nahash, who is connected to Joab and Amasa.. 💎

✔️ Machir son of Ammiel and the Gileadite, who are connected to Mephibosheth and the house of Saul.. 💎

Closing thoughts - 1

The record of chapter 17 shows that this was not only a war between David and Absalom. 💎

• For the commanders on both sides, it became a war between cousins.. 💎

✔️ It appears to tell us of the great tragedy of a war in which family and kin stood on opposite sides in the two armies. 💎

✔️ Even among those close to the house of Saul, there was one who cursed David, while others supported David and cared for him. That is what this record shows us. 💎

Closing thoughts - 2

In the Bible's records:

Not a single name was written down for nothing.

When it records one day, two days, or three days, that too is not there by chance.

Only by looking carefully at each time and each moment do we come to realize what the core message of the Bible is..

Chapter 17, in particular, is a chapter that puts the relationships between people at its center. 💎

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