Council

King David has fled Jerusalem, and his son Absalom now sits in the city asking for advice. Ahithophel proposes a swift night attack on the weary king. Hushai, secretly David’s friend, urges patience: gather all Israel first, because David and his men are “chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps.” Absalom and his elders decide that Hushai’s counsel is better, and the narrator explains why: “the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel.” These verses show a royal council at work, and how a plan that seems best can still fall. The scene runs from 2 Samuel 16:20 to 17:14.

16 verses

2 Samuel

2 Samuel 16:20

Then said Absalom to Ahithophel, Give counsel among you what we shall do.

2 Samuel 17:1

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

2 Samuel 17:2

And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only:

2 Samuel 17:3

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.

2 Samuel 17:4

And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.

2 Samuel 17:5

Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.

2 Samuel 17:6

And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spake unto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying? if not; speak thou.

2 Samuel 17:7

And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time.

2 Samuel 17:8

For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.

2 Samuel 17:9

Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom.

2 Samuel 17:10

And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men.

2 Samuel 17:11

Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person.

2 Samuel 17:12

So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falleth on the ground: and of him and of all the men that are with him there shall not be left so much as one.

2 Samuel 17:13

Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one small stone found there.

2 Samuel 17:14

And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.

2 Samuel 17:15

Then said Hushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Spoken of counsellors who sat in public trials with the governor of a province (Acts 25:12).

The Jewish councils were the Sanhedrim, or supreme council of the nation, which had subordinate to it smaller tribunals (the “judgment,” perhaps, in Matt. 5:21, 22) in the cities of Palestine (Matt. 10:17; Mark 13:9). In the time of Christ the functions of the Sanhedrim were limited (John 16:2; 2 Cor. 11:24). In Ps. 68:27 the word “council” means simply a company of persons. (R.V. marg., “company.”)

In ecclesiastical history the word is used to denote an assembly of pastors or bishops for the discussion and regulation of church affairs. The first of these councils was that of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, of which we have a detailed account in Acts 15.

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(1.) The great council of the Sanhedrin, which sat at Jerusalem. [SANHEDRIN]

(2.) The lesser courts, (Matthew 10:17; Mark 13:9) of which there were two at Jerusalem and one in each town of Palestine. The constitution of these courts is a doubtful point. The existence of local courts, however constituted, is clearly implied in the passages quoted from the New Testament; and perhaps the "judgment," (Matthew 5:21) applies to them.

(3.) A kind of jury or privy council, (Acts 25:12) consisting of a certain number of assessors, who assisted Roman governors in the administration of justice and in other public matters.