2 Samuel 15: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Absalom wins over the people of Israel by meeting them at the city gate and promising them justice, then has himself declared king in Hebron and draws David's counselor Ahithophel into the plot. When David hears that Israel's loyalty has turned, he leaves Jerusalem on foot with his household and his soldiers, and Ittai the Gittite insists on going with him. David sends the ark back to the city with the priests Zadok and Abiathar, and sends Hushai back as well, to work against Ahithophel's advice and pass news to David through the priests' sons.

Claim by Claim

1. 15:1
   • Some time after the preceding events, Absalom got himself a chariot and horses.
   • Absalom got himself fifty men to run ahead of him.
2. 15:2
   • Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the road to the city gate.
   • Whenever a man with a legal dispute came to the king for judgment, Absalom would call out to him.
   • Absalom would ask the man what city he was from.
   • The man would answer that his servant was from one of the tribes of Israel.
3. 15:3
   • Absalom would tell the man that his case was good and right.
   • Absalom would tell the man that no one appointed by the king was there to hear him.
4. 15:4
   • Absalom would say he wished someone would make him judge in the land.
   • Absalom said that then every man with a dispute or case could come to him.
   • Absalom said he would give such a man justice.
5. 15:5
   • Whenever a man approached to bow down to Absalom, Absalom would stretch out his hand.
   • Absalom would take hold of the man.
   • Absalom would kiss the man.
6. 15:6
   • Absalom acted this way toward all Israelites who came to the king for judgment.
   • Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
7. 15:7
   • After forty years had passed, Absalom spoke to the king.
   • Absalom asked permission to go and pay a vow he had vowed to the LORD in Hebron.
8. 15:8
   • Absalom said his servant had vowed a vow while dwelling in Geshur in Aram.
   • The vow was that if the LORD indeed brought him back to Jerusalem, he would serve the LORD.
9. 15:9
   • The king told Absalom to go in peace.
   • Absalom arose and went to Hebron.
10. 15:10
    • Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel.
    • Absalom instructed them that when they heard the sound of the horn they were to say that Absalom reigns in Hebron.
11. 15:11
    • Two hundred men from Jerusalem went with Absalom.
    • Those men had been invited as guests.
    • Those men went in their innocence.
    • Those men knew nothing of the matter.
12. 15:12
    • Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite from his city, Giloh.
    • Ahithophel was David's counselor.
    • This happened while sacrifices were being offered (the Hebrew leaves it ambiguous whether Absalom or Ahithophel was offering them).
    • The conspiracy grew strong.
    • The people with Absalom kept increasing in number.
13. 15:13
    • A messenger came to David.
    • The messenger reported that the heart of the men of Israel had gone after Absalom.
14. 15:14
    • David spoke to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem.
    • David told them to arise and flee.
    • David said they would otherwise have no escape from Absalom.
    • David told them to hurry and depart.
    • David said this was lest Absalom hurry and overtake them.
    • David said Absalom would bring disaster upon them.
    • David said Absalom would strike the city with the edge of the sword.
15. 15:15
    • The king's servants answered the king.
    • They said they were his servants, ready for whatever their lord the king chose.
16. 15:16
    • The king went out on foot with his whole household.
    • The king left ten women, concubines, to keep the house.
17. 15:17
    • The king went out with all the people on foot.
    • They stopped at the far house.
18. 15:18
    • All the king's servants passed on beside him.
    • All the Cherethites passed on.
    • All the Pelethites passed on.
    • All the Gittites passed on, six hundred men.
    • Those six hundred men had come after him from Gath.
    • They passed on before the king.
19. 15:19
    • The king spoke to Ittai the Gittite.
    • The king asked why Ittai should go with them too.
    • The king told Ittai to go back and stay with the king.
    • The king said Ittai was a foreigner.
    • The king said Ittai was also an exile from his place (the Hebrew allows either 'an exile from your place' or David telling him to return to his place).
20. 15:20
    • David said Ittai had come only yesterday.
    • David asked whether he should make Ittai wander with them today.
    • David said he himself was going wherever he was going.
    • David told Ittai to return.
    • David told Ittai to take his brothers back with him.
    • David invoked loyal love and faithfulness upon Ittai.
21. 15:21
    • Ittai answered the king.
    • Ittai swore by the life of the LORD and by the life of his lord the king.
    • Ittai said that in whatever place his lord the king was, whether for death or for life, there his servant would be.
22. 15:22
    • David told Ittai to go and pass over.
    • Ittai the Gittite passed over.
    • All Ittai's men passed over.
    • All the little ones with him passed over.
23. 15:23
    • All the land wept with a loud voice.
    • All the people passed over.
    • The king crossed the brook Kidron.
    • All the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness.
24. 15:24
    • Zadok was also there.
    • All the Levites were with him carrying the ark of the covenant of God.
    • They set down the ark of God.
    • Abiathar went up (the Hebrew can mean either that he went up or that he offered up sacrifices).
    • This continued until all the people had finished passing out of the city.
25. 15:25
    • The king spoke to Zadok.
    • The king told him to carry the ark of God back into the city.
    • The king said that if he found favor in the eyes of the LORD, the LORD would bring him back.
    • The king said the LORD would show him both the ark and its dwelling place.
26. 15:26
    • The king said that if the LORD said he had no delight in him, then here he was.
    • The king said the LORD should do to him whatever seemed good in his eyes.
27. 15:27
    • The king spoke to Zadok the priest.
    • The king asked him whether he was a seer (the Hebrew can also be read as 'do you see?').
    • The king told him to return to the city in peace.
    • The king said their two sons were with them: Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, son of Abiathar.
28. 15:28
    • David said he would wait at the fords of the wilderness (the Hebrew is written as 'fords' and read as 'plains').
    • David said he would wait until word came from them to inform him.
29. 15:29
    • Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem.
    • They stayed there.
30. 15:30
    • David went up the ascent of the olive trees.
    • David wept as he went up.
    • David's head was covered.
    • David walked barefoot.
    • All the people with him covered their heads.
    • They went up weeping as they went.
31. 15:31
    • Someone told David that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom.
    • David asked the LORD to turn Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness.
32. 15:32
    • David came to the summit, where he used to bow down to God.
    • Hushai the Archite came to meet him.
    • Hushai's tunic was torn.
    • There was earth on Hushai's head.
33. 15:33
    • David said to Hushai that if he passed on with him, he would be a burden to him.
34. 15:34
    • David said that if Hushai returned to the city, he should say to Absalom that he would be Absalom's servant, addressing him as king.
    • David said Hushai should say he had been the servant of Absalom's father formerly.
    • David said Hushai should say that now he would be Absalom's servant.
    • David said that in this way Hushai could defeat Ahithophel's counsel for him.
35. 15:35
    • David asked whether Zadok and Abiathar the priests would not be there with Hushai.
    • David said that whatever Hushai heard from the king's house he should tell to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
36. 15:36
    • David said their two sons were there with them: Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son.
    • David said they should send to him by their hand every thing they heard.
37. 15:37
    • Hushai, David's friend, came into the city.
    • Absalom came into Jerusalem.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

15:1

Chariots, horses and a running escort were the trappings of royalty in the ancient Near East; a king's son parading with them in public was making a visible claim to the throne. Israel had no cavalry tradition of its own, so the display also carried a foreign, imperial flavor.

15:2

The gate of a walled city was its public square and its courthouse: the open space just inside the gateway was where elders heard disputes, witnesses were called and contracts were sealed. Anyone bringing a case to the king would come this way.

15:3

Hearing lawsuits was one of a king's central duties. Absalom's complaint is that David has appointed no officials to handle the flow of cases, a charge the reader has no way to check, and the narrative does not confirm it.

15:4

"Judge" here does not mean a court official under the king. In Israel's older tradition a judge was a leader who both settled disputes and governed, so asking to be made judge in the land came very close to asking to rule.

15:5

Bowing low was the ordinary respect owed to a member of the royal house. By catching hold of the man and kissing him, Absalom refuses the gesture and greets him instead as a kinsman or equal.

15:6

"Stole the hearts" is a Hebrew idiom. It can mean won their loyalty, and it can also mean deceived them or took them in; the phrase holds both senses at once.

15:7

The Hebrew text reads "forty years," which the King James Version follows, but that is impossible in the story as told, David reigned forty years in all. Some ancient manuscripts and versions read "four," which most modern translations adopt. Hebron, about twenty miles south of Jerusalem, was where David had been made king and had reigned seven years before taking Jerusalem. It was also Absalom's birthplace. Going there to keep a vow was a plausible errand and a shrewd choice of base.

15:8

Geshur was a small Aramean kingdom east of the Sea of Galilee. Absalom's mother was a Geshurite princess, and he had fled there for three years after killing his half-brother Amnon. "Aram" is the region the King James Version calls Syria. A vow was a conditional promise: if God did a particular thing, the person bound himself to perform a specified act of worship, usually a sacrifice, afterwards. Leaving it unpaid was a serious matter, which is why the request was hard for David to refuse.

15:10

The horn is a ram's horn, used across Israel as a signal instrument, for alarm, for assembly, and for proclaiming a new king. A single blast relayed from place to place could carry a message across the country in hours.

15:11

Guests invited to a sacrificial meal shared in the host's hospitality. Two hundred prominent men from Jerusalem appearing at Absalom's side would look to onlookers like endorsement, and their presence also made them hostages to the plot once it broke.

15:12

"Adviser" (King James "counsellor") was a formal position at court, not a casual role; Ahithophel's judgment was famously trusted (see 16:23). Giloh was a town in the hill country of Judah south of Jerusalem. The sacrifices were the public religious occasion Absalom had used as his pretext, and they served to gather a crowd.

15:14

"Smite the city with the edge of the sword" is the standard phrase for killing the population of a captured town. David is not worried about losing a battle in Jerusalem; he is calculating that a siege would get everyone in the city killed.

15:16

A concubine was a secondary wife: legally attached to the household and her children recognized, but of lower standing than a full wife, usually because she brought no family alliance or bride-price with her. Because the women of a king's household belonged to whoever held the throne, leaving them behind will matter later in the story.

15:17

The Hebrew says literally "the far house," meaning the last building on the edge of the settlement. Its exact sense is uncertain; the point is that David halted at the outskirts to review the column as it filed past.

15:18

The Cherethites and Pelethites were David's professional bodyguard, foreign mercenaries whose names probably connect them with Crete and with the Philistines. The Gittites were men of Gath, one of the five Philistine cities, where David himself had once taken refuge from Saul. All three groups were outsiders with no stake in an Israelite family quarrel, which is what made them reliable.

15:19

"Stay with the new king" is an addition for clarity; the Hebrew says only "stay with the king," and it is genuinely unclear whether David means Absalom, who is about to hold Jerusalem, or himself, or the king of Gath whom Ittai has left. Translators divide on it. The two words describe Ittai's position exactly: he is a foreigner by birth and, on top of that, cut off from his own country.

15:20

The pair of Hebrew words behind "faithful love and truth" (hesed and emet) is a standard formula for loyalty that keeps its commitments, the steady, reliable dealing expected between parties bound to each other. The Hebrew here does not name a subject, so the blessing may be a wish that God show Ittai such loyalty, or that it simply go with him.

15:21

"As surely as the LORD lives" was the strongest oath formula in Hebrew: the speaker stakes the words on something that cannot fail. Swearing by the king's life alongside it doubles the binding force.

15:23

The Kidron is the steep ravine running along the eastern side of Jerusalem, between the city and the Mount of Olives. Crossing it meant leaving the city and its protection behind, the same boundary a person crossed to go into exile or into the desert country sloping down toward the Jordan.

15:24

The ark of the covenant was a gold-covered wooden chest holding the tablets of the law, treated as the place where God's presence met Israel. It had been carried ahead of the people in war and on the march, so bringing it out with a fleeing king was a bid to take that presence along. The Levites were the tribe set apart to carry and care for the sanctuary and its furniture; only they were permitted to handle the ark. The Hebrew of what Abiathar does is obscure. The King James "went up" may mean he climbed the slope, or offered sacrifices ("went up" is used of offerings), or the text may be slightly damaged; ancient versions differ.

15:25

"The place where it rests" is the tent David had pitched for the ark in Jerusalem. Sending the ark back is also, in practical terms, sending back two priests who can watch the city for him.

15:27

A seer was a recognized role: a man consulted for messages received from God, often about a specific decision. David's question may be a genuine question, an appeal to Zadok's standing, or (since the Hebrew word can simply mean "one who sees") an instruction to keep his eyes open. The Hebrew is difficult and translators read it in all these ways.

15:28

The fords were the shallow places where the Jordan and its side streams could be waded. They were the natural stopping point for a party heading east, and the natural place to wait for news before deciding whether to cross.

15:30

The Mount of Olives is the ridge immediately east of Jerusalem, across the Kidron. A covered head and bare feet were recognized public signs of grief and humiliation, the posture of a mourner, and of a man stripped of his standing.

15:32

Tearing one's outer robe and putting dust or earth on the head were the standard gestures of mourning and disaster, done openly so that everyone could see the wearer's state. The Archites were a small clan whose territory lay near Bethel, on the border of Benjamin.

15:34

"I will be thy servant, O king" was the formal wording of a pledge of allegiance to a new ruler. Hushai is being sent to swear it falsely, so that he sits inside Absalom's council able to argue against Ahithophel's advice from the inside.

15:35

The two priests stay in the city as David's listening post, and because they have official business in the palace and the sanctuary, nobody questions why they are there or who they talk to.

15:37

"David's friend" is a court title, not a description of affection: the king's friend was a trusted personal confidant holding an official place at court (compare 1 Kings 4:5). It is what makes Hushai's offer to serve Absalom credible.