17:14 Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Arkite sounds better than the advice of Ahithophel.” Now the Lord had decided 1 to frustrate the sound advice of Ahithophel, so that the Lord could bring disaster on Absalom.
16:20 Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give us your advice. What should we do?”
17:7 Hushai replied to Absalom, “Ahithophel’s advice is not sound this time.” 2
16:23 In those days Ahithophel’s advice was considered as valuable as a prophetic revelation. 3 Both David and Absalom highly regarded the advice of Ahithophel. 4
17:23 When Ahithophel realized that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and returned to his house in his hometown. After setting his household in order, he hanged himself. So he died and was buried in the grave 7 of his father.
1 tn Heb “commanded.”
2 tn Heb “Not good is the advice which Ahithophel has advised at this time.”
3 tn Heb “And the advice of Ahithophel which he advised in those days was as when one inquires of the word of God.”
4 tn Heb “So was all the advice of Ahithophel, also to David, also to Absalom.”
4 tc The translation follows 4QSama, part of the Greek tradition, the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate uldavid in reading “and to David,” rather than MT וְדָוִד (vÿdavid, “and David”). As Driver points out, the Hebrew verb הִגִּיד (higgid, “he related”) never uses the accusative for the person to whom something is told (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 316).
5 tn Heb “said.”
5 tc The Greek recensions of Origen and Lucian have here “house” for “grave.”