Bible Strands
2 Samuel 15:34
But you can thwart the counsel of Ahithophel for me if you return to the city and say to Absalom: ‘I will be your servant, my king; in the past I was your father’s servant, but now I will be your servant.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David addresses Hushai as he prepares to flee Jerusalem, commanding him to stay behind rather than accompany the exiled court. (2 Samuel 15:33)
The words — The text centers on תָּשׁ֗וּב (ta.Shuv, "you will return") and עַבְדְּ/ךָ ('av.de./Kha, "your servant"), which literally frame the conditional order to go back to the city and declare subservience to Absalom.
The thread — The command to infiltrate a hostile center echoes the tactical approach in Joshua 8:2 and directly precedes David’s instruction to use Zadok and Abiathar as intelligence networks in 2 Samuel 15:35.
Why it lands — The verse presents a plain requirement to observe how political survival operates through calculated submission and internal reporting rather than public defense.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But if thou return to the city, and say unto Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king; as I have been thy father’s servant hitherto, so will I now also be thy servant: then mayest thou for me defeat the counsel of Ahithophel.
Cross-references
- Joshua 8:2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set up an ambush behind the city.”
- 2 Samuel 15:20 In fact, you arrived only yesterday; should I make you wander around with us today while I do not know where I am going? Go back and take your brothers with you. May the LORD show you loving devotion and faithfulness.”
- 2 Samuel 16:16 And David’s friend Hushai the Archite went to Absalom and said to him, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”
- 2 Samuel 17:5 Then Absalom said, “Summon Hushai the Archite as well, and let us hear what he too has to say.”
- Matthew 10:16 Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.