Bible Strands
2 Samuel 17:19
Then the man’s wife took a covering, spread it over the mouth of the well, and scattered grain over it so nobody would know a thing.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ahimaaz and Jonathan have just descended into a courtyard well at a man’s house in Bahurim after being spotted by a young man reporting to Absalom. The man’s wife immediately acts to conceal their location before the royal search party arrives.
The words — וַתִּקַּח (va.ti.kach, "and she took") and וַתִּפְרֹשׂ (va.ti.prōś, "and she spread out") record the physical sequence of securing the well. הַמָּסָךְ (ha.māśāḵ, "the covering") is laid over פְּנֵי הַבְּאֵר (pe.nê ha.bəʾēr, "the face of the well") and masked with scattered grain to hide the opening.
The thread — The woman’s use of a domestic cover and deliberate misdirection mirrors the midwives’ response in Exodus 1:19 and Rahab’s concealment in Joshua 2:4. In each case, women employ household resources and tactical deception to protect those carrying out divine purposes.
Why it lands — The text records a practical, immediate action without commentary, showing how preservation operates through ordinary means. It asks the reader to note that obedience to hidden circumstances often requires quick, unadorned intervention rather than waiting for visible signs.
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
And the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known.
Cross-references
- Exodus 1:19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.”
- Joshua 2:4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, “Yes, the men did come to me, but I did not know where they had come from.