Bible Strands
2 Samuel 17:20
When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they asked, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” “They have crossed over the brook,” she replied. The men searched but did not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Absalom’s servants arrive at a woman’s house and demand the location of Ahimaaz and Jonathan. She falsely reports they have crossed a brook, prompting a fruitless search before the pursuers return to Jerusalem.
The words — The Hebrew word אַיֵּ֗ה ('ai.yeh) literally means "where?" and marks the pursuers’ direct interrogation. The term עַבְדֵי֩ ('av.dê) identifies the questioners specifically as "servants" or agents acting under Absalom’s authority.
The thread — This narrative pattern of royal agents demanding fugitive locations from householders appears in Exodus 1:19, where midwives give a deceptive reply to Pharaoh, and Joshua 2:3, where Jericho’s king sends men to demand hidden individuals. Joshua 2:22 further parallels the sequence of pursuers returning without success.
Why it lands — The text records a tactical deception that buys time for a messenger to warn a fleeing king. It demands the reader recognize how ordinary household spaces become strategic nodes in larger conflicts.
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 when Absalom’s servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
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 2:3 So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they have come to spy out the whole land.”
- Joshua 2:22 So the spies went out into the hill country and stayed there three days, until their pursuers had returned without finding them, having searched all along the road.
- 1 Samuel 19:12 So Michal lowered David from the window, and he ran away and escaped.
- 1 Samuel 21:2 “The king has given me a mission,” David replied. “He told me no one is to know about the mission on which I am sending you. And I have directed my young men to meet me at a certain place.
- 1 Samuel 27:11 David did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he said, “Otherwise they will report us, saying, ‘This is what David did.’” And this was David’s custom the whole time he lived in Philistine territory.
- 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.’