2 Samuel 17:19

19 The man's wife took a cover, spread it over the top of the cistern, and scattered some grain over it so that no one could tell it was there.

2 Samuel 17:19 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 17:19

And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's
mouth
This woman, very probably, was the man's wife of the house, as Abarbinel notes; who took a cloth, and spread it over the well's mouth, that it could not be seen or known that there was a well there:

and spread ground corn thereon:
just taken out of the mill, before it was sifted, while in the bran; or corn unhusked, or just threshed out, in order to be dried in the sun, and then parched; or wheat bruised for that purpose: Josephus says ^F17 they were locks of wool she spread:

and the thing was not known;
that the young men were in the well.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F17 Antiqu. l. 7. c. 9. sect. 7.

2 Samuel 17:19 In-Context

17 Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En Rogel. They could not risk being seen coming into the city, so a servant girl was to go and tell them, and they were to go and tell King David.

18 But a young man saw Jonathan and Ahimaaz and told Absalom. So both of them left quickly and came to the home of a man in Bahurim who had a cistern in his courtyard, and they went down into it.

19 The man's wife took a cover, spread it over the top of the cistern, and scattered some grain over it so that no one could tell it was there.

20 Absalom's servants came to the woman at her home. "Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?" they asked. The woman said, "They've crossed the stream." The servants looked for them but did not find them. So Absalom's servants returned to Jerusalem.

21 After Absalom's servants left, both men came out of the cistern and went and told King David. "Leave right away," they told David. "Cross the river quickly because this is what Ahithophel has advised against you...."