And Absalom sent for Ahithophel, the Gilonite, David's
counsellor
To advise with about this treasonable affair he was engaged in, and to get out of him David's secrets, who was reckoned the best counsellor in the land; and he might rather hope he would come to him, if he was the grandfather of Bathsheba, as say the Jews, ( 2 Samuel 11:3 ) ( 23:34 ) ; since he might be disgusted with and resent David's adultery with Bathsheba his granddaughter, and the murder of her husband Uriah: him he sent for,
from his city, [even] from Giloh;
a city in the tribe of Judah, in the mountainous part of it, near to Hebron, where Absalom now was; and, according to Bunting F9, twenty miles from Jerusalem, see ( Joshua 15:48 Joshua 15:51 Joshua 15:54 ) ;
while he offered sacrifices;
not Ahithophel, but Absalom, his peace offerings at Hebron, to which he invited Ahithophel to come and partake of:
and the conspiracy was strong;
or there was a great number in the conspiracy, who were assembled together:
for the people increased continually with Absalom;
being drawn to him by the comeliness of his person, his affable behaviour, the pomp and magnificence in which he appeared, the great number of the principal inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and he the king's eldest son, and so heir to the crown; whereas it might begin to be rumoured about, that David designed Solomon, a son of Bathsheba, a young prince, to be his successor, which did not meet with general approbation at first.