2 Samuel 17:19

19 ¹And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth and scattered grain on it, and nothing was known of it.

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 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En-rogel. A female servant was to go and tell them, and they were to go and tell King David, for they were not to be seen entering the city.

18 But a young man saw them and told Absalom. So both of them went away quickly and came to the house of a man at Bahurim, who had a well in his courtyard. And they went down into it.

19 And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth and scattered grain on it, and nothing was known of it.

20 When Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house, they said, "Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?" And the woman said to them, "They have gone over the brook of water." And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.

21 After they had gone, the men came up out of the well, and went and told King David. They said to David, "Arise, and go quickly over the water, for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you."

Cross References

• 1. [Joshua 2:6]