2 Samuel 15:34

34 but if you return to the city, and tell Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king. As I have been your father’s servant in time past, so I will now be your servant; then you will defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.’

2 Samuel 15:34 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 15:34

But if thou return to the city
To the city of Jerusalem, from whence it seems he came:

and say unto Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king;
as he was by usurpation, and by the proclamation of the people with him. David directs him to address him thus, that he might have no suspicion of him, having been an old friend of his:

[as] I [have been] thy father's servant hitherto;
perhaps in the character of a counsellor, as it should seem, since as such he was afterwards employed by Absalom:

so [will] I now also [be] thy servant;
in whatsoever thou shall please to employ me under thee:

then mayest thou for me defeat the counsel of Ahithophel;
for being taken into Absalom's service, and made one of his counsellors, he would be privy to the advice of Ahithophel, and so be able to work against him.

2 Samuel 15:34 In-Context

32 When David had come to the top, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his tunic torn and earth on his head.

33 David said to him, “If you pass on with me, then you will be a burden to me;

34 but if you return to the city, and tell Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king. As I have been your father’s servant in time past, so I will now be your servant; then you will defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.’

35 Don’t you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? Therefore whatever you hear out of the king’s house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

36 Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok’s son, and Jonathan, Abiathar’s son. Send to me everything that you shall hear by them.”