NOTES for Sa2 17:1-29
Hushai managed to defeat Ahithophel’s counsel and thus save David. At the same time, Hushai’s advice, for all its impracticality, is logically sound and well reasoned. Yes, Hushai was being cunning when he proposed that Absalom gather the entire people against David, but unfortunately he was not being deceptive when he spoke of the number of Israelites hostile to David. It is difficult for us to judge why the people had turned so strongly against the man who only recently had been everyone’s favorite; it is not even clear whether this can be explained solely by David’s sins. Such things, however, have happened in every age. This makes all the more precious the support David received from those who remained faithful to him despite every fluctuation in “public opinion.”
Ahithophel, meanwhile, seeing that his counsel had not been followed, hanged himself. Being an intelligent man, he understood earlier than many others that, once the opportune moment had been missed, David would again become invincible. The despair of Ahithophel, who betrayed David, and his suicide as a result of his own actions recall the despair and suicide of Judas, who many years later betrayed the Son of David.