2 Samuel 17:8

And again Hushai declared, “You know your father, and the men who are with him, to be very strong and bitter in soul, comparable to a bear raging in the forest when her young have been taken away. Moreover, your father is a man of war, and so he will not live among the people.

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.

In Context

7And Hushai said to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given at this time is not good.”

9Perhaps now he hides in pits, or in another place, wherever he wills. And if by chance, in the beginning, anyone may fall, whoever hears about it, no matter what he has heard, will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the people who were following Absalom.’

Read all of 2 Samuel 17

Cross References

1 Samuel 16:18And one of the servants, responding, said: “Behold, I have seen the son of Jesse of Bethlehem, a skillful player, and very strong and robust, a man fit for war, and prudent in words, a handsome man. And the Lord is with him.”

1 Samuel 17:50And David prevailed against the Philistine with a sling and a stone. And he struck and killed the Philistine. But since David held no sword in his hand,

2 Samuel 15:18And all his servants were walking beside him. And the legions of the Cerethites and Phelethites, and all the Gittites, powerful fighters, six hundred men who had followed him from Gath on foot, were preceding the king.

2 Samuel 23:8These are the names of the valiant of David. Sitting in the chair was the wisest leader among the three; he was like a very tender little worm in a tree, who killed eight hundred men in one attack.

2 Samuel 23:18Also Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was first among the three. It was he who lifted up his spear against three hundred men, whom he killed. And he was renowned among the three,

2 Kings 2:24And when he had looked back, he saw them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two bears went out from the forest, and they wounded forty-two boys among them.

Matthew Henry on 2 Samuel 17:2-15

Hushai's Counsel. ( b. c. 1023.) 1 Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night: 2 And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only: 3 And I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace. 4 And the saying pleased Absalom well, and… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study 2 Samuel 17:8