What Does 2 Samuel 17:15 Mean?
Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus I have counseled.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then said Hushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names Ahithophel’s counsel and Hushai’s, showing two rival plans with real force rather than passing opinions.
THE MEANING
A plan becomes shared knowledge as Hushai carries each counselor’s words into the priests’ circle. The verse shows that counsel gains force through who hears it and can carry it onward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that advice is only talk: here, each counsel is part of a consequential plan.
THE ROOT
יָעַץ
yaʿats
GROWS FROM
יעץ
To advise, counsel, or form a plan.
“counselled” in this verse is yaʿats. The same root sits beneath what Ahithophel advises and what Hushai says he has advised. English can make “counsel” sound like opinion; the Hebrew root also carries the sense of a plan taking shape.
ALSO GROWS
ʿetsah: Counsel, advice, or a plan.
עֵצָה
This noun shows how the root can name not only advising, but the plan that emerges from it.
yoʿets: A counselor or adviser.
יוֹעֵץ
This branch names the person whose counsel shapes the plans Hushai reports.
אַבְשָׁלוֹם
Avshalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete.
“Absalom” in this verse is Avshalom. The name joins אָב (av, “father”) to שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “wholeness”), placing “father of wholeness” beside two rival plans. The name adds a resonance of wholeness to a sentence about counsel without deciding what those plans will bring.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness or completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the word-family carried within Absalom’s name.
shalem: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the root’s sense of wholeness explicit.
THE PATTERN
Plans become actionable as counsel is spoken, considered with others, and carried toward a decision.
Every woven plan stands firm by counsel, and by cords that steer, make war.Or what king, going to clash with another king in war, does not first sit down and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?And the sent ones and elders came together to perceive about this word.THE THREAD
Every woven plan stands firm by counsel, and by cords that steer, make war.The Hebrew עֵצָה (ʿetsah, “counsel” or “plan”) shares the root יָעַץ (yaʿats, “to advise or plan”) with both instances of “counselled” here. Proverbs makes explicit what this verse shows in motion: counsel helps form a purpose and direct a conflict.
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