2 Samuel 17:17

Hushai Warns David to Escape

15 ^aThen Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, “Thus and so Ahithophel advised Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus and so I have advised.

16 Now therefore, send quickly and tell David, saying, ‘Do not spend this night ^ain the plains of the wilderness, but speedily cross over, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up.’ ”

17 ^aNow Jonathan and Ahimaaz ^bstayed at ^cEn Rogel, for they dared not be seen coming into the city; so a female servant would come and tell them, and they would go and tell King David.

18 Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Absalom. But both of them went away quickly and came to a man’s house ^ain Bahurim, who had a well in his court; and they went down into it.

19 ^aThen the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth, and spread ground grain on it; and the thing was not known.

20 And when Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” So ^athe woman said to them, “They have gone over the water brook.” And when they had searched and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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2 Samuel 17:18 >>

2 Samuel 17:17

En-rogel - The fullers' well; the place where they were accustomed to tread the clothes with their feet; hence the name ein , a well, and regel , the foot, because of the treading above mentioned.

And a wench went and told them - The word wench occurs nowhere else in the Holy Scriptures: and, indeed, has no business here; as the Hebrew word shiphchah , should have been translated girl, maid, maid-servant. The word either comes from the Anglo-Saxon, a maid, or the Belgic wunch , desire, a thing wished for: multum enim ut plurimum Puellae a Juvenibus desiderantur, seu appetuntur . So Minsheu. Junius seems more willing to derive it from wince, to frisk, to be skittish, etc., for reasons sufficiently obvious, and which he gives at length. After all, it may as likely come from the Gothic wens or weins , a word frequently used in the gospels of the Codex Argenteus for wife. Coverdale' s Bible, 1535, has damsell. Becke' s Bible, 1549, has wenche. The same in Cardmarden' s Bible, 1566; but it is maid in Barker' s Bible, 1615. Wench is more of a Scotticism than maid or damsel; and King James probably restored it, as he is said to have done lad in Genesis 21:12, and elsewhere. In every other place where the word occurs, our translators render it handmaid, bondmaid, maiden, womanservant, maidservant, and servant. Such is the latitude with which they translate the same Hebrew term in almost innumerable instances.

**Other Adam Clarke entries containing 2 Samuel 17:17:**

John 9:7

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2 Samuel 17:18 >>

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