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2Sa_17:23 And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled [his] ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.
Ver. 23. And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed.] Discontent then was the ground of his suicide; like as it was also of Judas’, who could not brook it, that his counsel about the woman’s costly ointment to be sold rather, was rejected; but thereupon began to practise against his Master’s, and in fine against his own life. Principiis obsta; discontentedness paveth a way to desperation: it undid the devil.
He saddled his ass.] Being conscious to himself, that for conspiring against his sovereign, and giving such perilous and pernicious counsel, there wanted but a hurdle, a horse, and a halter - as Judge Belknap afterwards, for like cause, said of himself - to do him right. {a} Had Ahithophel bridled his anger, when he saddled his ass, he would not, saith a worthy divine, of an oraculous counsellor, have turned such a notorious fool or madman, as to put his house in order, and himself into such a desperate and irrecoverable confusion. But the world’s wizards must show themselves in their colours. {Rom_1:22} Cato first readeth Plato’s book of the immortality of the soul, and then stabbeth himself at Utica. Pliny thinketh that God never gave a man any greater happiness than this, that he may die when he pleaseth. Sensit idem et reipsa comprobavit Seneca. So Brutus, and many others, who, through pusillanimity or desperation, brake the lanthern of their body, and quench the light of their life. This was to be like Hercules Furens, or Ajax Flagellifer, who, restored to his right mind, slew himself; dementior quam cum demens, being therein more mad, than when he was stark mad. What if Ahithophel feared that Absalom following Hushai’s counsel would be ruined, David restored, and himself for his perfidy hanged, as he well deserved;
“ Hic rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori? ”
Gat him home to his house, to his city.] That is, saith Vatablus, To his house in the city of Giloh; {2Sa_15:12} for he had many houses elsewhere, having feathered his nest under David’s government; like as Judas the thief licked his fingers in our Saviour’s family.
And put his household in order.] Heb., Gave charge concerning his house; viz, what he would have done after his death. Josephus saith that he told his household that Absalom would be undone, and himself should be hanged: wherefore it was better for him to prevent it, and manfully to die with his own hands. He should first have set himself in order, and bethought him what would become of his precious soul. Then might he have hanged his house with tapestry, {Pro_7:16} and with broidered work of Egypt, {Eze_27:7} but this was the furthest end of his thoughts, as they say. Or if he had at his death any thoughts of eternity, they were, likely, not unlike those of Thomas Blaverus, chief counsellor sometime to the King of Scots, who believed not that there was God or devil, heaven or hell, till he came to die; and then cried out he was damned for ever. {b} Ahithophel was curious to provide for his family after his death; yet had no care to preserve himself from eternal death. Was not this a madness even to a miracle? saith one. {c}
And hanged himself.] Ipse sibi fauces strangulavit, quibus impium consilium dederat, et dominum suum Davidem prodiderat. {d} The like end to like counsellors, God send! saith Willet.
{a} Speed, 747.
{b} Theat. Hist., pp. 127,128.
{c} Bolton.
{d} A Lapide.