{"id":60677,"date":"2019-08-06T13:21:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T10:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=60677"},"modified":"2023-03-01T07:23:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T05:23:52","slug":"ahithophels-counsel-how-good-advice-goes-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/ahithophels-counsel-how-good-advice-goes-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahithophel\u2019s Counsel: How Good Advice Goes Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[361,363],"acf":{"old_id":"60677","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"279","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Leaders: beware of advisors seeking their own advancement!","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our chapter concludes with Ahithophel advising Absalom to: \u201c\u2019Have intercourse with your father\u2019s concubines, whom he left to mind the palace; and when all Israel hears that you have dared the wrath of your father, all who support you will be encouraged.\u2019 So, they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and Absalom lay with his father\u2019s concubines with the full knowledge of all Israel\u201d (16:21-22). Scripture understands that Ahithophel\u2019s advice was generally accepted as sound: \u201cIn those days, the advice which Ahithophel gave was accepted as if a man inquired of the word of God; that is how all the advice of Ahithophel was esteemed both by David and by Absalom\u201d (verse 23).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Midrash on Psalms (3:4) comments on this verse, that his advice \u201cwas as if a man inquired of the word of God\u201d. The Midrash notes that according to the Masorah, the word \u201cman\u201d is read (Qeri), though it is not actually written (Ketiv). From this Masoretic note, the Midrash learns that Ahithophel was not like a \u201cman\u201d, but rather like an angel. And consequently, in referring to his once trusted counselor, David lamented: \u201cIt was not an enemy who reviled me \u2014 that I could bear! It was not my foe who vaunts himself against me \u2014 from him, I could hide. But it is you [Ahithophel], my equal, my companion, my friend! Sweet was our fellowship. We walked together in God\u2019s house\u201d (Psalms 55:13-15).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If his advice was held in such high esteem, it is strange that the expression \u201cAhithophel\u2019s Advice\u201d (\u2018atzat Ahithophel) has come to have the pejorative meaning of \u201cbad advice best not to be followed\u201d in modern Hebrew. How did that come about?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Midrash (Yalqut Shimoni II, Remez 151) states that Ahithophel himself misread astrological signs, leading him to believe that he would become king of Israel. He looked at Absalom and advised him to have sexual intercourse with the concubines of King David, his father. Absalom asked in surprise: \u201cYou are telling me to possess my father\u2019s concubines?! Ahithophel assured him that this was indeed a divine decree, recalling that God had said to David: \u2018I will make a calamity rise against you from within your own house; I will take your wives and give them to another man before your very eyes and he shall sleep with your wives under this very sun\u2019\u201d (12:11).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ahithophel then went on to advise Absalom to murder his own father, David. Ahithophel was thinking that he would be appointed to judge Absalom\u2019s having slept with his father\u2019s concubines and then having murdered his own father. Having found him guilty, Ahithophel would then have Absalom executed. Thus, the way would be open for Ahithophel himself to become king of Israel in place of Absalom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This midrash might be read as a highly relevant warning to political leaders to be wary of \u201cAhithophel\u2019s Advice\u201d, from advisors who may be seeking their own advancement.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":60680,"id":60680,"title":"","filename":"2sam16-bad-advice.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam16-bad-advice.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/ahithophels-counsel-how-good-advice-goes-bad\/danger-bad-advice-ahead\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"danger-bad-advice-ahead","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":60677,"date":"2019-08-06 10:21:17","modified":"2019-08-06 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