his family, servants and officials, his body-guard (the Cherethi and Pelethi), and the six hundred tried

warriors, who had been with him in all his early wanderings, accompanied him.17 In that hour of bitterness

the king's heart was also cheered by the presence and steadfast adherence of a brave Philistine chieftain,

Ittai, who had cast in his lot with David and with David's God. He had brought with him to Jerusalem his

family (2 Samuel 15:22) and a band of adherents (ver. 20); and his fidelity and courage soon raised him to the

command of a division in David's army (18:2).

It was winter, or early spring,18 when the mournful procession passed through a crowd of weeping

spectators over the Kidron, to take the way of the wilderness that led towards Jericho and the Jordan.

At the foot of the Mount of Olives they again paused. Here the Levites, headed by Zadok the priest, put

down the Ark, which had accompanied David, until the high-priest Abiathar, and the rest of the people who

were to join the king, came up out of the city. They were wise as well as good words with which David

directed the Ark of God to be taken back. At the same time he established communication with the city

through the priests.19 He would wait by "the fords" of the wilderness  20 until the sons of the two priests

should bring him trustworthy tidings by which to guide his further movements.

It reads almost like prophecy, this description of the procession of weeping mourners, whom Jerusalem had

cast out, going up "the ascent of the olive-trees," and once more halting at the top, "where it was wont to

worship God!"  21

A little before, the alarming news had come that Ahithophel had joined the conspiracy. But now a welcome

sight greeted them. Hushai, the Archite (comp. Joshua 16:2), David's friend and adviser, came to meet the

king, and offered to accompany him. But the presence of unnecessary non-combatants would manifestly

have entailed additional difficulties, especially if of the age of Hushai. Besides, a man like the Archite might

render David most material service in Jerusalem, if, by feigning to join the conspirators, he could gain the

confidence of Absalom, and so, perhaps, counteract the dreaded counsels of A hithophel. Accordingly,

Hushai was sent back to the city, there to act in concert with the priests.

Twice more David's progress was interrupted before he and his men reached Ayephim.  22

First it was Ziba, who, deeming this a good opportunity for securing to himself the covered property of his

master, came on pretext of bringing provisions for the fugitives, but really to falsely represent

Mephibosheth as engaged in schemes for recovering the throne of Israel amidst the general confusion. The

story was s o manifestly improbable, that we can only wonder at David's haste in giving it credence, and

according to Ziba what he desired. Another and sadder interruption was the appearance of Shimei, a distant

kinsman of Saul. As David, surrounded by his soldiers and the people, passed Bahurim, on the farther side

of the Mount of Olives, Shimei followed on the opposite slope of the hill, casting earth and stones at the

king, and cursing him with such words as these: "Get away! get away! thou man of blood! thou wicked

man!" thus charging him, by implication, with the death, if not of Saul and Jonathan, yet of Abner and

Ishbosheth. Never more truly than on this occasion did David act and speak like his old self, and, therefore,

also as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ in similar circumstances (comp. Luke 9:52- 56). At that moment, when

he realized that all which had come upon him was from God, and when the only hope he wished to cherish

was not in human deliverance, but in God's mercy, he would feel more than ever how lit tle he had in common

with the sons of Zeruiah, and how different were the motives and views which animated them (2 Samuel

16:10). Would that he had ever retained the same spirit as in this the hour of his deepest humiliation, and

had not, after his success, relapsed into his former weakness! But should not all this teach us, that, however

necessary a deep and true sense of guilt and sin may be, yet if sin pardoned continueth sin brooded over, it

becomes a source, not of sanctification, but of moral weakness and hindrance? Let the dead bury their dead,

but let us arise and follow Christ and, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto

those things which are before," let us "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in

Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13, 14).