Verse Lens · Concise explanation
2 Samuel 17:5 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 5. 5Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse opens the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech: “Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “Hushai Counters with a Delaying Spectacle.”
Read It With
- 2 Samuel 17:5–14
Read 2 Samuel 17:5 with 17:5–14. The wording “Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith” supplies one opening in the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: Hushai invokes David's skill and the army's fury, proposes a massive personal campaign, and wins Absalom's approval as the narrator identifies divine purpose.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within “Hushai Counters with a Delaying Spectacle,” 2 Samuel 17:5 opens the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech through the wording “Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: 2 Samuel 17:1–4 establishes this prior movement: Ahithophel asks for troops to pursue the exhausted David immediately, kill only the king, and return the people. 2 Samuel 17:5–14 continues the narrative consequence; that demonstrated relationship, rather than sequence alone, explains its placement.
What Remains True
Faithful leadership is measured by truth, restraint, justice, repair, and the treatment of people with less power rather than by title, victory, popularity, or narrative prominence. In this unit, that truth is tested by the concrete movement: Hushai invokes David's skill and the army's fury, proposes a massive personal campaign, and wins Absalom's approval as the narrator identifies divine purpose. In 2 Samuel 17:5, the concrete line “Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.
How It Can Shape Life
- The evidence to keep visible in this verse is “Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.” Test counsel for evidence, rhetoric, conflicts of interest, affected people, and foreseeable harm; do not use a favorable result or providential claim to make manipulation automatically righteous. This response follows from the unit's own pattern—Hushai invokes David's skill and the army's fury, proposes a massive personal campaign, and wins Absalom's approval as the narrator identifies divine purpose.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 2 Samuel 17:5–14 — Hushai Counters with a Delaying SpectacleSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: 2 Samuel 17:5-14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated verbs, names, syntax, and the base text behind translation and textual discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Sam.xml, 17:5-14
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Samuel with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Unit-bounded wording, older-English clarification, textual witnesses, syntax, names, numbers, and major historical or literary notes actually printed for these verses.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 566–568, translation and all translator notes attached to 17:5-14
Open source ↗