2 Samuel 17:3

2Sa 17:3 And I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man whom thou seekest [is] as if all returned: [so] all the people shall be in peace.

Ver. 3. The man whom thou seekest.] Ah, lewd lowly! could Absalom hear his dear father’s death thus contrived and endeavoured, and approve of the plot? Certe tu non occidisti patrem, Certainly you did not kill your father, said Augustus to one that was brought before him for parricide. Lycurgus would make no law against it, as holding it impossible. But the devil had filled this man’s heart from corner to corner, as Act 5:2, and torn out thence all childlike affection.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17:3 as a bride . . . you seek: The Hebrew text has the loyalty of all the people depend on the death of David. The Greek version pictures a young wife who returns to her husband after a short quarrel.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Meaning, David.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 3. The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned] Only secure David, and all Israel will be on thy side. He is the soul of the whole; destroy him, and all the rest will submit.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(3) Bring back all the people.—This evil counsellor, with artful flattery, assumes that Absalom is the rightful king, and that the people who have gone off after David only need to be brought back to their allegiance.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. the man, &c.] Lit. As the returning of all is the man whom thou seekest. The return of all the people to thee will be ensured by the removal of David. If that is effected, there will be no civil war. Ahithophel’s use of the term “return” is a subtle flattery, implying that David’s followers were deserting their lawful sovereign. But the true text is not improbably preserved by the Sept.: “And I will cause all the people to return unto thee, as the bride returneth to her husband. Only one man’s life dost thou seek, and unto all the people there shall be peace.” The defection of the people is compared to the momentary desertion of a bride, who speedily returns to her husband.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And I will bring back all the people unto thee,.... Meaning not the people only that were with David, that he would make them prisoners, and bring them with him; for he before proposed to let them make their escape; but to reduce all Israel to the obedience of Absalom at once, by executing this scheme which he had formed:

the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned; meaning David, whom he speaks of contemptibly, and whose life it seems Absalom sought, as well as his crown; and he being dead, it would be all over at once with the people; they would immediately return to their own habitations, and yield obedience to Absalom as the rightful heir and successor; all depended on his death, he intimates: from whence it appears that Abarbinel is wrong in suggesting that Absalom did not design to take away the life of his father, only to secure the kingdom to himself in his father's lifetime, who he understood had disposed of it by his will to Solomon; but here Ahithophel plainly declares the intention of Absalom, nor would he have proposed in plain terms to take away the king's life, had Absalom been averse to it; and it is plain by what follows that the thing was pleasing to him:

so all the people shall be in peace; both parties coalesce under the government of Absalom, and live peaceably under it, and so an entire end of the war.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The man whom thou seekest - namely, David. Ahithophel means to say: “If I can only smite David, there will be no civil war, all the people will peaceably submit.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

One man. They will return with such unanimity, when their leader is cut off. (Menochius) --- David was the one man whom his son desired to kill, as the latter was the only one whom David ordered to be spared, chap. xviii. 5. (Haydock) --- Hebrew seems rather transposed: "I will bring back all the people to thee, as all the people, whom thou seekest, are returned; and all the people shall be in peace:" or, ... "when all those, whom thou desirest, shall be returned, &c. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "as a bride returns to her husband; only the soul of one thou seekest, and peace shall be to all the people." (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned, i. e. the death of that man whom thou seekest to destroy is no less considerable to thee, than if all the people that follow him should desert him and return unto thee.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned; Hebrew, as the return of the whole is the man whom thou seekest. Both the amendments of the text and the various translations offered are innumerable, but nothing is really more satisfactory than the literal rendering of the words, virtually given us in the Authorized Version. Naturally, Ahithophel did not wish to parade David"s death too openly. In his heart Absalom must have known that the safe possession of the kingdom could be assured him only by his father"s death, but yet he might have shrunk from publicly avowing this, and having it talked of before his courtiers as a settled purpose. One reason why he adopted the counsel of Hushai may have been his reluctance to commit parricide: for plainly the one main purpose of Ahithophel was David"s death. This thorough traitor may have seen even a tremor of alarm in Absalom"s countenance when he spake out his purpose so frankly of "smiting the king only," and may have felt that, slumbering in the besom of the son, was something of that generous spirit which had made the father condemn the Amalekite to death for boasting that he had slain Saul. At all events, he was unwilling to dilate upon so ghastly a theme, and this general reference to David, as the man whom Absalom sought, without dwelling upon the subject, is in far better taste than the coarse open villainy so unreservedly expressed in ver. 2. The reading, however, of the Septuagint has many followers: "And I will bring back all the people to thee as a bride returns to her husband, excepting the life of the one man thou seekest; and for all the people there shall be peace." Ahithophel was bad enough, but scarcely so brutal as to compare to a bridal procession the sad return of David"s mourning friends and companions in arms weeping round the corpse of their master murdered at the bidding of his own son.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When they all return [to you]. To you.

[Except] the man you want. You will do what you want with him and you will have him killed. And afterwords, all the people will have peace. This is a shortened verse.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.