2 Samuel 17

David as a type of Christ

And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only: 2 Samuel 17:2–3

Ahithophel's plan is to strike down the one king so the whole people can have peace. His words echo Caiaphas's later plotting that one man should die for the people, and the prophecy that the Shepherd would be struck.

• alluded to by John 11:50 — Caiaphas: it is expedient that one man should die for the people.
• alluded to by Zechariah 13:7 — Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.

Jehovah

Jehovah — the covenant name, I AM, the premortal Christ

And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom. 2 Samuel 17:14

The LORD (Jehovah, the premortal Christ) quietly steers events to protect His anointed king by overturning the counsel of the betrayer.

How we know: Jehovah is the premortal Christ (Abraham 1:16; D&C 110:3–4)

• fulfils 2 Samuel 15:31 — David had prayed, O LORD, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.

David as a type of Christ

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. 2 Samuel 17:23

Ahithophel was David's trusted counselor, turned traitor, and when his plot failed he went out and hanged himself. The only other traitor in the Bible who hangs himself is Judas, who betrayed Jesus, the Son of David, so David's betrayal foreshadows the Savior's.

• a type of what is in Matthew 27:5 — Judas, the betrayer of the Son of David, went and hanged himself.
• the same event in 2 Samuel 15:12 — Ahithophel, David's counselor, joins Absalom's conspiracy.