What Does II Samuel 17:19 Mean?

The woman of Bahurim demonstrates resourceful deception: "She took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known." The double concealment, a covering over the well and ground corn spread over the covering, creates the appearance of an ordinary domestic scene. Absalom's agents, arriving to search the house, find nothing but a courtyard with grain drying in the sun. The camouflage is perfect because it is ordinary: the hiding place is invisible precisely because it looks like everything else.

The woman's action involves deliberate deception in the service of the king's cause, raising the same ethical questions that Rahab's lie raised in the book of Joshua. The Bible records these deceptions without explicit moral commentary, leaving the reader to wrestle with the tension between the prohibition against bearing false witness and the preservation of innocent life. What is clear is that the woman's courage and ingenuity serve the divine purpose, and the intelligence that eventually reaches David depends on her willingness to risk her life by harboring fugitives.

The Lord Jesus is hidden in plain sight throughout the Old Testament, concealed beneath the ordinary surfaces of narrative, law, poetry, and prophecy. "These are the things which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me." The ground corn that covered the well is like the veil that covered the hearts of those who read the scriptures without seeing Christ, and the revelation of the risen Lord removes the covering and exposes the living Savior who was hidden all along.