There is nothing so foreign to a Christian soul as haughtiness. Haughtiness, I say, not boldness nor courage, for these are agreeable. But these are one thing, and that is another; so too humility is one thing, and ignobility, flattery and adulation another. I will now, if you wish, give you examples of all these qualities. For these things which are contraries, seem in some way to be placed close together, as the tares are to the wheat and the thorns to the rose. But while babes might easily be deceived, those who are mature in truth and are skilled in spiritual husbandry know how to separate what is really good from the bad. Let me then lay before you examples of these qualities from the Scriptures. What is flattery and ignobility and adulation? Ziba flattered David out of season and falsely slandered his master.^[1] Much more did Ahitophel flatter Absalom. But David was not like this but was humble. For the deceitful are flatterers, as when they say, O king, live forever.^[2] Again, what flatterers the magicians are.

Accordingly, as the Scripture says, And by the command of the Lord the good counsel of Ahithophel was defeated, that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. The counsel of Ahithophel was called good because it served his purpose for the time, since it favored Absalom over his father whom he had risen up against in rebellion. And it might well have destroyed him if the Lord had not frustrated Ahithophel’s counsel by influencing the heart of Absalom to reject this counsel and to choose another which was not to his advantage.

For in the history, Hushai is mentioned as the chief companion of David and the son of Arachi, but in the psalm,^[1] Hushai is the son of Jemini. Neither he nor any other of those appearing in the history was the son of Jemini. Perhaps he was called the son of Jemini for this reason, because he displayed great valor and strength through a mere pretense of friendship, going over, as he pretended, to Absalom, but in reality thwarting the plans of Ahithophel, a very skilled man, well trained in military affairs, who was giving his counsel. The son of Jemini is interpreted the son of the right hand. By his proposals he prevented the acceptance of the plan of Ahithophel—that no time should intervene in the affairs but that an attack should be made immediately on the father while he was unprepared— in order that, as Scripture says, the Lord might bring all evils upon Absalom. At all events, he seemed to them to introduce more plausible reasons for postponement and delay, while his real purpose was to give time to David to gather his forces. Because of Hushai’s counsel he was acceptable to Absalom, who said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.

However, Hushai informed David through the priests Zadok and Abiathar of the decision and bade him not to camp in Araboth in the desert but urged him to cross it. Since, then, he was on the right hand of David through his good advice, he obtained the name from his brave deed. Surely it is because of this that he is called son of Jemini, that is, son of the right hand. It is a custom of Scripture not only to give those who are more wicked a name from their sin rather than from their fathers but also to call the better sons from the virtue characterizing them.

And what shall we say about the deed of the woman who received those who had been sent to King David by the aforementioned Hushai and who hid them in a well, spreading a cover over the mouth of it and making believe that she was drying barley? They went on, she said, after having drunk a little water, and by this trick she saved them from the hands of their pursuers. Tell me, then, I ask you, what you would have done if a similar situation had arisen for you who now live under the gospel. Would you have chosen to conceal them by a similar lie, saying in the same way, They went on after having drunk a little water, thus fulfilling what is commanded, Do not spare [your help] to save those who are being led to death and to redeem those who are being slain^[1] Or by speaking the truth would you have given over those who were hidden to those who were going to kill them? What, then, of the apostle’s words? Let no one seek what is [to] his own [benefit] but rather [to] what is another’s.^[2] And, Love does not seek what is its own but rather what belongs to others.^[3] And what he says about himself, I do not seek what is beneficial to me but what is beneficial to the many, so that they may be saved.^[4] For if we seek what is ours and wish to hold on obstinately to what is beneficial to us, we shall have to speak the truth even in difficulties of this sort, and we shall become guilty of another’s death. But if we fulfill the apostolic command by placing what is helpful to others ahead of our own well-being, without a doubt the necessity of lying will be imposed upon us.