Editing Ahitophel (section)

===Curse upon Ahitophel===
[[File:Weltchronik Fulda Aa88 284r detail.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Ahitophel hangs himself from a 14th Chronicle of the World by Rudolf vom Emns]]

Ahitophel rendered a service to David upon another occasion, but not until he was again threatened with the curse. It appears that David excavated too deeply for the foundations of the Temple, resulting in the earth's deepest floods breaking forth and nearly inundating the earth. None could help but Ahitophel, who withheld his counsel from seeing David borne away upon the flood. When David again warned him of the malediction, Ahitophel counselled the king to throw a tile, with the [[Tetragrammaton]] written upon it, into the cavity; the waters began to sink. Ahitophel is said to have defended his use of the name of God in this emergency by referencing the practice enjoined by Scripture (Numbers 5:23) to restore marital harmony; surely a matter of small importance, he argued, compared with the threatened destruction of the world.<ref>Sukkah 53a,b</ref>  David's repeated malediction that Ahitophel would be hanged was finally realized when the latter hanged himself.

Ahitophel's death was a great loss to David, for his wisdom was so great that Scripture itself (2 Samuel 16:23) avoids calling him a man, likening him to an angel;<ref>Midrash Tehillim, 3</ref> in the passage quoted the Hebrew word for man is omitted in the text, being supplied only by the Masorah. (The preceding statement is incorrect because the word for "man" in 2 Samuel 16:23 refers to one who asks at the word of God and not to Ahitophel. Thus, its absence does not imply anything about Ahitophel.) Indeed, his wisdom bordered on that of the angels.<ref>Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 10 2; Yalkut Shimoni, II Samuel § 142</ref> His learning in the Law was also extensive so that David did not scruple to call him "master";<ref>Avot, 6:2</ref> the two things which David is there said to have learned from Ahitophel are more closely described in Masechet Kallah.<ref>Kallah, 16a (ed. N. Coronel</ref> Ahitophel's disposition, however, was a jealous one; and he always sought to wound David by mocking remarks.<ref>Pesikta, 2 10b; Midrash Tehillim 3:3, and parallel passages in Buber, note 68</ref> His devotion to the study of the Law was not founded on worthy motives.<ref name=s106>Sanhedrin 106b</ref> Ahitophel was thirty-three years old when he died.<ref name=s106/> In his will, he left three warnings to his children to  1. Refrain from doing aught against a favourite of fortune. 2. Take heed not to rise up against the royal house of David and to take no part in their dissensions<ref>Yerushalmi l.c.</ref> 3. If [[Shavuot]] falls on a sunny day, then sow wheat. Posterity has been favored with the knowledge of but a small part of Ahitophel's wisdom, and that little through two widely different sources, through [[Socrates]], who was his disciple, and through a fortune-book written by him.<ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2882/2882.txt Legends of the Jews pp.71-74]{{PD-notice}}</ref>

Ahitophel is counted among those that have no share in the world to come.<ref>Sanhedrin 11:1; Bava Batra 147a</ref>