Giloh

Giloh was a town in the highlands of Judah, southwest of Hebron, allotted to Judah at the conquest (Joshua 15:51). It is best known as the hometown of Ahithophel the Gilonite, whose counsel "in those days was like the oracle of God" (2 Samuel 16:23). When Absalom raised his rebellion against King David, Ahithophel left Giloh and joined the conspiracy, becoming Absalom's chief strategist. His first advice — that Absalom should publicly sleep with David's concubines on the palace roof — was a calculated political signal that the breach was permanent (2 Samuel 16:21-23). His second — that Absalom should send Ahithophel himself out that night with twelve thousand men to chase down David before he could regroup — would have ended the rebellion in David's death. But Hushai the Archite, planted as David's informant, talked Absalom into delay. When Ahithophel realized his counsel had been rejected, "he saddled his donkey and went home to his city. He set his house in order and hanged himself" (2 Samuel 17:23). He is also named among David's mighty men as the father of Eliam — making him Bathsheba's grandfather (2 Samuel 23:34).