2 Samuel 17:8

For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they [be] mighty men, and they [be] chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father [is] a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.

Ver. 8. They be mighty men.] Mighty indeed they were, whereas some one of them could lift up his hand against a hundred, two hundred, three hundred of the enemy. 2Sa 23:18-21 And David himself was of known valour. Our Richard II, when dethroned and committed to Pomfret Castle, was there assaulted by eight assassins, four of whom he valiantly killed. What would David have done then, think we? who as when he was young he fought with great Goliath and slew him, so, long after this rebellion of Absalom, and when he was well in years, he encountered Ishbibenob the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight; 2Sa 21:16 surely he with his old soldiers would have made some work among Absalom's raw men, fresh water soldiers.

As a bear robbed.] So they, forced to leave all they have, will redouble their resolution to recover what they have lost: and who knoweth not that anger is the whetstone of valour? and that men enraged will venture their utmost?

And thy father is a man of war.] A wary warrior, and expert in stratagems of all sorts: let him alone to look to one.