2 Samuel 17

Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night: ²and I will come upon him while he is ^aweary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only: ³and I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace. ⁴And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel. ⁵Then said Absalom, Call now ^bHushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith. ⁶And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spake unto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying? if not; speak thou. ⁷And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time. ⁸For, (said Hushai,) thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as ^ca bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people. ⁹Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom. ¹⁰And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly ^dmelt: for all Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men. ¹¹Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, ^efrom Dan even to Beer-sheba, ^fas the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person. ¹²So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falleth on the ground: and of him and of all the men that are with him there shall not be left so much as one. ¹³Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one ^gsmall stone found there. ¹⁴And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord had appointed ^hto defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom.

¹⁵ⁱThen said Hushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled. ¹⁶Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night ^kin the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him. ¹⁷Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by ^lEn-rogel; for they might not be seen to come into the city: and a wench went and told them; and they went and told king David. ¹⁸Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Absalom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man’s house ^min Bahurim, which had a well in his court; whither they went down. ¹⁹And ⁿthe woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth, and spread ^oground corn thereon; and the thing was not known. ²⁰And when Absalom’s servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And ^pthe woman said unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. ²¹And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David, and said unto David, ^qArise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you. ²²Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over Jordan: by the morning light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over Jordan.

²³And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to ^rhis city, and put his household in order, and ^shanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father. ²⁴Then David came to ^tMahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. ²⁵And Absalom made ^uAmasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man’s son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Abigal the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab’s mother. ²⁶So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead. ²⁷And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that ^wShobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and ^xMachir the son of Ammiel of ^yLo-debar, and ^zBarzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, ²⁸brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse, ²⁹and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people is hungry, and ^aweary, and thirsty, ^bin the wilderness.

XVIII.