2 Samuel 17:17–29

¹⁷Now ^bJonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at ^cEn-rogel. A female servant was to go and tell them, and they were to go and tell King David, for they were not to be seen entering the city. ¹⁸But a young man saw them and told Absalom. So both of them went away quickly and came to the house of a man at ^dBahurim, who had a well in his courtyard. And they went down into it. ^19eAnd the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth and scattered grain on it, and nothing was known of it. ²⁰When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them, “They have gone over the brook⁵ of water.” And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.

²¹After they had gone, the men came up out of the well, and went and told King David. They said to David, ^f“Arise, and go quickly over the water, for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you.” ²²Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they crossed the Jordan. By daybreak not one was left who had not crossed the Jordan.

²³When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to ^ghis own city. He ^hset his house in order and ⁱhanged himself, and he died and was buried in the tomb of his father.

²⁴Then David came to ^jMahanaim. And Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel. ²⁵Now Absalom had set ^kAmasa over the army instead of Joab. Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite,⁶ who had married Abigal the daughter of ^lNahash, sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother. ²⁶And Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.

²⁷When David came to Mahanaim, ^mShobi the son of Nahash from ⁿRabbah of the Ammonites, and ^oMachir the son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and ^pBarzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim, ²⁸brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans and lentils,^{7 29}honey and curds and sheep and cheese from the herd, for David and the people with him to eat, for they said, “The people are hungry and ^qweary and thirsty ^rin the wilderness.”