2 Samuel 16–17

David and Ziba

16^*When David had gone a little beyond the top of the hill, he was suddenly met by Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, who had with him a couple of donkeys loaded with 200 loaves of bread, a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred bunches of fresh fruit, and a leather bag full of wine. ²King David asked him, “What are you going to do with all that?”

Ziba answered, “The donkeys are for Your Majesty’s family to ride, the bread and the fruit are for the men to eat, and the wine is for them to drink when they get tired in the wilderness.”

^3*“Where is Mephibosheth, the grandson of your master Saul?” the king asked him. “He is staying in Jerusalem,” Ziba answered, “because he is convinced that the Israelites will now restore to him the kingdom of his grandfather Saul.”

⁴The king said to Ziba, “Everything that belonged to Mephibosheth is yours.”

“I am your servant,” Ziba replied. “May I always please Your Majesty!”

David and Shimei

⁵When King David arrived at Bahurim, one of Saul’s relatives, Shimei son of Gera, came out to meet him, cursing him as he came. ⁶Shimei started throwing stones at David and his officials, even though David was surrounded by his men and his bodyguard. ⁷Shimei cursed him and said, “Get out! Get out! Murderer! Criminal! ⁸You took Saul’s kingdom, and now the Lord is punishing you for murdering so many of Saul’s family. The Lord has given the kingdom to your son Absalom, and you are ruined, you murderer!”

⁹Abishai, whose mother was Zeruiah, said to the king, “Your Majesty, why do you let this dog curse you? Let me go over there and cut off his head!”

¹⁰“This is none of your business,” the king said to Abishai and his brother Joab. “If he curses me because the Lord told him to, who has the right to ask why he does it?” ¹¹And David said to Abishai and to all his officials, “My own son is trying to kill me; so why should you be surprised at this Benjaminite? The Lord told him to curse; so leave him alone and let him do it. ¹²Perhaps the Lord will notice my misery^t and give me some blessings to take the place of his curse.” ¹³So David and his men continued along the road. Shimei kept up with them, walking on the hillside; he was cursing and throwing stones and earth at them as he went. ¹⁴The king and all his men were worn out when they reached the Jordan,^u and there they rested.

Absalom in Jerusalem

¹⁵Absalom and all the Israelites with him entered Jerusalem, and Ahithophel was with them. ¹⁶When Hushai, David’s trusted friend, met Absalom, he shouted, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

¹⁷“What has happened to your loyalty to your friend David?” Absalom asked him. “Why didn’t you go with him?”

¹⁸Hushai answered, “How could I? I am on the side of the one chosen by the Lord, by these people, and by all the Israelites. I will stay with you. ¹⁹After all, whom should I serve, if not my master’s son? As I served your father, so now I will serve you.”

²⁰Then Absalom turned to Ahithophel and said, “Now that we are here, what do you advise us to do?”

²¹Ahithophel answered, “Go and have intercourse with your father’s concubines whom he left behind to take care of the palace. Then everyone in Israel will know that your father regards you as his enemy, and your followers will be greatly encouraged.” ^22*So they set up a tent for Absalom on the palace roof, and in the sight of everyone Absalom went in and had intercourse with his father’s concubines.

²³Any advice that Ahithophel gave in those days was accepted as though it were the very word of God; both David and Absalom followed it.

Hushai Misleads Absalom

17Not long after that, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and tonight I will set out after David. ²I will attack him while he is tired and discouraged. He will be frightened, and all his men will run away. I will kill only the king ³and then bring back all his men to you, like a bride returning to her husband. You want to kill only one man;^v the rest of the people will be safe.” ⁴This seemed like good advice to Absalom and all the Israelite leaders.

⁵Absalom said, “Now call Hushai, and let us hear what he has to say.” ⁶When Hushai arrived, Absalom said to him, “This is the advice that Ahithophel has given us; shall we follow it? If not, you tell us what to do.”

⁷Hushai answered, “The advice Ahithophel gave you this time is no good. ⁸You know that your father David and his men are hard fighters and that they are as fierce as a mother bear robbed of her cubs. Your father is an experienced soldier and does not stay with his men at night. ⁹Just now he is probably hiding in a cave or some other place. As soon as David attacks your men, whoever hears about it will say that your men have been defeated. ¹⁰Then even the bravest men, as fearless as lions, will be afraid because everyone in Israel knows that your father is a great soldier and that his men are hard fighters. ¹¹My advice is that you bring all the Israelites together from one end of the country to the other, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore, and that you lead them personally in battle. ¹²We will find David wherever he is, and attack him before he knows what’s happening. Neither he nor any of his men will survive. ¹³If he retreats into a city, our people will all bring ropes and just pull the city^w into the valley below. Not a single stone will be left there on top of the hill.”

¹⁴Absalom and all the Israelites said, “Hushai’s advice is better than Ahithophel’s.” The Lord had decided that Ahithophel’s good advice would not be followed, so that disaster would come on Absalom.

David Is Warned and Escapes

¹⁵Then Hushai told the priests Zadok and Abiathar what advice he had given to Absalom and the Israelite leaders and what advice Ahithophel had given. ¹⁶Hushai added, “Quick, now! Send a message to David not to spend the night at the river crossings in the wilderness, but to cross the Jordan at once, so that he and his men won’t all be caught and killed.”

¹⁷Abiathar’s son Jonathan and Zadok’s son Ahimaaz were waiting at the spring of Enrogel, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, because they did not dare to be seen entering the city. A servant woman would regularly go and tell them what was happening, and then they would go and tell King David. ¹⁸But one day a boy happened to see them, and he told Absalom; so they hurried off to hide in the house of a certain man in Bahurim. He had a well near his house, and they got down into it. ¹⁹The man’s wife took a covering, spread it over the opening of the well and scattered grain over it, so that no one would notice anything. ²⁰Absalom’s officials came to the house and asked the woman, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”

“They crossed the river,” she answered.

The men looked for them but could not find them, and so they returned to Jerusalem. ²¹After they left, Ahimaaz and Jonathan came up out of the well and went and reported to King David. They told him what Ahithophel had planned against him and said, “Hurry up and cross the river.” ²²So David and his men started crossing the Jordan, and by daybreak they had all gone across.

²³When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and went back to his own city. After putting his affairs in order, he hanged himself. He was buried in the family grave.

²⁴David had reached the town of Mahanaim by the time Absalom and the Israelites had crossed the Jordan. ²⁵(Absalom had put Amasa in command of the army in the place of Joab. Amasa was the son of Jether the Ishmaelite;^x his mother was Abigail, the daughter of Nahash and the sister of Joab’s mother Zeruiah.) ²⁶Absalom and his men camped in the land of Gilead.

²⁷When David arrived at Mahanaim, he was met by Shobi son of Nahash, from the city of Rabbah in Ammon, and by Machir son of Ammiel, from Lodebar, and by Barzillai, from Rogelim in Gilead. ^28–29They brought bowls, clay pots, and bedding, and also food for David and his men: wheat, barley, meal, roasted grain, beans, peas,^y honey, cheese, cream, and some sheep. They knew that David and his men would be hungry, thirsty, and tired in the wilderness.