2 Samuel 17:17–29

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.