2 Samuel 17:17–29

¹⁷Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En Rogel. They could not risk being seen coming into the city, so a servant girl was to go and tell them, and they were to go and tell King David. ¹⁸But a young man saw Jonathan and Ahimaaz and told Absalom. So both of them left quickly and came to the home of a man in Bahurim who had a cistern in his courtyard, and they went down into it. ¹⁹The man’s wife took a cover, spread it over the top of the cistern, and scattered some grainover it so that no one could tell it was there. 

²⁰Absalom’s servants came to the woman at her home. “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” they asked. 

The woman said, “They’ve crossed the stream.” 

The servants looked for them but did not find them. So Absalom’s servants returned to Jerusalem. 

²¹After Absalom’s servants left, both men came out of the cistern and went and told King David. “Leave right away,” they told David. “Cross the river quickly because this is what Ahithophel has advised against you.…” 

²²David and all the troops with him left to cross the Jordan River. When the dawn came, everyone had crossed the Jordan River. 

²³When Ahithophel saw that his advice hadn’t been followed, he saddled his donkey, left, and went home to his own city. He gave instructions to his family. Then he hanged himself, died, and was buried in his father’s tomb. 

²⁴David had ⸤already⸥ come to Mahanaim by the time Absalom and all the men of Israel with him crossed the Jordan River. ²⁵Absalom appointed Amasa to take Joab’s place as commander of the army. (Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra, a descendant of Ishmael.^cHis mother was Abigail,^dthe daughter of Nahash and sister of Joab’s mother Zeruiah.) ²⁶The Israelites and Absalom camped in the region of Gilead. 

²⁷When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi, son of Nahash from Rabbah in Ammon, and Machir, son of Ammiel from Lo Debar, and Barzillai from Rogelim in Gilead ²⁸brought ⸤supplies⸥ and food for David and his troops: bedding, bowls, pots, wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils,^e29honey, buttermilk, sheep, and calves. They brought these things because they thought, “The troops in the desert are hungry, exhausted, and thirsty.”