1 Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out
twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:
2 And
I will come upon him while he is weary 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:
3 And
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.
4 And
the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
5 Then
said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what
he saith.
6 And
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.
7 And
Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not
good at this time.
8 For,
said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty
men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear
robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man
of war, and will not lodge with the people.
9 Behold,
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.
10 And
he also that is valiant,
whose heart is as the
heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all Israel knoweth that thy father is a
mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant
men.
11 Therefore
I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to
Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that
thou go to battle in thine own person.
12 So
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.
13 Moreover,
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 small stone found
there.
14 And
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 to defeat the good
counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon
Absalom.
15 Then
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.
16 Now
therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the
plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed
up, and all the people that are with him.
17 Now
Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by Enrogel; 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.
18 Nevertheless
a lad saw them, and told Absalom: but they went both of them away quickly, and
came to a man's house in Bahurim, which had a well in his court; whither they
went down.
19 And
the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground
corn thereon; and the thing was not known.
20 And
when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is Ahimaaz
and Jonathan? And the 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.
21 And
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, Arise, and pass quickly over
the water: for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you.
22 Then
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.
23 And
when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass,
and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in
order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his
father.
24 Then
David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of
Israel with him.
25 And
Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a
man's son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to
Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab's mother.
26 So
Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead.
27 And
it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash
of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar,
and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,
28 Brought
beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and
parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,
29 And
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 weary, and thirsty, in the
wilderness.
