1 Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve
thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night: 2 and I
will come on him while he is weary and weak-handed, and will make him afraid;
and all the people who are with him shall flee; and I will strike the king
only; 3 and I will bring back all the people to you: the man whom you seek
is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace. 4 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
says. 6 When Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying,
Ahithophel has spoken after this manner: shall we do after his
saying? if not, speak up. 7 Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that
Ahithophel has given this time is not good. 8 Hushai said moreover, You
know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce
in their minds, as a bear robbed of her cubs in the field; and your 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 happen, when
some of them are fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, There
is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom. 10 Even he who is
valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all
Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are
valiant men. 11 But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to you,
from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and
that you go to battle in your own person. 12 So shall we come on him in
some place where he shall be found, and we will light on him as the dew falls
on the ground; and of him and of all the men who are with him we will not
leave 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 not be one small stone found there. 14 Absalom and all the men
of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel
of Ahithophel. For Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of
Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil on Absalom. 15 Then
said Hushai to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did
Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I
counseled. 16 Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Don’t
lodge this night at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over;
lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him. 17 Now
Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying by En Rogel; and a maid-servant used to go
and tell them; and they went and told king David: for they might not be seen
to come into the city. 18 But a boy saw them, and told Absalom: and they
went both of them away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bahurim,
who had a well in his court; and they went down there. 19 The woman took
and spread the covering over the well’s mouth, and strewed bruised grain
thereon; and nothing was known. 20 Absalom’s servants came to the woman to
the house; and they said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? The woman said to
them, They have gone over the brook of water. When they had sought and could
not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. 21 It happened, after they had
departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David;
and they said to David, Arise you, and pass quickly over the water; for
thus has Ahithophel counseled against you. 22 Then David arose, and all
the people who were with him, and they passed over the Jordan: by the morning
light there lacked not one of them who had not gone over the Jordan.
23 When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his
donkey, and arose, and got him home, to his city, and set his house in order,
and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.
24 Then David came to Mahanaim. Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all
the men of Israel with him. 25 Absalom set Amasa over the host instead of
Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man, whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who
went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.
26 Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead. 27 It happened,
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 basins, and earthen
vessels, and wheat, and barley, and meal, and parched grain, and
beans, and lentils, and parched pulse, 29 and honey, and butter,
and sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people who were
with him, to eat: for they said, The people are hungry, and weary, and
thirsty, in the wilderness.
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