“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.” (2 Samuel 17:1-29 AV)
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