2Sa 17:1 Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve
thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:
2Sa 17:2 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:
2Sa 17:3 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.
2Sa 17:4 And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
2Sa 17:5 Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear
likewise what he saith.
2Sa 17:6 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.
2Sa 17:7 And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is
not good at this time.
2Sa 17:8 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.
2Sa 17:9 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.
2Sa 17:10 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.
2Sa 17:11 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.
2Sa 17:12 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.
2Sa 17:13 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.
2Sa 17:14 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.
2Sa 17:15 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.
2Sa 17:16 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.
2Sa 17:17 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.
2Sa 17:18 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.
2Sa 17:19 And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and
spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known.
2Sa 17:20 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.
2Sa 17:21 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.
2Sa 17:22 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.
2Sa 17:23 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.
2Sa 17:24 Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and
all the men of Israel with him.
2Sa 17:25 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.
2Sa 17:26 So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead.
2Sa 17:27 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 Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,
2Sa 17:28 Brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley,
and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,
2Sa 17:29 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.