2 Samuel 17

Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue Dawud this night: ²and 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; ³and I will bring all the people back to you. When all return except the man whom you seek, all the people shall be at peace. ⁴The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel. ⁵Then Absalom said, Call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear what he says too. ⁶When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, Ahithophel has spoken in this manner: shall we do what he says? If not, speak up. ⁷Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good. ⁸Hushai 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 camp with the people. ⁹Surely he is hidden 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. ¹⁰Even 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. ¹¹But 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 person. ¹²So we will come on him in some place where he may be found, and we will fall 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. ¹³Moreover, if he withdraws into a city, then all Israel shall bring ropes to that city, and we will pull it into the river, until there is not one small stone found there. ¹⁴Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For Allah had purposed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Allah might bring disaster on Absalom. ¹⁵Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and so did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and so I have counseled. ¹⁶Now therefore send quickly, and tell Dawud, saying, Do not lodge this night at the fords of the wilderness, but speedily cross over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him. ¹⁷Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying by En Rogel, for they dared not be seen coming into the city; so a maid-servant used to go and tell them, and they went and told king Dawud. ¹⁸Nevertheless a boy saw them, and told Absalom. But both of them went away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his court; and they went down into it. ¹⁹The woman took and spread the covering over the well's mouth, and strewed bruised grain thereon; and nothing was known. ²⁰Absalom's servants came to the woman at 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. ²¹It happened, after they had departed, that the two men came up out of the well, and went and told king Dawud; and they said to Dawud, Arise and cross quickly over the water; for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you. ²²Then Dawud arose, and all the people who were with him, and they crossed over the Jordan: by the morning light not one of them was left who had not gone over the Jordan. ²³When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and arose, and went 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. ²⁴Then Dawud came to Mahanaim. Absalom crossed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. ²⁵Absalom set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who went in to Abigail Bint Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab's mother. ²⁶Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead. ²⁷It happened, when Dawud was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi Ibn Nahash of Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Machir Ibn Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, ²⁸brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and meal, and parched grain, and beans, and lentils, and parched pulse, ²⁹and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of the herd, for Dawud, and for the people who were with him, to eat: for they said, The people are hungry, weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.