2 Samuel 17

1 Moreover Ahithophel said unto Avshalom, “Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after Dawid 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 you; the man whom you seekest is as if all returned; so all the people shall be in peace.”

4 And the saying pleased Avshalom well, and all the elders of Yisrael.

5 Then said Avshalom, “Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.”

6 And when Hushai was come to Avshalom, Avshalom spake unto him, saying, “Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner; shall we do after his saying? If not; speak you.”

7 And Hushai said unto Avshalom: “The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time.”

8 For, said Hushai, “you knowest your 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 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 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 Avshalom.’

10 And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all Yisrael knoweth that your father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men.

11 Therefore I counsel that all Yisrael be generally gathered unto you, from Dan even to Beer-Sheva, 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 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 Yisrael bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one small stone found there.”

14 And Avshalom and all the men of Yisrael said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For יהוה had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that יהוה might bring evil upon Avshalom.

15 Then said Hushai unto Zadok and to Aviyahthar the priests (kohanim), Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Avshalom and the elders of Yisrael; and thus and thus have I counselled.

16 Now therefore send quickly, and tell Dawid, 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 (Yehonatan) and Ahimaaz stayed by En Rogel; for they might not be seen to come into the city; and a wench went and told them; and they went and told King Dawid.

18 Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Avshalom; 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 Avshalom’s servants came to the woman to the house, they said, “Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan (Yehonatan)?” 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 (Yerushalayim).

21 And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told King Dawid, and said unto Dawid, “Arise, and pass quickly over the water; for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you.”

22 Then Dawid arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over Jordan (Yarden): by the morning light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over Jordan (Yarden).

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 Dawid came to Mahanaim. And Avshalom passed over Jordan (Yarden), he and all the men of Yisrael with him.

25 And Avshalom made Amasa captain of the army instead of Yoav: which Amasa was a man’s son, whose name was Ithra an Yisraeli, that went in to Avigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Tseruyah Yoav’s mother.

26 So Yisrael and Avshalom pitched in the land of Gilad.

27 And it came to pass, when Dawid 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 Giladite 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 Dawid, and for the people that were with him, to eat; for they said, “The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.”