2 Samuel 17:1-21 ▼

1 Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, |Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.

2 And I will catch up with him while he is weary and discouraged, and will thow him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. And I will strike the king alone.

3 Then all the people will come back to you, as a bride returns to her husband. You seek the life of only one man; then all the people will be in peace.|

4 And the advice seemed good to Absalom and all the elders of Israel.

5 Then Absalom said, |Now call Hushai the Archite, and let’s hear what he says.|

6 When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, |Ahithophel has spoken thus. Should we follow his advice? And if not, speak up.|

7 So Hushai said to Absalom, |The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.|

8 Moreover, Hushai said, |You know your father and his men, that they are warriors, and that they are as fierce as a bear robbed of her cubs in the wild, or a sow snared in the wild. Your father is expert in war, and will not camp with the people.

9 Look, he is now hidden in some pit, or in some other place. And it will happen when some of them have fallen first, that whoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.’

10 Then even the one who is brave, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a warrior, and those who are with him are brave men.

11 But, I strongly advise as follows: Let all Israel be gathered to you from Dan to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea in number, and that you personally go into battle.

12 So we will come upon him in some place where he can be found, and we will fall on him as the dew falls on the ground, and of him and all the men with him not one will be left.

13 Moreover, if he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will take up ropes to that city, and we will drag it into the riverbed, until there isn't one pebble to be found there.|

14 Then Absalom and all Israel said, |The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.| For the LORD had commanded that Ahithophel’s counsel should be defeated, so that that the LORD could bring Absalom to ruin.

15 Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, |Here is the council Ahithophel gave Absalom and the elders of Israel, and here is what I counseled.

16 Now therefore send quickly and tell David, saying, 'Do not stay the night at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over. Otherwise the king and all the people who are with him will be swallowed up.'|

17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying at En Rogel, and a female servant was to go and tell them, and they would go and inform king David. For they were not to be seen going into the city.

18 But a young man saw them and told Absalom. So they both departed quickly and reached the house of a man in Bahurim who had a well in his courtyard, and they went down into it.

19 And the woman took a covering and spread it over the top of the well and scattered some grain on it, so that nothing could be noticed.

20 Then Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house, and they asked, |Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?| And the woman said to them, |They have crossed the brook of water.| And when they had searched and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.

21 It came about after they had left that they climbed out of the well, and left and told king David. And they said to him, |Get up and cross quickly over the water, for Ahithophel has given such and such counsel against you.|