17 And Jonathan and Ahimaaz are standing at En-Rogel, and the maidservant has gone and declared [it] to them—and they go and have declared [it] to King David—for they are not able to be seen to go into the city.

18 And a youth sees them, and declares [it] to Absalom; and both of them go on quickly, and come to the house of a man in Bahurim, and he has a well in his court, and they go down there,

19 and the woman takes and spreads the covering over the face of the well, and spreads the ground grain on it, and the thing has not been known.

20 And the servants of Absalom come to the woman at the house, and say, “Where [are] Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman says to them, “They passed over the brook of water”; and they seek, and have not found, and return to Jerusalem.

21 And it comes to pass, after their going on, that they come up out of the well, and go and declare [it] to King David, and say to David, “Rise, and pass over the waters quickly, for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you.”

22 And David rises, and all the people who [are] with him, and they pass over the Jordan, until the morning light, until not one has been lacking who has not passed over the Jordan.

2 Samuel 17:17-22, Literal Standard Version. Copyright © 2020 Covenant Press.
2 Samuel 16
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