2 Samuel, Chapter 17

1. Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David 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 strike the king only:    3. And I will bring back all the people to you: as for the man whom you seek, it is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace.    4. And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.    5. Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he says.    6. And when Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, Ahithophel has spoken in this manner: shall we do according to his saying? if not; speak.    7. And Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good at this time.    8. For, said Hushai, you know your father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be stirred up in their minds, as a bear robbed of her cubs 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 whoever hears it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom.    10. And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall completely melt: for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.    11. Therefore I counsel that all Israel in general be gathered to you, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, 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 come upon him as the dew falls 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 has 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.    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.    15. Then said Hushai to 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.    16. Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Do not lodge 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 and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel; for they could not be seen to come into the city: and a girl would go and speak to them; and they would go and speak to king David.    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; in which they went down.    19. And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground grain on it; and the thing was not known.    20. And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said to them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.    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 to David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus has Ahithophel counselled against you.    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.    23. And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and arose, and went home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulcher of his father.    24. Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.    25. And Absalom made Amasa captain of the army 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.    26. So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead.    27. And it came to pass, when David had 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 Gileadite of Rogelim,    28. Brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched grain, and beans, and lentils, and parched legumes,    29. And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese from cows, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.