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;
17:2 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:
17:3 And I will bring back all the people to thee: the man whom
thou seekest [is] as if all returned: [so] all the people shall
be in peace.
17:4 And the saying, pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of
Israel.
17:5 Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and
let us hear likewise what he saith.
17:6 And when Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him,
saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do
[after] his saying? if not, speak thou.
17:7 And Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel
hath given, [is] not good at this time.
17:8 For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that
they [are] mighty men, and they [are] chafed in their minds, as
a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father [is] a
man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
17:9 Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some [other]
place: and it will come to pass, when some of them [are]
overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say,
There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom.
17:10 And he also [that is] valiant, whose heart [is] as the
heart of a lion, will utterly melt: for all Israel knoweth that
thy father [is] a mighty man, and [they] who [are] with him
[are] valiant men.
17:11 Therefore I counsel that all Israel should be generally
gathered to thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as the sand that
[is] by the sea for multitude; and that thou shouldst go to
battle in thy own person.
17:12 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.
17:13 Moreover, if he shall have entered into a city, then shall
all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into
the river, until there is not one small stone found there.
17:14 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.
17:15 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 counseled.
17:16 Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, 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.
17:17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel; for they
might not be seen to come into the city: and a maid servant
went and told them; and they went and told king David.
17:18 Nevertheless, a lad saw them, and told Absalom: but they
went both of them away quickly, and came to the house of a man
in Bahurim, who had a well in his court; into which they
descended.
17:19 And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's
mouth, and spread ground corn upon it; and the thing was not
known.
17:20 And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the
house, they said, Where [is] Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the
woman said to them, they have gone over the brook of water. And
when they had sought and could not find [them], they returned
to Jerusalem.
17:21 And it came to pass, after they had departed, that they
came out of the well, and went and told king David, and said to
David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus hath
Ahithophel counseled against you.
17:22 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 had not gone over Jordan.
17:23 And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed,
he saddled [his] ass, 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.
17:24 Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over
Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.
17:25 And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host 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.
17:26 So Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.
17:27 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 Lo-debar, and Barzillai the
Gileadite of Rogelim,
17:28 Brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat,
and barley, and flour, and parched [corn], and beans, and
lentils, and parched [pulse],
17:29 And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of 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.
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