Chapter 17 Moreover, Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve
thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night.
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.
And I will bring back all the people unto thee.
The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned.
So all the people shall be in peace.
And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise
what he saith.
And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spake unto him, saying,
Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner.
Shall we do after his saying?
If not, speak thou.
And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at
this time.
For, said Hushai, Thou knowest thy 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 thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
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 Absalom.
And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly
melt.
For all Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man.
And they which be with him are valiant men.
Therefore, I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan
even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude, and that thou go to
battle in thine own person.
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.
Moreover, if he be 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.
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.
Then said Hushai unto 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.
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.
Now Jonathan and Ahimeaz stayed by Enrogel, for they might not be seen to
come into the city.
And a wench went and told them, and they went and told King David.
Nevertheless Elad saw them, and told Absalom.
But they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man's house in Behurim,
which had a well in his court, whither they went down.
And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground
corn thereon, and the thing was not known.
And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said,
Where is Ahimeaz and Jonathan?
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.
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 unto David, Arise, and pass
quickly over the water, for thus hath Ahithophel counseled against you.
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.
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.
Then David came to Mahanaim, and Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of
Israel with him.
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.
So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead.
And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobai, the son of
Nahash, of Rabbah, of the children of Ammon, and Barzillai, the Gileadite of
Rogalim, brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat,
and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentils, and parched pulse,
and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kind, for David and for the
people that were with him to eat.
For they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.