2 Samweli 17

¹Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me pick out twelve thousand men, and I will set out and go after David tonight. ²I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic. All the people with him will run away, and I will strike down the king alone. ³Then I will bring all the people back to you. The man you are after is worth the return of them all. All the people will be at peace.”^{a 4}The plan seemed right to Absalom and to all the elders of Israel.

Hushai gives his advice

⁵But Absalom said, “Call Hushai the Archite as well, and let us hear what he has to say too.” ⁶When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him, “This is what Ahithophel has proposed. Should we do as he says? If not, tell us what you think.”

⁷Hushai answered Absalom, “This time the advice Ahithophel has given is not good.” ⁸Hushai went on, “You know your father and his men. They are warriors, and they are fierce and enraged, like a bear in the wild robbed of her cubs. Your father is an experienced fighter, and he will not spend the night with the troops. ⁹Even now he is hiding in one of the caves or in some other place. When some of the troops fall in the first attack, whoever hears of it will say, ‘The troops who follow Absalom have been slaughtered.’ ¹⁰Then even the bravest man, whose heart is like a lion’s, will lose all courage, for all Israel knows that your father is a warrior and that the men with him are brave. ¹¹So my advice is this: let all Israel be gathered to you, from Dan to Beersheba, as many as the sand by the sea, and lead them into battle yourself. ¹²Then we will come upon him wherever he may be found and settle on him the way dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of the men with him will be left, not even one. ¹³If he pulls back into a town, all Israel will haul ropes up to it, and we will drag the whole place down into the valley until not even a pebble is left there.”

¹⁴Then Absalom and all the men of Israel declared, “Hushai the Archite gives better advice than Ahithophel.” For the LORD had decreed that Ahithophel’s good advice would be defeated, so that the LORD could bring disaster on Absalom.^b

David is warned

¹⁵Hushai told Zadok and Abiathar the priests, “Ahithophel advised Absalom and the elders of Israel to do this and that, but I advised this and that. ¹⁶Now send word quickly and tell David, ‘Do not camp tonight in the plains by the wilderness. Cross over without fail, or the king and all the people with him will be wiped out.’”^{c 17}Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En-rogel. A servant girl would go and pass the news to them, and they would go and tell King David, because they could not risk being seen entering the city. ¹⁸But a young man spotted them and told Absalom. So the two hurried off to Bahurim, to the house of a man whose courtyard had a well, and they climbed down into it. ¹⁹The woman of the house took a covering, spread it over the mouth of the well, and scattered grain on it, so that nothing could be seen. ²⁰Absalom’s servants came to the house and asked the woman, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” The woman told them, “They have gone across the stream.” They searched but could not find them, so they went back to Jerusalem.^d

²¹After the men had left, the two climbed out of the well and went to tell King David. They said to David, “Get up and cross the water at once, for this is what Ahithophel has advised against you.” ²²So David and all the people with him set out and crossed the Jordan. By daybreak not a single one was left who had not crossed the Jordan. ²³Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been carried out. He saddled his donkey and set off for home, to his own town. He put his household in order and then hanged himself. So he died, and they buried him in his father’s tomb.

David at Mahanaim

²⁴David had reached Mahanaim by the time Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel. ²⁵Absalom had put Amasa in command of the army instead of Joab. Amasa’s father was a man named Ithra the Israelite, who had slept with Abigail daughter of Nahash, the sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.^{ef 26}Israel and Absalom made camp in the land of Gilead.

²⁷When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, Machir son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim ²⁸brought bedding, basins and clay pots, and wheat and barley, flour and roasted grain, beans and lentils, ²⁹honey and curds, sheep, and cheese from the herd, as food for David and the people with him. They said, “The people have become hungry and tired and thirsty in the wilderness.”