Shmuel II - Chapter 17

1. And Ahithophel said to Absalom: "Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will rise and pursue David tonight.

2. And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and I will startle him: and all the people that are with him will flee, and I will smite the king alone.

3. And I will bring back all the people to you; when all shall have returned, the man whom you seek then all the people will be at peace."

4. And the thing seemed right to the eyes of Absalom, and to all the elders of Israel.

5. And Absalom said, "Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear what he too has to say."

6. And Hushai came to Absalom; and Absalom spoke to him saying, "In this manner has Ahithophel spoken; shall we do his bidding? If not, then you speak."

7. And Hushai said to Absalom, "The counsel which Ahithophel has counseled this time is not good."

8. And Hushai [continued] saying, "You know your father and his men that they are mighty men, and they are of embittered spirit, as a bear in the field, bereft of cubs, and your father is a man of war, and he will not lodge with the people.

9. Behold, now he is [surely] hidden in one of the pits or one of the places; and it will come to pass, if there fall among them at the first, then someone will hear it and say, 'There has been a massacre among the people that are behind Absalom.'

10. And even if he be valiant whose heart is as the heart of a lion will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and valiant men are they that are with him.

11. Therefore I counsel, that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan to Beer-sheba as many as the sand that is by the sea; and you personally go to battle.

12. And we shall come upon him in some place where he is found, and we shall light upon him, as the dew falls on the ground; and there shall not be left of him, and of all the men that are with him, even one.

13. And if he withdraws himself into a city, then all of Israel shall bring up ropes to that city and we will drag it to the valley until there shall not be found there even one small stone."

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 ordained to frustrate the good counsel of Ahithophel in order that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom.

15. And Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, "In thus and thus manner did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counseled.

16. And now, send quickly, and tell David saying: "Do not lodge the night in the plains of the wilderness, but pass [speedily] over, lest the king be destroyed, and all the people that are with him."

17. And Jonathan and Ahimaaz were standing by En-rogel; and the maidservant went and she told them that they should go notify King David; for they were not to be seen coming into the city.

18. But a lad spotted them, and told Absalom; and they both went speedily away to the house of a man in Bahurim, and he had a well in his courtyard; and they lowered themselves there.

19. And the woman took and spread the covering over the mouth of the well and she spread groats upon it, and nothing was known.

20. And Absalom's servants came to the woman in the house, and they said, "Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?" And the woman said to them, "They have forded the river." And they sought but could not find [them]; and they returned to Jerusalem.

21. And it came to pass after their departure, that they came up out of the well, and they went and they told King David, "Arise and cross the water quickly, for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you."

22. And David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they crossed the Jordan. By the morning light not one of them was missing that had not crossed the Jordan.

23. And Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not done, and he saddled his ass, and he arose, and he went to his house, to his city, and he gave charge to his household and he strangled himself, and he died, and was buried in the sephulcre of his father.

24. And David had come to Mahanaim, and Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.

25. And Amasa, had Absalom set in place of Joab over the host; and Amasa was the son of a man, whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who came to Abigail the daughter of Nahash the sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother.

26. And Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.

27. And it came to pass, when David came to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash from Rabbah of the children of Ammon and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim.

28. Beds and bowls, and earthen vessels, and wheat and barley and flour and parched grain; and beans, and lentils and parched grain.

29. And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine they presented to David and to the people that were with him, to eat, for they said, "The people are hungry, faint, and thirsty from the wilderness."