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 heisweary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people thatarewith him shall flee; and I will smite the king only:
And I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man whom thou seekestisas if all returned:soall 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 doafterhis saying? if not; speak thou.
And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath givenisnot good at this time.
For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that theybemighty men, and theybechafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy fatherisa man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in someotherplace: 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 alsothat isvaliant, whose heartisas the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all Israel knoweth that thy fatherisa mighty man, andtheywhichbewith himarevaliant men.
Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as the sand thatisby 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 thatarewith 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 Architeisbetter than the counsel of Ahithophel. For theLORDhad appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that theLORDmight 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 counselled.
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 thatarewith him.
Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel; 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 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; 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, WhereisAhimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not findthem, 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 counselled against you.
Then David arose, and all the people thatwerewith 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 saddledhisass, 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 Amasawasa man’s son, whose namewasIthra 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 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,
Brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parchedcorn, and beans, and lentiles, and parchedpulse,
And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people thatwerewith him, to eat: for they said, The peopleishungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.