1Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and let me arise and pursue after David this night.
2I will come upon him while he is weary and slack of hands, and I will terrify him, so that all the people who are with him will flee; and I will strike down the king alone.
3Then I will bring back all the people to you. The return of everyone depends on the man you are seeking; then all the people will be at peace.”
4And the matter was right in the eyes of Absalom and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel.
5Then Absalom said, “Call now also for Hushai the Archite, and let us hear what he too has to say.”
6So Hushai came to Absalom, and Absalom said to him, “Ahithophel has spoken in this manner. Shall we do what he says? If not, you speak.”
7And Hushai said to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.”
8Hushai continued, “You yourself know your father and his men, that they are warriors, and that they are bitter of spirit, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and he will not spend the night with the people.
9Look, even now he is hiding in one of the pits or in one of the places; and it will happen that when some of them fall at the first, whoever hears will hear it and say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.’
10Then even the valiant one, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a warrior and that those with him are valiant men.
11Rather, I counsel that all Israel be surely gathered to you, from Dan to Beersheba, like the sand that is by the sea in abundance, and that you yourself go into battle in person.
12And we will come to him in one of the places where he is found, and we will settle down upon him as the dew falls on the ground; and there will not be left of him, or of all the men who are with him, so much as one.
13And if he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we will drag it into the wadi until not even a pebble is found there.”
14Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For Yahweh had ordained to frustrate the good counsel of Ahithophel, in order that Yahweh might bring disaster upon Absalom.
15Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, “This is what Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel, and this is what I myself counseled.
16Now then, send quickly and tell David, saying, ‘Do not spend the night at the fords of the wilderness, but cross over at all costs, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up.’”
17Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying at En-rogel, and a servant girl would go and tell them, and they would go and tell King David; for they could not be seen entering the city.
18But a young man saw them and told Absalom. So the two of them went quickly and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his courtyard, and they went down into it.
19And the woman took and spread a covering over the mouth of the well and scattered crushed grain over it, so that nothing was known.
20When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them, “They have crossed over the brook of water.” And they searched but did not find them, and they returned to Jerusalem.
21After they had gone, the two came up out of the well, went, and told King David. They said to David, “Arise and cross over the water quickly, for thus Ahithophel has counseled against you.”
22Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they crossed over the Jordan. By the light of morning not one was missing who had not crossed over the Jordan.
23When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not carried out, he saddled his donkey and arose and went to his house, to his city; and he set his house in order and hanged himself. So he died and was buried in the tomb of his father.
24Now David had come to Mahanaim, while Absalom crossed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.
25And Absalom had set Amasa over the army in place of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who had gone in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.
26And Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.
27When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Machir son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim,
28brought bedding, basins, and earthen vessels, along with wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils, and roasted grain,
29and honey, curds, sheep, and cheese from the herd they brought to David and to the people who were with him to eat; for they said, “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.”
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