Hushai Counters Ahithophel’s Advice
And Ahithophel said to Absalom: “Let me choose, please, twelve thousand men, and let me rise and pursue after David tonight.
And I will come on him while he is weary and slack of hands, and I will terrify him; and all the people who are with him will flee, and I will strike down the king alone.
And I will bring all the people back to you — as when the whole returns, only the man you are seeking; all the people will be at peace.”
And the word was right in the eyes of Absalom, and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel.
And Absalom said, “Call now Hushai the Archite as well, and let us hear what is in his mouth — he too.”
And Hushai came to Absalom; and Absalom spoke to him, saying, “According to this word Ahithophel has spoken. Shall we do his word? If not, you speak.”
And Hushai said to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel has counseled is not good this time.”
And Hushai said: “You yourself know your father and his men — that they are mighty men, and they are bitter of soul, like a bear bereaved of her cubs in the field. And your father is a man of war, and he will not spend the night with the people.
Look — even now he is hidden in one of the pits, or in one of the places. And it shall be, when some of them fall at the first, that whoever hears of it will say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.’
And even the son of valor, whose heart is like the heart of the lion — he will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those with him are sons of valor.
Therefore I counsel: let all Israel be surely gathered to you, from Dan to Beersheba, like the sand that is by the sea in multitude — and let your own face go into the battle.
And we will come on him in one of the places where he is found, and we will settle on him as the dew falls on the ground; and of him, and of all the men who are with him, not even one will be left.
And if he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we will drag it to the ravine, until not even a pebble is 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 ordained to break the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the LORD might bring the evil on Absalom.
Hushai’s Warning Saves David
And Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests: “Thus and so Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and so I myself counseled.
Now then, send quickly and tell David, saying: ‘Do not spend the night at the fords of the wilderness, but surely cross over — lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him.’”
Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were standing 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.
But a boy saw them and told Absalom. And 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.
And the woman took and spread the covering over the mouth of the well, and scattered crushed grain on it; and nothing was known.
And the servants of Absalom came to the woman at the house and said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them, “They crossed over the brook of water.” And they sought and did not find, and they returned to Jerusalem.
And it was, after they had gone, that the two came up from the well, and went and told King David; and they said to David, “Rise and cross the water quickly — for thus Ahithophel has counseled against you.”
And David rose, and all the people who were with him, and they crossed the Jordan; by the light of morning not even one was missing who had not crossed the Jordan.
And Ahithophel saw that his counsel had not been done; and he saddled the donkey and rose and went to his house, to his city. And he set his house in order, and hanged himself, and died; and he was buried in his father’s tomb.
And David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom crossed the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.
And 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 Abigal the daughter of Nahash, the sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.
And Israel and Absalom camped in the land of Gilead.
And it was, when David came to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash, from Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite, from Rogelim,
brought bedding, and basins, and vessels of the potter, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and roasted grain, and beans, and lentils, and roasted seeds,
and honey, and curds, and sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David and for the people who were with him to eat. For they said, “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.”