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Moreover
Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose
out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and
pursue after David this night:
02 And I will come upon him while he is weary and
weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all
the people that are with him shall flee; and I
will smite the king only:
03 And I will bring back all the people unto
thee: the man whom thou seekest is as if all
returned: so all the people shall be in peace.
04 And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all
the elders of Israel.
05 Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite
also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.
06 And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom
spake unto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken
after this manner: shall we do after his saying?
if not; speak thou.
07 And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that
Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time.
08 For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and
his men, that they be mighty men, and they be
chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her
whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of
war, and will not lodge with the people.
09 Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some
other place: 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.
10 And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as
the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all
Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man,
and they which be with him are valiant men.
11 Therefore I counsel that all Israel be
generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to
Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for
multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine
own person.
12 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 that are with him there shall not be
left so much as one.
13 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.
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
appointed to defeat the good counsel of
Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might
bring evil upon Absalom.
15 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.
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16 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 that are with
him.
17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by Enrogel;
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.
18 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.
19 And the woman took and spread a covering over
the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon;
and the thing was not known.
20 And when Absalom's servants came to the woman
to the house, they said, Where is Ahimaaz and
Jonathan? And the woman said unto them, They be
gone over the brook of water. And when they had
sought and could not find them, they returned to
Jerusalem.
21 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.
22 Then David arose, and all the people that were
with him, and they passed over Jordan: by the
morning light there lacked not one of them that
was not gone over Jordan.
23 And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was
not followed, he saddled his ass, 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.
24 Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom
passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel
with him.
25 And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host
instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son,
whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in
to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to
Zeruiah Joab's mother.
26 So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of
Gilead.
27 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 Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of
Rogelim,
28 Brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels,
and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched
corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,
29 And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese
of kine, for David, and for the people that were
with him, to eat: for they said, The people is
hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the
wilderness.
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