Chapter 17

¹ And Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose out for myself twelve thousand men, and I will arise and follow after David this night: ² and I will come upon him when he [is] weary and weakhanded, and I will strike him with terror; and all the people with him shall flee, and I will smite the king only of all. ³ And I will bring back all the people to thee, as a bride returns to her husband: only thou seekest the life of one man, and all the people shall have peace. ⁴ And the saying [was] right in the eyes of Absalom, and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel.

2Kgdms 17:1-4

⁵ And Absalom said, Call now also Hushai the Archite, and let us hear what [is] in his mouth, even in his also. ⁶ And Hushai went in to Absalom, and Absalom spoke to him, saying, After this manner spoke Ahithophel: shall we do according to his word? but if not, do thou speak.

2Kgdms 17:5-6

⁷ And Hushai said to Absalom, This counsel which Ahithophel has counseled this one time [is] not good. ⁸ And Hushai said, Thou knowest thy father and his men, that they are very mighty, and bitter in their spirit, as a bereaved bear in the field, and as a wild boar in the plain: and thy father [is] a man of war, and will not give the people rest. ⁹ For, behold, he is now hidden in one of the hills or in some [other] place: and it shall come to pass when he falls upon them at the beginning, that [someone] will certainly hear, and say, There has been a slaughter among the people that follow after Absalom. ¹⁰ Then even he [that is] strong, whose heart is as the heart of a lion—it shall utterly melt: for all Israel knows that thy father [is] mighty, and they that are with him [are] mighty men. ¹¹ For thus I have surely given counsel, that all Israel be generally gathered to thee from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is upon the seashore for multitude: and that thy presence go in the midst of them. ¹² And we will come upon him in one of the places where we shall find him, and we will encamp against him, as the dew falls upon the earth; and we will not leave of him and of his men so much as one. ¹³ And if he shall have taken refuge with his army in a city, then shall all Israel take ropes to that city, and we will draw it even into the river, that there may not be left there even a stone.

2Kgdms 17:7-13

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 ordained to disconcert the good counsel of Ahithophel, that the Lord might bring all evil upon Absalom.

2Kgdms 17:14

¹⁵ And Hushai the Archite said to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counseled. ¹⁶ And now send quickly and report to David, saying, Lodge not this night in Araboth of the wilderness: even go and make haste, lest [one] swallow up the king, and all the people with him.

2Kgdms 17:15-16

¹⁷ And Jonathan and Ahimaaz stood by the well of Rogel, and a maidservant went and reported to them, and they go and tell King David; for they might not be seen to enter into the city. ¹⁸ But a young man saw them and told Absalom: and the two went quickly, and entered into the house of a man in Bahurim; and he had a well in his court, and they went down into it. ¹⁹ And a woman took a covering, and spread it over the mouth of the well, and spread out ground corn upon it to dry, and the thing was not known. ²⁰ And the servants of Absalom came to the woman into the house, and said, Where [are] Ahimaaz and Jonathan? and the woman said to them, They are gone a little way beyond the water. And they sought and found them not, and returned to Jerusalem. ²¹ And it came to pass after they were gone, that they came up out of the pit, and went on their way; and reported to King David, and said to David, Arise ye and go quickly over the water, for thus has Ahithophel counseled concerning you.

2Kgdms 17:17-21

²² And David rose up and all the people with him, and they passed over Jordan till the morning light; there was not one missing who did not pass over Jordan.

2Kgdms 17:22

²³ And Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, and he saddled his ass, and rose and departed to his house into his city; and he gave orders to his household, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulcher of his father.

2Kgdms 17:23

²⁴ And David passed over to Mahanaim: and Absalom crossed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. ²⁵ And Absalom appointed Amasa in the room of Joab over the host. And Amasa was the son of a man whose name was Jether of Jezreel: he went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, the sister of Zeruiah the mother of Joab. ²⁶ And all Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.

2Kgdms 17:24-26

²⁷ And it came to pass when David came to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and Machir son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, ²⁸ brought ten embroidered beds (with double coverings), and ten caldrons, and earthenware, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and meal, and beans, and pulse, ²⁹ and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheeses of kine: and they brought them to David and to his people with him to eat; for [one] said, The people [is] faint and hungry and thirsty in the wilderness.

2Kgdms 17:27-29