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Chapter 17 |
| 1 | Moreover
Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I
will arise and pursue after David this night: |
| 2 | 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: |
| 3 |
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.
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| 4 | And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
|
| 5 | Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear
likewise what he saith. |
| 6 | 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. |
| 7 | And Hushai said unto Absalom,
The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time. |
| 8 |
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. |
| 9 |
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.
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| 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 counseled. |
|
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 counseled 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.
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| 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 basins, and earthen
vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and
lentils, 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. |
