| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
