1Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom , Let me now choose out twelve thousand men , and I will arise and pursue after David this night : 2And 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: 3And 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 . 4And the saying pleased Absalom well , and all the elders of Israel . 5Then said Absalom , Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith . 6And 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. 7And Hushai said unto Absalom , The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time . 8For, 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 . 9Behold, 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 . 10And 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 . 11Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba , as the sand that is by the sea for multitude ; and that thou go to battle in thine own person . 12So 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 . 13Moreover, 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. 14And 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 .
Hushai's Counter-Counsel
15Then 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 . 16Now 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. 17Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel ; 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 . 18Nevertheless 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 . 19And the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth , and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known . 20And 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 . 21And 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. 22Then 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 . 23And 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 .
The Escape of David's Allies
24Then David came to Mahanaim . And Absalom passed over Jordan , he and all the men of Israel with him. 25And 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 . 26So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead . 27And 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 Lo-debar , and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim , 28Brought beds , and basons , and earthen vessels , and wheat , and barley , and flour , and parched corn , and beans , and lentiles , and parched pulse , 29And 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 .