The Second Book of Samuel

2Sa 17:1 Moreover A-hith´-o-phel said unto Ab´-sa-lom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:

2Sa 17:2 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:

2Sa 17:3 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.

2Sa 17:4 And the saying pleased Ab´-salom well, and all the elders of Israel.

2Sa 17:5 Then said Ab´-sa-lom, Call now Hu´-shai the Ar´-chite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.

2Sa 17:6 And when Hu´-shai was come to Ab´-sa-lom, Ab´-sa-lom spake unto him, saying, A-hith´-o-phel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying? if not; speak thou.

2Sa 17:7 And Hu´-shai said unto Ab´-salom, The counsel that A-hith´-o-phel hath given is not good at this time.

2Sa 17:8 For, said Hu´-shai, 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.

2Sa 17:9 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 Ab´-sa-lom.

2Sa 17:10 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.

2Sa 17:11 Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Be´-er–she´-ba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person.

2Sa 17:12 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.

2Sa 17:13 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.

2Sa 17:14 And Ab´-sa-lom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hu´-shai the Ar´-chite is better than the counsel of A-hith´-o-phel. For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of A-hith´-o-phel, to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Ab´sa-lom.

2Sa 17:15 Then said Hu´-shai unto Za´dok and to A-bi´-a-thar the priests, Thus and thus did A-hith´-o-phel counsel Ab´-sa-lom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled.

2Sa 17:16 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.

2Sa 17:17 Now Jonathan and A-him´-a-az stayed by En–ro´-gel; 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.

2Sa 17:18 Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Ab´-sa-lom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man’s house in Ba-hu´-rim, which had a well in his court; whither they went down.

2Sa 17:19 And the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known.

2Sa 17:20 And when Ab´-sa-lom’s servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is A-him´-a-az 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.

2Sa 17:21 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 A-hith´-o-phel counselled against you.

2Sa 17:22 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.

2Sa 17:23 And when A-hith´-o-phel 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.

2Sa 17:24 Then David came to Ma-hana´-im. And Ab´-sa-lom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.

2Sa 17:25 And Ab´-sa-lom made Am´-a-sa captain of the host instead of Jo´-ab: which Am´-a-sa was a man’s son, whose name was Ith´-ra an Israelite, that went in to Ab´-i-gail the daughter of Na´-hash, sister to Ze-ru´-iah Joab’s mother.

2Sa 17:26 So Israel and Ab´-sa-lom pitched in the land of Gil´-e-ad.

2Sa 17:27 And it came to pass, when David was come to Ma-ha-na´-im, that Sho´-bi the son of Na´-hash of Rab´-bah of the children of Ammon, and Ma´-chir the son of Am´-mi-el of Lo-de´-bar, and Bar-zil´-lai the Gil´-ead-ite of Ro-ge´-lim,

2Sa 17:28 Brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,

2Sa 17:29 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.