2 Samuel

2 Samuel 17 ©

1 Ahithophel's counsel is defeated by Hushai's according to God's appointment. 15 Hushai sendeth intelligence secretly to David, who in haste passeth over Jordan. 23 Ahithophel hangeth himself. 25 Amasa is made captain of Absalom's host. 27 David's friends furnish him with provisions at Mahanaim.

1

MOREOVER Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David athis night:

2

And I will come upon him while he is bweary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and cI 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 din peace.

4

And ethe saying 1pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.

5

Then said Absalom, Call now fHushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what 2he 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 3saying? if not; speak thou.

7

And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath 4given is gnot good at this time.

8

For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be hmighty men, and they be 5chafed in their minds, ias 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 jis hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, kwhen some of them be 6overthrown 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 7valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall lutterly melt: for all Israel knoweth that thy father is ma mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men.

11

Therefore I counsel that nall Israel be generally gathered unto thee, ofrom Dan even to Beer-sheba, as pthe sand that is by the sea for multitude; and 8that 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 qdraw 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 9appointed to rdefeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.

15

¶Then said Hushai unto sZadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled.

16

Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night tin 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 uJonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by vEn-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.

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 wBahurim, which had a well in his court; *whither they went down.

19

And the woman took and xspread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread yground 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, zThey 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 athus hath Ahithophel counselled against you.

a v.1-3.
22

Then bDavid 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 csaw that his counsel was not 10followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and *gat him home to his house, to his city, and 11put his household in order, and dhanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.

24

Then David came to eMahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.

25

¶And Absalom made fAmasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was 12Ithra an Israelite, that went in to 13Abigail the daughter of 14Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab's mother.

26

So Israel and Absalom pitched in the gland of Gilead.

27

¶And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that hShobi the son of iNahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and jMachir the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and kBarzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,

j ch. 9.4.
28

Brought lbeds, and 15basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched *pulse,

29

And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of *kine, for mDavid, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, nThe people is hungry, and oweary, and thirsty, pin the wilderness.