2 Samuel 17

21st Century King James Version

17 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 weakhanded, and will make him afraid; and all the people who 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 had come to Absalom, Absalom spoke unto him, saying, “Ahithophel hath spoken in this manner. Shall we do according to his word? 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 are mighty men, and they are 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 are overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the people who 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 those who are 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 who 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, with 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 who are with him.’”

¹⁷ Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by Enrogel, for they dared not be seen to come into the city; and a maidservant 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, who 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 are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said unto them, “They have 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 had 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 who were with him, and they passed over the Jordan. By the morning light there lacked not one of them who had not gone over the Jordan.

²³ And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose and got him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulcher of his father.

²⁴ Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.

²⁵ And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab. This Amasa was a man’s son whose name was Ithra, an Israelite, who went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab’s mother.

²⁶ So Israel and Absalom pitched camp in the land of Gilead.

²⁷ And it came to pass, when David had 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 from cows, for David and for the people who were with him to eat. For they said, “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.”