⁸ Hushai said, “You know that your father and his men are mighty men, and that they are enraged,^{[a] (A)}like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Besides, your father is expert in war; he will not spend the night with the people. ⁹ Behold, even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place. And as soon as some of the people fall^[b] at the first attack, whoever hears it will say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.’ ¹⁰ Then even the valiant man, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will utterly ^(B)melt with fear, for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and that those who are with him are valiant men.