2 Samuel 16:15-17:26

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Counsel of Ahithophel

¹⁵ Now Absalom and all the Israelites^[a] came to Jerusalem; Ahithophel was with him.^{(A) 16} When Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”^{(B) 17} Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your loyalty to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?”^{(C) 18} Hushai said to Absalom, “No, but the one whom the Lord and this people and all the Israelites have chosen, his I will be, and with him I will remain. ¹⁹ Moreover, whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? Just as I have served your father, so I will serve you.”^(D)

²⁰ Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give us your counsel; what shall we do?” ²¹ Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines, the ones he has left to look after the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”^{(E) 22} So they pitched a tent for Absalom upon the roof, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.^{(F) 23} Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the oracle^[b] of God, so all the counsel of Ahithophel was esteemed both by David and by Absalom.^(G)

17 Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will set out and pursue David tonight. ² I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down only the king,^{(H) 3} and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband. You seek the life of only one man,^[c] and all the people will be at peace.” ⁴ The advice pleased Absalom and all the elders of Israel.

The Counsel of Hushai

⁵ Then Absalom said, “Call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear too what he has to say.”^{(I) 6} When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him, “This is what Ahithophel has said; shall we do as he advises? If not, you tell us.” ⁷ Then Hushai said to Absalom, “This time the counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good.” ⁸ Hushai continued, “You know that your father and his men are warriors and that they are enraged, 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 troops.^{(J) 9} Even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place. And when some of our troops^[d] fall at the first attack, whoever hears it will say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the troops who follow Absalom.’ ¹⁰ Then even the valiant warrior whose heart is like the heart of a lion will utterly melt with fear, for all Israel knows that your father is a warrior and that those who are with him are valiant warriors.^{(K) 11} But my counsel is that all Israel be gathered to you, from Dan to Beer-sheba, like the sand by the sea for multitude, and that you go to battle in person. ¹² So we shall come upon him in whatever place he may be found, and we shall light on him as the dew falls on the ground, and he will not survive, nor will any of those with him. ¹³ If he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we shall drag it into the valley until not even a pebble is to be found there.” ¹⁴ 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 ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring ruin on Absalom.^(L)

Hushai Warns David to Escape

¹⁵ Then Hushai said to the priests Zadok and Abiathar, “Thus and so did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus and so I have counseled.^{(M) 16} Therefore send quickly and tell David, ‘Do not lodge tonight at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means cross over, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up.’ ”^{(N) 17} Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En-rogel; a female slave used to go and tell them, and they would go and tell King David, for they could not risk being seen entering the city.^{(O) 18} But a young man saw them and told Absalom, so both of them went away quickly and came to the house of a man at Bahurim who had a well in his courtyard, and they went down into it.^{(P) 19} The man’s wife took a covering, stretched it over the well’s mouth, and spread out grain on it, and nothing was known of it.^{(Q) 20} When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” The woman said to them, “They have crossed over the brook^[e] of water.” And when they had searched and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.^(R)

²¹ After they had gone, the men came up out of the well and went and told King David. They said to David, “Go and cross the water quickly, for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you.”^{(S) 22} So David and all the people who were with him set out and crossed the Jordan; by daybreak not one was left who had not crossed the Jordan.

²³ When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order and hanged himself; he died and was buried in the tomb of his father.^(T)

²⁴ Then David came to Mahanaim, while Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel.^{(U) 25} Now Absalom had set Amasa over the army in the place of Joab. Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite,^[f] who had married Abigal daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.^{(V) 26} The Israelites and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.