II Samuel

And Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me pick twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David.

I will come upon him when he is weary and disheartened, and I will throw him into a panic; and when all the troops with him flee, I will kill the king alone.

And I will bring back all the people to you; when all have come back [except] the man you are after,ato you; when all have come back [except] the man you are after Or “to you, as when everyone returned [to] the man you are after,” i.e., to David upon the deaths of the previous kings, namely Saul and his son Ish-baal (“Ish-bosheth”); so Abravanel. Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Septuagint reads “to you as a bride comes back to her husband; you seek the life of but one man, and…” all the people will b

The advice pleased Absalom and all the elders of Israel.

But Absalom said, “Summon Hushai the Archite as well, so we can hear what he too has to say.”

Hushai came to Absalom, and Absalom said to him, “This is what Ahithophel has advised. Shall we follow his advice? If not, what do you say?”

Hushai said to Absalom, “This time the advice that Ahithophel has given is not good.

You know,” Hushai continued, “that your father and his men are courageous fighters, and they are as desperate as a bear in the wild robbed of her whelps. Your father is an experienced soldier, and he will not spend the night with the troops;

even now he must be hiding in one of the pits or in some other place. And if any of thembthem Some Septuagint mss. read “the troops” (i.e., Absalom’s). fall at the first attack, whoever hears of it will say, ‘A disaster has struck the troops that follow Absalom’;

and even if he is a warrior with the heart of a lion, he will be shaken—for all Israel knows that your father and the soldiers with him are courageous fighters.

So I advise that all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba—as numerous as the sands of the sea—be called up to join you, and that you yourself march into battle.cinto battle Ancient versions read “among them.”

When we come upon him in whatever place he may be, we’ll descend on him [as thick] as dew falling on the ground; and no one will survive, neither he nor any of the men with him.

And if he withdraws into a city, all Israel will bring ropes to that city and drag its stonesdits stones Heb. “it.” as far as the riverbed, until not even a pebble of it is left.”

Absalom and all of Israel’s force agreed that the advice of Hushai the Archite was better than that of Ahithophel.—GOD had decreed that Ahithophel’s sound advice be nullified, in order that GOD might bring ruin upon Absalom.

Then Hushai told the priests Zadok and Abiathar, “This is what Ahithophel advised Absalom and the elders of Israel; this is what I advised.

Now send at once and tell David, ‘Do not spend the night at the fords of the wilderness, but cross over at once; otherwise the king and all the troops with him will be annihilated.’”

Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying at En-rogel, and a maidservant would go and bring them word and they in turn would go and inform King David. For they themselves dared not be seen entering the city.

But a boy saw them and informed Absalom. They left at once and came to the house of a man in Bahurim who had a well in his courtyard. They got down into it,

and the wife took a cloth, spread it over the mouth of the well, and scattered groats on top of it, so that nothing would be noticed.

When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house and asked where Ahimaaz and Jonathan were, the woman told them that they had crossed a bit beyond the water.ea bit beyond the water Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Targum reads “the Jordan.” They searched, but found nothing; and they returned to Jerusalem.

After they were gone, [Ahimaaz and Jonathan] came up from the well and went and informed King David. They said to David, “Go and cross the water quickly, for Ahithophel has advised thus and thus concerning you.”

David and all the troops with him promptly crossed the Jordan, and by daybreak not one was left who had not crossed the Jordan.

When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and went home to his native town. He set his affairs in order, and then he hanged himself. He was buried in his ancestral tomb.

David had reached Mahanaim when Absalom, and Israel’s entire force with him, crossed the Jordan.

Absalom had appointed Amasa army commander in place of Joab; Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Israelite, who had married Abigal, daughter of Nahash and sister of Joab’s mother Zeruiah.fIsraelite … Zeruiah Some Septuagint mss. and 1 Chron. 2.12–17 read “Ishmaelite” and give a somewhat different genealogy.

The Israelites and Absalom encamped in the district of Gilead.

When David reached Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbath-ammon, Machir son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim

presentedgpresented Moved up from v. 29 for clarity. couches, basins, and earthenware; also wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans, lentils, parched grain,hparched grain Lacking in the Septuagint and Syriac.

honey, curds, a flock,icurds, a flock Emendation yields “curds from the flock.” and cheesejcheese Meaning of Heb. uncertain. from the herd for David and the troops with him to eat. For they knew that the troops must have grown hungry, faint, and thirsty in the wilderness.