17 SHEMU'EL -2- SAMUEL 17

Ahithophel's Counsel Overthrown

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:1

  1     ^¶  Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:2

  2    And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only:

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:3

  3    And I will bring back all the people to you: the man whom you seek is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in shalom.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:4

  4    And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Yisrael.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:5

  5    Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:6

  6    And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, Ahithophel has spoken after this manner: shall we do [after] his saying? if not; speak you.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:7

  7    And Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good at this time.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:8

  8    For, said Hushai, you know your father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:9

  9    Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever hears it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:10

  10    And he also [that is] valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all Yisrael knows that your father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:11

  11    Therefore I counsel that all Yisrael be generally gathered to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:12

  12    So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falls on the ground: and of him and of all the men that are with him there shall not be left so much as one.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:13

  13    Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Yisrael bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one small stone found there.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:14

  14    And Absalom and all the men of Yisrael said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For YAHWEH had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that YAHWEH might bring evil upon Absalom.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:15

  15     ^¶  Then said Hushai to Zadok and to Abiathar the kohenim, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Yisrael; and thus and thus have I counselled.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:16

  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 that are with him.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:17

  17    Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by Enrogel; 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.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:18

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

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:19

  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.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:20

  20    And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said to them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Yerusalem.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:21

  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 to David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus has Ahithophel counselled against you.

He Hangs Himself, Absalom Pursues David

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:22

  22     ^¶  Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over Yardan: by the morning light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over Yardan.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:23

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

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:24

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

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:25

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

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:26

  26    So Yisrael and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead.

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:27

  27    And it came to pass, when David was 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,

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:28

  28    Brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched [corn], and beans, and lentiles, and parched [pulse],

2 SHEMU'EL - 2 SAMUEL 17:29

  29    And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.