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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 weak
handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that
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 was come to Absalom, Absalom spake unto him, saying,
Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do
after
his saying? 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
be
mighty men, and they
be
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 be overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, There is
a slaughter among the people that 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
they
which
be
with him
are
valiant men.
11
Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered
unto thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, 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
that
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 L
ORD
had appointed to defeat the good
counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the L
ORD
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 counselled.
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.
17
Now Jonathan
and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel; 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.
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.
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 is Ahimaaz and Jonathan?
And the woman said unto them, They be 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 were 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 counselled against you.
22
Then David arose,
405
KJV Bible