16
2 Samuel

Counsel in Absalom's Court; Ahithophel's Plan and Hushai's Counterplot

2 Samuel 16:15-17:29
15Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel was with him. 16When Hushai the Archite, David's friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, "Long live the king! Long live the king!" 17Absalom said to Hushai, "Is this your kindness with your neighbor? Why did you not go with your neighbor?" 18Hushai said to Absalom, "No, for the one whom the LORD and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen—I will not be his, nor will I remain with him. 19And second, whom shall I serve? Is it not before his son? Just as I served before your father, so I will be before you." 20Absalom said to Ahithophel, "Give your counsel: what shall we do?" 21Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Go in to your father's concubines whom he left to keep the house, so that all Israel will hear that you have become odious with your father and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened." 22They pitched the tent for Absalom upon the roof, and Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. 23The counsel of Ahithophel that he gave in those days was like a man inquiring of the word of God; so all his counsel was regarded both by David and by Absalom.
Chapter 17
1Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight. 2I will come upon him while he is weary and weak of hands; I will make him tremble, and all the people with him will flee, and I will strike down the king alone. 3Then I will bring all the people back to you; when everyone returns, the man you seek, all the people will be at peace." 4This plan seemed good in the eyes of Absalom and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel. 5Absalom said, "Call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear what he has to say as well." 6Hushai came to Absalom, and Absalom said to him, "Ahithophel has spoken according to this word; shall we carry out his word, or if not, speak you." 7Hushai said to Absalom, "The counsel that Ahithophel has given at this time is not good." 8Hushai said, "You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men and bitter of soul, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field, and your father is a man of battle and will not spend the night with the people. 9Behold, he is now hidden in one of the pits or in one of the places; if some of them fall at the first, the one who hears will say, 'There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.' 10He also is a son of valor whose heart is like the heart of a lion; he will surely melt away, for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man and the sons of valor who are with him. 11I advise that all Israel be gathered to you from Dan to Beersheba, as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and that you yourself go into battle. 12We will come upon him in whatever place he is found and settle on him as dew settles on the ground, so that not one will be left to him or to all the men with him. 13If he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes against that city and drag him down to the river until not even a pebble remains there." 14Absalom and all the men of Israel said, "The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel." The LORD had commanded to frustrate the counsel of Ahithophel the good in order to bring the distress on Absalom. 15Hushai told Zadok and Abiathar the priests, "Thus and so Ahithophel advised Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus and so I advised." 16Now send quickly and tell David, 'Do not spend the night in the plains of the wilderness, but cross over at once, lest the king and all the people with him be swallowed up.' 17Jonathan and Ahimaaz were standing at En-rogel; the maidservant would go and tell them, and they would go and tell King David, because they could not be seen to come into the city. 18A young man saw them and reported it to Absalom, so the two hurried away and came to the house of a man in Bahurim who had a well in his courtyard; they went down into it. 19The woman took and spread the covering over the mouth of the well and spread the grain upon it, and the matter was not known. 20When Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house and said, "Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?" the woman said to them, "They crossed the brook of the water." They sought but did not find them and returned to Jerusalem. 21After the men left, they climbed out of the well, went, and told King David, "Arise and cross the water quickly, for Ahithophel has advised this against you." 22David and all the people with him arose and crossed the Jordan until the light of the morning, until not one was lacking who had not crossed the Jordan. 23When Ahithophel saw that his counsel had not been done, he saddled the donkey and arose and went to his house in his city and commanded his house and hanged himself and died and was buried in the grave of his father. 24David arrived at Mahanaim while Absalom and all the men of Israel with him crossed the Jordan. 25Absalom set Amasa over the army in place of Joab; Amasa was the son of a man whose name was Ithra the Ishmaelite, who came to Abigail daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, mother of Joab. 26Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead. 27When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, Machir son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim 28brought beds, basins, pottery, wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils, and roasted grain 29as well as honey, curds, sheep, and cheese from the herd for David and the people with him to eat, because they said, "The people are hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness."
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