Second Book of Samuel 17

¹ Ahithophel said to Absalom, ‘Let me choose twelve thousand men and set off this very night in pursuit of David.

² I shall fall on him while he is tired and dispirited; I shall strike terror into him, and all the people who are with him will take flight. Then I shall strike down the king alone

³ and bring all the people back to you, as a bride returns to her husband. You seek the life of only one man; the rest of the people will go unharmed.’

⁴ The suggestion appealed to Absalom and all the elders of Israel.

⁵ ‘Next call Hushai the Archite’ Absalom said. ‘Let us hear what he too has to say.’

⁶ When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said, ‘This is what Ahithophel says. Are we to do as he suggests? If not, say something yourself.’

⁷ Hushai answered Absalom, ‘On this occasion the advice Ahithophel has offered is not good.

⁸ You know’ Hushai went on ‘that your father and his men are champions and as angry as a wandering bear robbed of her cubs. Your father is used to warfare; he will not let the army rest during the night.

⁹ At this very moment he is hiding in a hollow or somewhere else. If at the outset there are casualties among our troops, word will go round of disaster to the army supporting Absalom.

¹⁰ And then even the valiant, with a heart like the heart of a lion, will be quite unmanned; for all Israel knows that your father is a champion and that the men with him are valiant.

¹¹ For my part, I offer this advice: Let all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, muster round you, numerous as the sand on the seashore, with your royal person marching in their midst.

¹² We shall come up with him wherever he is to be found; we shall fall on him as the dew falls on the ground, and not leave him or one of the men with him alive.

¹³ Should he retire into a town, all Israel will bring ropes to that town, and we will drag it into the wadi until not a pebble of it is to be found.’

¹⁴ Then Absalom and all the people of Israel said, ‘The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than the advice of Ahithophel’. Yahweh had determined to thwart Ahithophel’s shrewd advice and so to bring disaster on Absalom.

¹⁵ Hushai then told the priests Zadok and Abiathar, ‘Ahithophel gave such and such advice to Absalom and the elders of Israel, but I advised so and so.

¹⁶ Now send quickly and tell David this, “Do not camp in the plains of the wilderness tonight but cross to the other side as fast as you can, or the king and all the army with him will be annihilated”.’

¹⁷ Jonathan and Ahimaaz were stationed at the Fuller’s Spring; a maidservant was to go and warn them and they in turn were to warn King David, for they dared not let themselves be seen entering the town.

¹⁸ A young man saw them nonetheless and told Absalom. Then both of them hastily made off and came to the house of a man of Bahurim. In his courtyard was a cistern and they got down into it.

¹⁹ The woman took a covering and, spreading it over the mouth of the cistern, scattered crushed grain on it so that nothing showed.

²⁰ Absalom’s servants came to the woman in the house and said, ‘Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?’ ‘They have gone further on towards the water’ the woman answered. They searched, but finding nothing went back to Jerusalem.

²¹ When they had gone, the men climbed out of the cistern and went to warn King David. ‘Be on your way’ they told David ‘and cross the water quickly, for Ahithophel has given such and such advice about you.’

²² So David and all the troops with him set off and crossed the Jordan. By dawn no one was left who had not crossed the Jordan.

²³ When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set off and went home to his own town. Then having set his house in order, he strangled himself and so died. He was buried in his father’s tomb.

²⁴ David had reached Mahanaim when Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel.

²⁵ Absalom had put Amasa in command of the army in place of Joab. This Amasa was the son of a man called Ithra the Ishmaelite, who had married Abigail the daughter of Jesse and sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.

²⁶ Israel and Absalom pitched camp in the land of Gilead.

²⁷ When David reached Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, Machir son of Ammiel from Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim

²⁸ brought mattresses, rugs, bowls and crockery, wheat, barley, meal, roasted grain, beans, lentils,

²⁹ honey, curds and cheese, sheep and oxen, which they presented to David and the people with him for them to eat. ‘The army’ they said ‘has been hungry and tired and thirsty in the wilderness.’