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

2And 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 strike the king only:

3And I will bring back all the people unto you: only the man whom you seek will be struck: so all the people shall be in peace.

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

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

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

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

8For, said Hushai, you know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are 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.

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

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

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

12So 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.

13Moreover, if he has 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.

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

15Then 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 counseled.

16Now 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.

17Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel; for they dared not be seen to come into the city: and a maidservant went and told them; and they went and told king David.

18Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Absalom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man's house in Bahurim, who had a well in his court; and they went down into it.

19And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground grain thereon; and the thing was not known.

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

21And 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 has Ahithophel counseled against you.

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

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

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

25And 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.

26So Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.

27And 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 Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,

28Brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched grain, and beans, and lentils, and parched seed,

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