¹And Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me select twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight. ²And I will come upon him when he is tired and weak in the hands, and I will frighten him, and all the people who are with him will flee. But I will strike the king only. ³And I will cause all the people to return to you. The man whose life you seek is key to everyone returning. All the people will be at peace.” ⁴And the proposal was sound in Absalom's eyes and the eyes of all the elders of Israel. ⁵Then Absalom said, “Please also call Hushai the Archite, and let us hear what he has to say as well.” ⁶And when Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him and said, “Ahithophel put this proposal forward. Should we carry out his proposal? If not, you speak up.” ⁷At this, Hushai said to Absalom, “The advice which Ahithophel gave is not good on this occasion.” ⁸And Hushai said, “You know your father and his men – how valiant they are, and how embittered they are in spirit, like a bear bereaved of young in the wild, and your father is a man of war, and he will not pass the night with the people. ⁹Look, he is now hidden in one of the pits or in one of the hiding places, and it would come to pass, when some of those among them fell at the start, that one hearing it would say, ‘There was a massacre among the people who were following Absalom.’ ¹⁰And even he who is a soldier, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, would utterly melt, for all Israel knows that your father is valiant, as are the soldiers who are with him. ¹¹So I advise that all Israel be solidly gathered around you, from Dan to Beersheba, like the sand which is by the sea in abundance, and that you go to battle in person. ¹²And we will come upon him in one of the places where he is found, and we will descend on him as the dew falls on the ground, and not even one of all the men who are with him will remain. ¹³And if he is concentrated in a city, then all Israel will bring ropes against that city, and we will drag it to the brook until not so much as a grain is found there.” ¹⁴At this Absalom and every man of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than the advice of Ahithophel.” So the Lord ordained to frustrate the good advice of Ahithophel in order that the Lord should bring demise on Absalom. ¹⁵And Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, “Ahithophel advised Absalom and the elders of Israel such and such, and I myself advised such and such. ¹⁶So now, send word quickly for them to tell David and say, ‘Do not spend the night tonight in the arid tracts of the desert, but rather cross right over so that the king and all the people who are with him are not swallowed up.’ ” ¹⁷Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were stationed in En-Rogel, and a servant-girl came and told them, and they proceeded to tell King David, because the others could not be seen going to the city. ¹⁸But a lad saw them, and he told Absalom, so the two of them went on quickly and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his courtyard, and they went down into it. ¹⁹And the woman took and spread a cover over the top of the well, and she strewed crushed grain over it, and nothing was made known. ²⁰And when Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them, “They have crossed the brook.” Then they searched, but they did not find anyone, and they returned to Jerusalem. ²¹And it came to pass, after they were gone, that they came up out of the well, and they departed and reported to King David, and they said to David, “Get up and cross the water quickly, for Ahithophel gave advice against you in such and such a way.” ²²So David got up, as did all the people with him, and they crossed the Jordan. By morning light not as much as one had failed to cross the Jordan. ²³Then when Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been carried out, he saddled his donkey and arose and went to his house – to his city – and gave instructions to his household, and he strangled himself and died, and he was buried in his father's grave. ²⁴Then David went to Mahanaim, and Absalom crossed the Jordan – he and every man of Israel with him. ²⁵And Absalom appointed Amasa in charge of the army as Joab's counterpart. Now Amasa was the son of a man whose name was Ithra, the Israelite who went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, the sister of Zeruiah, the mother of Joab. ²⁶And Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead. ²⁷And it came to pass when David arrived in Mahanaim that Shobi the son of Nahash from Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel from Lo-Debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim, ²⁸all brought bedding and trays and crockery and wheat and barley and flour and roasted corn and beans and lentils and roasted lentils, ²⁹and honey and buttermilk, and sheep, and cows' cheese, to David and the people who were with him, for sustenance, for they had said, “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the desert.”