2 Samuel 17
The Counsel of
Ahithophel and Hushai |
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Moreover Ahith'ophel said unto Ab'salom,
Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and
pursue after David this night:
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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:
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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.
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And the saying pleased Ab'salom well, and
all the elders of Israel.
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Then said Ab'salom, Call now Hu'shai
the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.
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And when Hu'shai was come to Ab'salom,
Ab'salom spake unto him, saying, Ahith'ophel hath spoken after this
manner: shall we do after his saying? if not, speak
thou.
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And Hu'shai said unto Ab'salom, The
counsel that Ahith'ophel hath given is not good at this
time.
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For, said Hu'shai, 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.
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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
Ab'salom.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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14 |
And Ab'salom and all the men of Israel
said, The counsel of Hu'shai the Archite is better than the
counsel of Ahith'ophel. For the LORD had
appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahith'ophel, to the intent
that the LORD might bring evil upon
Ab'salom.
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Then said Hu'shai unto Zadok and to
Abi'athar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahith'ophel counsel
Ab'salom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I
counseled.
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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.
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Now Jonathan and Ahim'a-az stayed by
En-ro'gel; 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.
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Nevertheless, a lad saw them, and told
Ab'salom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a
man's house in Bahu'rim, which had a well in his court; whither they
went down.
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And the woman took and spread a covering
over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing
was not known.
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And when Ab'salom's servants came to the
woman to the house, they said, Where is Ahim'a-az 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.
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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 Ahith'ophel counseled against you.
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Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over Jordan: by the morning
light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over
Jordan.
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And when Ahith'ophel saw that his
counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and
gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in
order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre
of his father.
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Then David came to Mahana'im. And
Ab'salom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with
him.
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And Ab'salom made Ama'sa captain of the
host instead of Jo'ab: which Ama'sa was a man's son, whose
name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Ab'igail the
daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeru-i'ah Jo'ab's mother.
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So Israel and Ab'salom pitched in the
land of Gil'e-ad.
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And it came to pass, when David was
come to Mahana'im, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the
children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Am'mi-el of Lo-de'bar, and
Barzil'lai the Gil'e-adite of Ro'gelim,
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brought beds, and basins, and earthen
vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentils, and parched pulse,
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and honey, and butter, and sheep, and
cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with
him, to eat: for they said, The people is hungry, and weary,
and thirsty, in the wilderness.
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