2 Samuel 17

1 Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me take out twelve thousand men and this very night I will go after David:

And Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Please let me choose twelve thousand men, and I arise and pursue after David tonight,

2 And I will come up with him when he is tired and feeble, and make him full of fear: and all the people with him will go in flight; and I will make an attack on the king only:

and come on him, and he [will be] weary and feeble-handed, and I have caused him to tremble, and all the people who [are] with him have fled, and I have struck the king by himself,

3 And I will make all the people come back to you as a bride comes back to her husband: it is the life of only one man you are going after; so all the people will be at peace.

and I bring back all the people to you—as the turning back of the whole [except] the man whom you are seeking—[then] all the people are [at] peace.”

4 And the saying was pleasing to Absalom and to the responsible men of Israel.

And the word is right in the eyes of Absalom, and in the eyes of all [the] elderly of Israel.

5 Then Absalom said, Now send for Hushai the Archite, and let us give ear to what he has to say.

And Absalom says, “Now call for Hushai the Archite also, and we hear what [is] in his mouth—even he.”

6 And when Hushai came, Absalom said to him, This is what Ahithophel has said: are we to do as he says? if not, what is your suggestion?

And Hushai comes to Absalom, and Absalom speaks to him, saying, “According to this word Ahithophel has spoken; do we do his word? If not, you—speak.”

7 And Hushai said to Absalom, Ahithophel's idea is not a good one at this time.

And Hushai says to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel has counseled [is] not good at this time.”

8 Hushai said further, You have knowledge of your father and his men, that they are men of war, and that their feelings are bitter, like those of a bear in the field whose young ones have been taken from her: and your father is a man of war, and will not take his night's rest with the people;

And Hushai says, “You have known your father and his men, that they [are] heroes, and they are bitter in soul as a bereaved bear in a field, and your father [is] a man of war, and does not lodge with the people;

9 But he will certainly have taken cover now in some hole or secret place; and if some of our people, at the first attack, are overcome, then any hearing of it will say, There is destruction among the people who are on Absalom's side.

behold, now, he is hidden in one of the pits, or in one of the places, and it has been at the falling among them at the commencement, that the hearer has heard and said, There has been a slaughter among the people who [are] after Absalom;

10 Then even the strongest, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will become like water; for all Israel is conscious that your father is a man of war, and those who are with him are strong and without fear.

and he also, the son of valor, whose heart [is] as the heart of the lion, utterly melts, for all Israel knows that your father is a hero, and those with him [are] sons of valor.

11 But my suggestion is that all Israel, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, comes together to you, a great army like the sands of the sea in number; and that you yourself go out among them.

So that I have counseled: let all Israel be diligently gathered to you, from Dan even to Beer-Sheba, as the sand that [is] by the sea for multitude, and you yourself are going in the midst;

12 Then we will come on him in some place, wherever he may be, falling on him as the dew comes on the earth: and of him and all the men who are with him not one will get away with his life.

and we have come to him in one of the places where he is found, and we [are] on him as the dew falls on the ground, and there has not been left of him and of all the men who [are] with him even one.

13 And if he has gone into some town, then let all Israel take strong cords to that town, and we will have it pulled into the valley, till not one small stone is to be seen there.

And if he is gathered to a city, then they have caused all Israel to carry ropes to that city, and we have drawn it to the brook until there has not even been found a stone there.”

14 Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, Hushai's suggestion is better than that of Ahithophel. For it was the purpose of the Lord to make the wise designs of Ahithophel without effect, so that the Lord might send evil on Absalom.

And Absalom says—and all the men of Israel, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite [is] better than the counsel of Ahithophel”; and YHWH willed to make void the good counsel of Ahithophel for the sake of YHWH’s bringing the calamity to Absalom.

15 Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, This is the suggestion made by Ahithophel to Absalom and the responsible men of Israel, and this is what I said to them.

And Hushai says to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, “Thus and thus Ahithophel has counseled Absalom and the elderly of Israel, and thus and thus I have counseled;

16 So now send the news quickly to David, and say, Do not take your night's rest by the way across the river to the waste land, but be certain to go over; or the king and all the people with him will come to destruction.

and now, send quickly, and declare [it] to David, saying, Do not lodge in the plains of the wilderness tonight, and also, certainly pass over, lest there is a swallowing up of the king and of all the people who are with him.”

17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting by En-rogel; and a servant-girl went from time to time and gave them news and they went with the news to King David, for it was not wise for them to let themselves be seen coming into the town.

And Jonathan and Ahimaaz are standing at En-Rogel, and the maidservant has gone and declared [it] to them—and they go and have declared [it] to King David—for they are not able to be seen to go into the city.

18 But a boy saw them, and gave word of it to Absalom: so the two of them went away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bahurim who had a water-hole in his garden, and they went down into it.

And a youth sees them, and declares [it] to Absalom; and both of them go on quickly, and come to the house of a man in Bahurim, and he has a well in his court, and they go down there,

19 And a woman put a cover over the hole, and put crushed grain on top of it, and no one had any knowledge of it.

and the woman takes and spreads the covering over the face of the well, and spreads the ground grain on it, and the thing has not been known.

20 And Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house and said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said to them, They have gone from here to the stream. And after searching for them, and seeing nothing of them, they went back to Jerusalem.

And the servants of Absalom come to the woman at the house, and say, “Where [are] Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman says to them, “They passed over the brook of water”; and they seek, and have not found, and return to Jerusalem.

21 Then after the servants had gone away, they came up out of the water-hole and went to give King David the news; and they said, Get up and go quickly over the water, for such and such are Ahithophel's designs against you.

And it comes to pass, after their going on, that they come up out of the well, and go and declare [it] to King David, and say to David, “Rise, and pass over the waters quickly, for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you.”

22 So David and all the people who were with him went up over Jordan: when dawn came, every one of them had gone over Jordan.

And David rises, and all the people who [are] with him, and they pass over the Jordan, until the morning light, until not one has been lacking who has not passed over the Jordan.

23 Now when Ahithophel saw that his suggestion was not acted on, he got his ass ready, and went back to his house, to the town where he came from, and having put his house in order, he put himself to death by hanging; so he came to his end and was put in the resting-place of his father.

And Ahithophel has seen that his counsel was not done, and he saddles the donkey, and rises and goes to his house, to his city, and gives charge to his household, and strangles himself, and dies, and he is buried in the burying-place of his father.

24 And David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom, with all the men of Israel, went over Jordan.

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

25 And Absalom put Amasa at the head of the army in place of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite, who had been the lover of Abigail, the daughter of Jesse, sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother.

and Absalom has set Amasa over the host instead of Joab, and Amasa [is] a man’s son whose name is Ithra the Israeli who has gone in to Abigail, daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, mother of Joab;

26 And Israel and Absalom put up their tents in the land of Gilead.

and Israel encamps with Absalom [in] the land of Gilead.

27 Now when David had come to Mahanaim, Shobi, the son of Nahash of Rabbah, the Ammonite, and Machir, the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,

And it comes to pass at the coming in of David to Mahanaim, that Shobi son of Nahash, from Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and Machir son of Ammiel, from Behold-Debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite, from Rogelim,

28 Came with beds and basins and pots, and grain and meal, and all sorts of dry foods,

[have brought] bed, and basin, and earthen vessel, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and roasted [grain], and beans, and lentiles, and roasted [pulse],

29 And honey and butter and sheep and milk-cheeses, for David and his people: for they said, This people is in the waste land, needing food and drink and rest.

and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of cows; they have brought [these] near for David, and for the people who [are] with him to eat, for they said, “Your people [are] hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.”