1
Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night,
2
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.
3
Thus will I turn all the people back unto thee, and when they have returned (for that man is whom thou dost seek), all the people shall be in peace.
4
And this word seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and of all the elders of Israel.
5
Then Absalom said, Now call Hushai, the Archite, also, and let us likewise hear what he says.
6
And when Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom spoke unto him, saying, Thus spoke Ahithophel; shall we follow his word or not? Speak thou.
7
Then Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time
is not good.
8
For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they
are mighty men, and
now their souls are bitter, 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.
9
Behold, he is hid now in some pit or in some
other place, and if some of thy
men are overthrown at the beginning, whoever hears of it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom.
10
Thus even the valiant, whose heart
is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt, for all Israel knows that thy father
is a mighty man and
those who
are with him
are valiant men.
11
Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that
is by the sea for multitude, and that thou go to battle in thine own person.