1
Moreover Achitofel said to Avshalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:
2
and I will come on him while he is weary and weak-handed, and will make him afraid; and all the people who are with him shall flee; and I will strike the king only;
3
and I will bring back all the people to you: the man whom you seek is as if all returned: [so] all the people shall be in shalom.
4
The saying pleased Avshalom well, and all the Zakenim of Yisra'el.
5
Then said Avshalom, Call now Hushai the Arki also, and let us hear likewise what he says.
6
When Hushai was come to Avshalom, Avshalom spoke to him, saying, Achitofel has spoken after this manner: shall we do [after] his saying? if not, speak up.
7
Hushai said to Avshalom, The counsel that Achitofel has given this time is not good.
8
Hushai said moreover, You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce 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.
9
Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some [other] place: and it will happen, when some of them are fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, There is a slaughter among the people who follow Avshalom.
10
Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Yisra'el knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.
11
But I counsel that all Yisra'el be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Be'er-Sheva, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person.