2 Samuel 17:16-26

16 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.
17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by Enrogel; 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.
18 Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Absalom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man's house in Bahurim, which had a well in his court; whither they went down .
19 And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known .
20 And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said , Where is Ahimaaz 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.
21 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 Ahithophel counselled against you.
22 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.
23 And when Ahithophel 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.
24 Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.
25 And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab's mother.
26 So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead.

Footnotes 1

The King James Version is in the public domain.