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
And I will bring back all the people to thee: the man whom thou seekest [is] as if all returned: [so] all the people shall be in peace.
4
And the saying, pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
5
Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.
6
And when Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do [after] his saying? if not, speak thou.
7
And Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given, [is] not good at this time.
8
For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they [are] mighty men, and they [are] 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.
9
Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some [other] place: and it will come to pass, when some of them [are] overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom.
10
And he also [that is] valiant, whose heart [is] as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt: for all Israel knoweth that thy father [is] a mighty man, and [they] who [are] with him [are] valiant men.
11
Therefore I counsel that all Israel should be generally gathered to thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as the sand that [is] by the sea for multitude; and that thou shouldst go to battle in thy own person.
12
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.