Ahithophel wants to attack David
1Ahithophel told Absalom: ‘I want to choose 12 000 men and attack David tonight. 2We will find him when he is tired and discouraged and he will be afraid. All the people with him will run away. Then the king will be alone and I will kill him. 3Then I will bring all the people back to you. It is only one man whom you want to kill, but everyone else will come back to you. I will not hurt any of the people.’
Hushai lies to Absalom
4Absalom and all the leaders_of_Israel thought it was a good plan. 5But Absalom said: ‘Please call Hushai, the Arkite, so we can listen to what he says.’ 6When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom told him what Ahithophel had said. Absalom asked Hushai: ‘Must we do it or not? What do you think?’
7Hushai said to Absalom: ‘Today Ahithophel's plan was not good. 8You know your father and his men. They can fight very well and now they are as angry as a mother bear when someone steals her baby bears. Your father knows a lot about war. He will not sleep with his men. 9You can be sure that he is hiding in a hole or some other place. And when they start to attack your men, some of your men will die and when they tell the people about it, they will say a lot of Absalom's men were killed. 10Then all of your men will become afraid, even the men who are brave as lions, because all the people in Israel know that your father and his men can fight very well. 11That is why I am saying you must wait. You must tell all the men of Israel to come together, all of the men from the town of Dan to Beersheba. There must be as many of them as the sand of the sea and you must go to war with them. 12We will find the king where he is and we will fall on him and his men like rain that falls on the ground. Not one of them will stay alive. 13And if he hides in a town, the men of Israel will tie ropes around that town and they will pull it down to the valley. There will not be a stone left there.’
14Absalom and all the men of Israel said Hushai's plan was better than Ahithophel's plan. But it was the Lord who made them not listen to the good plan of Ahithophel because the Lord did not want to help Absalom. He wanted to punish him.
Hushai sends a message to David
15Hushai went to the priests, Zadok and Abiathar, and he told them about the plan that Ahithophel had told Absalom and the leaders_of_Israel. Hushai also told them what his plan was. 16Hushai told Zadok and Abiathar to send David a message immediately and to warn him and say: ‘You must not sleep where the Jordan River is not very deep. You must go over the river. If you don't do it, Absalom's men will find you there and they will kill you and everyone with you.’
17Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En-Rogel because they were afraid that the people would see them in Jerusalem. A slave girl took the message to them that they had to give to King David. 18But a young man saw them and he told Absalom about it. Jonathan and Ahimaaz quickly went to a man's house in the town of Bahurim. There was a water-well in the man's garden and they climbed down into the water-well. 19His wife put a cloth over the water-well and she put wheat over the cloth. No one knew that she had done this. 20When Absalom's men came to the woman' home, they asked her where Ahimaaz and Jonathan were. The woman said to them: ‘They went over the river.’
The men looked for Ahimaaz and Jonathan but they could not find them and they went back to Jerusalem. 21After they had left, Ahimaaz and Jonathan got out of the water-well and they took the message to King David. They said to David: ‘You must go over the river quickly.’ They told David what Ahithophel's plan was. 22David and all the people who were with him started to go over the Jordan River. They kept on going through the water until the sun came up. Then everyone was on the other side of the Jordan River.
Ahithophel kills himself
23When Ahithophel saw that Absalom did not do what he said, he took his donkey and he went back to his home in the town where he lived. He told his family what they must do and then he hanged himself and he died. They buried him in his father's grave.
David at Mahanaim
24When David came to the town of Mahanaim, Absalom and all the men of Israel went over the Jordan River. 25Absalom chose Amasa to be the chief of the army after Joab had been the chief. Amasa was the son of Jether from the town of Jezreel. Jether married Abigail, daughter of Nahash. Abigail was a sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother. 26The men of Israel and Absalom put up their tents in the land of Gilead.
27When David came to the town of Mahanaim, Shobi and Barzillai and Makir brought them food. Shobi was the son of Nahash from Rabbah, a town of the Ammonites, Makir was the son of Ammiel from the town of Lo-Debar and Barzillai was from the town of Rogelim in Gilead. 28They brought sleeping-mats, bowls, pots, wheat, barley, flour and roasted wheat, beans, lentils, 29and also honey and cream, sheep, goats and cheese. They gave them to David and the people to eat. They said: ‘The people are in the desert. They will be hungry, tired and thirsty.’