II Samuel 17 · שמואל ב

Moreover Aĥitofel said to Avshalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:

and I will come upon him while he is weary and weakhanded, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only:

and I will bring back all the people to thee: when all return (after the death of the man whom thou seekest) all the people shall be in peace.

And the saying pleased Avshalom well, and all the elders of Yisra᾽el.

Then said Avshalom, Call now Ḥushay the Arkite also, and let us hear likewise what he says.

And when Ḥushay was come to Avshalom, Avshalom spoke to him, saying, Aĥitofel has spoken after such and such a manner: shall we do after his saying? if not; speak thou.

And Ḥushay said to Avshalom, The counsel that Aĥitofel has given is not good at this time.

For, said Ḥushay, thou knowst thy father and his men, that they are warriors, and they are embittered, like a bear robbed of its cubs in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not spend the night with the people.

Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them fall in the first attack, that whoever hears it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Avshalom.

And even a warrior whose heart is like the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all Yisra᾽el knows that thy father is a mighty man, and they who are with him are valiant men.

Therefore I counsel that all Yisra᾽el should be gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Be᾽er-sheva, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person.

So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will encamp around him like the dew falling on the ground: and of him and of all the men that are with him there shall not be left so much as one.

Moreover, if he withdraw himself to some city, then shall all Yisra᾽el bring ropes to that city, and we will drag it into the nearest ravine, until there be not one small stone found there.

And Avshalom and all the men of Yisra᾽el said, The counsel of Ḥushay the Arkite is better than the counsel of Aĥitofel. For the Lord had ordained it to defeat the good counsel of Aĥitofel, to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Avshalom.

Then said Ḥushay to Żadoq and to Evyatar the priests, Thus and thus did Aĥitofel counsel Avshalom and the elders of Yisra᾽el; and thus have I counselled.

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.

Now Yehonatan and Aĥima῾aż stayed by ῾En-rogal; for they might not be seen to come into the city: and a maidservant went and told them; and they went and told king David.

Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Avshalom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man’s house in Baĥurim, and he had a well in his court; and they went down into it.

And the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth, and spread ground corn on it; and the thing was not known.

And when Avshalom’s servants came to the woman to the house, they said to them, where are Aĥima῾aż and Yehonatan? And the woman said, They are gone over the channel of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Yerushalayim.

And it came to pass, after they had departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David, and said to David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus has Aĥitofel counselled against you.

Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over the Yarden: by the morning light not one of them had failed to cross the Yarden.

And when Aĥitofel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and went to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and strangled himself and died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.

Then David came to Maĥanayim. And Avshalom passed over the Yarden, he and all the men of Yisra᾽el with him.

And Avshalom placed ῾Amasa in charge of the army in place of Yo᾽av: and ῾Amasa was the son of a man named Yitra the Yisra᾽elite who had taken to himself Avigayil the daughter of Naĥash, sister of Żeruya, the mother of Yo᾽av.

So Yisra᾽el and Avshalom encamped in the land of Gil῾ad.

And it came to pass, when David had come to Maĥanayim, that Shovi the son of Naĥash of Rabba of the children of ῾Ammon, and Makhir the son of ῾Ammi᾽el of Lo-devar, and Barzillay the Gil῾adite of Rogelim,

brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentils, and parched pulse,

and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of cows’ milk for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.