1
And Achitofel said to Avshalom, “Please let me choose twelve thousand ish, and I will rise and pursue after Daviyd this night.
2
And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and I will terrify him; and all the people who are with him will flee, and I will strike the king alone.
3
And I will return all the people to you. The return of all depends upon the ish whom you seek; and all the people shall be in shalom.”
4
And the word was right in the eyes of Avshalom and in the eyes of all the elders of Yisra’el.
5
And Avshalom said, “Please call also Chushai the Arki, and let us hear what is in his mouth also.”
6
And Chushai came to Avshalom. And Avshalom spoke to him, saying, “According to this word Achitofel has spoken. Shall we do according to his word? If not, speak.”
7
And Chushai said to Avshalom, “The counsel that Achitofel has counseled this time is not good.”
8
And Chushai said, “You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and bitter of being, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. And your father is an ish of war and will not lodge with the people.
9
See, he is hidden now in one of the pits or in one of the places. And it shall be, when some of them fall at the first, that whoever hears will hear and say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Avshalom.’
10
And even the son of strength, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, melting, it shall surely melt; for all Yisra’el knows that your father is a mighty ish, and those who are with him are sons of strength.
11
But I counsel that gathering, all Yisra’el be surely gathered to you, from Dan even to Be’er-Sheva, as the sand that is upon the sea for multitude, and that you yourself go into the battle.
12
And we shall come upon him in one of the places where he is found, and we shall descend upon him as the dew falls upon the earth. And of him and of all the men who are with him, not even one shall remain.
13
And if he gathers himself into a city, then all Yisra’el shall carry ropes to that city, and we shall drag it into the wadi until not even a small stone is found there.”
14
And Avshalom and all the ish of Yisra’el said, “The counsel of Chushai the Arki is better than the counsel of Achitofel.” For Yahuah had commanded to frustrate the good counsel of Achitofel, in order that Yahuah might bring evil upon Avshalom.
15
And Chushai said to Tzadoq and to Evyatar the kohenim, “Thus and thus Achitofel counseled Avshalom and the elders of Yisra’el, and thus and thus I counseled.
16
And now, send quickly and declare to Daviyd, saying: ‘Do not lodge this night at the crossings of the wilderness; but crossing, surely cross over, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up.’”
17
And Yonatan and Achimaatz were staying at Ein-Rogel, for they were not able to be seen entering the city. And a maidservant would go and declare to them, and they would go and declare to King Daviyd.
18
But a young man saw them and declared it to Avshalom. And the two of them went quickly and came to the house of an ish in Bachurim, and he had a well in his courtyard, and they went down into it.
19
And the ishah took and spread a covering over the mouth of the well and scattered crushed grain upon it, and the matter was not known.
20
And the servants of Avshalom came to the ishah at the house and said, “Where are Achimaatz and Yonatan?” And the ishah said to them, “They crossed over the stream of water.” And they sought and did not find them, and returned to Yerushalayim.
21
And it came to pass after they had gone that they came up from the well and went and declared to King Daviyd. And they said to Daviyd, “Rise and cross over the waters quickly, for thus Achitofel has counseled against you.”
22
And Daviyd rose, and all the people who were with him, and they crossed the Yarden. By the light of morning there was not one missing who had not crossed the Yarden.
23
And Achitofel saw that his counsel had not been done. And he saddled his donkey and rose and went to his house, to his city. And he commanded concerning his House, and strangled himself and died. And he was buried in the tomb of his father.
24
And Daviyd came to Machanayim. And Avshalom crossed the Yarden, he and all the ish of Yisra’el with him.
25
And Avshalom set Amasa over the host in place of Yoav. And Amasa was son of an ish whose name was Yitra the Yisra’eli, who went in to Avigayil daughter of Nachash, sister of Tzeruyah, mother of Yoav.
26
And Yisra’el and Avshalom encamped in the land of Gilad.
27
And it came to pass when Daviyd came to Machanayim that Shovi son of Nachash, from Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and Makhir son of Ammiel, from Lo-Devar, and Barzillai the Giladi, from Rogelim,
28
brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and roasted grain, and beans, and lentils, and roasted seed,
29
and honey, and curds, and sheep, and cheese of the herd, for Daviyd and for the people who were with him to eat. For they said, “The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.”