UST 2 SAM Chapter 17

◄ 2 SAM 17 ► ║ ═ ©

17 Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Please allow me to pick 12,000 of our best soldiers so that I can lead them tonight to chase David. 2 When we catch up to him, he will be tired from traveling and physically weak. When our soldiers appear, this will terrify him. The other people who are with him will run away and not fight against us. We will only need to kill the king. 3 After that, the others who left Jerusalem with him will return to the city and accept you as their king. If we just kill the man you want to catch, that will be enough to get all the others to come back. It will not be necessary to hurt anyone else.” 4 Absalom and all the Israelite leaders who were with him thought that it would be good to do what Ahithophel had recommended.

5 But then Absalom said, “Ask Hushai to come and speak to us as well. We should find out whether he recommends anything different that we should consider.” 6 When Hushai arrived, Absalom told him what Ahithophel had suggested. Then he asked Hushai, “What do you think we should do? If you do not think that we should do what Ahithophel advises, then tell us what you think we should do instead.”

7 Hushai replied, “This time, what Ahithophel has suggested is not good advice.” 8 He continued, “You know that your father and the men who are with him are elite soldiers. You know that they must be very angry, like a wild mother bear whose cubs someone has stolen from her. Furthermore, your father has fought in many battles, so he knows what he should do now. He will not spend the night with the crowd of people who left Jerusalem with him. 9 Right now he is probably already hiding in a cave or in some other safe place. If Ahithophel leads soldiers out to attack David’s soldiers, David’s soldiers will certainly kill some of them at the start of the battle. When people hear about that, they will say, ‘David’s soldiers are slaughtering Absalom’s soldiers!’ 10 Then your other soldiers, even if they are as fierce as lions, will become very afraid. After all, everyone in Israel knows that your father is a great soldier and that the soldiers who are with him are very brave.

11 So this is what I recommend. You should really summon the entire Israelite army. Have the solders come here even if they live as far away as Dan in the far north or Beersheba in the far south. You will have too many soldiers to count, like the grains of sand on the seashore. Wait until they come, and then you yourself should lead the army into battle. 12 We will find your father, wherever he is, and our great army will overwhelm his smaller army, just as dew covers the entire ground. Neither he nor any of the soldiers who are with him will survive. 13 If he decides to retreat into some city, all our soldiers will bring ropes to that city and pull it down into the valley below. As a result, not one stone will remain on top of the hill where that city was!”

14 Absalom and the other Israelite leaders who were with him decided, “What Hushai suggests is better than what Ahithophel suggested.” Yahweh led them not to accept Ahithophel’s advice, which actually would have been better for Absalom. As a result, Yahweh caused a great defeat for Absalom.

15 Then Hushai went secretly and told the two priests, Zadok and Abiathar, what both he and Ahithophel had suggested to Absalom and the Israelite leaders. 16 Then he said to them, “There is still a risk that Absalom might decide to do what Ahithophel suggested, so send a message quickly to David. Tell him not to stay overnight at the place where people can walk across the Jordan River. Instead, he and his soldiers must cross the Jordan River immediately. Otherwise, Absalom and his army may come and kill them.”

17 The priests’ two sons, Jonathan and Ahimaaz, were staying near En Rogel, outside Jerusalem. They did not dare to enter the city, because if someone saw them, he would report it to Absalom. Instead, they had arranged for a woman who served the two priests to come and report to them what was happening. They would then go and report it to King David. 18 But a young man saw them at En Rogel, and he went and reported this to Absalom. They knew the young man had recognized them, so both of them left quickly and went to the house of a man who lived in the city of Bahurim. That man had a well in his courtyard, and he let Jonathan and Ahimaaz go down into the well to hide. 19 The man’s wife took a cloth and covered the opening of the well. Then she scattered grain on top of it to make it look as if this was the place where she dried the grain in the sun. As a result, it was not evident that there was a well beneath the cloth.

20 Some of Absalom’s soldiers learned in what direction the two men had gone. So they went in that direction and came to the house where they were hiding. They asked the wife, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” She replied, “They went across that stream over there.” So the soldiers went in that direction and searched for them. But they could not find them, so they went back to Jerusalem.

21 After the soldiers had gone, the two men came out of the well and went and reported to King David. They told him, “Ahithophel has encouraged Absalom to attack you immediately. So you must get all these people across the Jordan River quickly!” 22 So David and all his soldiers quickly started to cross the Jordan River, and by the next morning they had all crossed to the other side.

23 When Ahithophel realized that Absalom was not going to do what he had recommended, he knew that David would defeat Absalom, so he put a saddle on his donkey and returned home to his own city. He gave to his family instructions about what to do with his possessions, and then he hanged himself because he knew that otherwise David would kill him as a traitor. People buried his body in the same tomb where people had buried his father.

24 David and his soldiers arrived at Mahanaim. At the same time, Absalom and all his soldiers also crossed the Jordan River. 25 Now Absalom had appointed Amasa to be the commander of his army instead of Joab. Amasa was the son of an Israelite man whose name was Ithra. Amasa’s mother was Abigail. She was the daughter of Nahash and the sister of Joab’s mother Zeruiah. 26 Absalom and his Israelite soldiers set up their military camp in the region of Gilead.

27 When David and his soldiers arrived at Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from the Ammonite city of Rabbah, Machir son of Ammiel from the city of Lo Debar, and Barzillai from the city of Rogelim in Gilead came to them. 28 They brought mats for them to sleep on and bowls and clay pots that they could use to prepare and serve food. They also brought wheat and barley, as raw grains, as flour, and as roasted grains. They also brought beans and lentils, some raw and some roasted. 29 They also brought honey, curds, sheep, and cow’s cheese. They knew that David and his soldiers would need to have these things to eat because they would be hungry and thirsty and tired from marching through a desolate area.

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UST 2 SAM Chapter 17

UST 2 SAM Chapter 17