2 Samuel 17:1-14 - Hushai Frustrates The Counsel Of Ahithophel

¹ Then Ahithophel said unto Absalom, "Let me choose out, I pray thee, twelve thousand men. And I will up and follow after David by night. ² And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will fear him, that all the people that are with him shall flee. And so will I smite the king only, ³ and will bring again all the people unto thee. And when all these men which thou seekest are turned to thee, all the people shall have rest." ⁴ And the saying pleased Absalom well and all the elders of Israel.

⁵ Then said Absalom, "Call also Hushai the Archite and let us hear his sentence."

⁶ When Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spake unto him saying, "Ahithophel hath given such counsel: whether it be best we do after his saying, or not, tell thou."

⁷ Then said Hushai to Absalom, "The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time. ⁸ For," said Hushai, "thou knowest thy father and the men that are with him, how that they be strong men. And they be chafed in their minds, even as a bear robbed of her whelps. And thy father is a man practiced in war, and will not lie a nights among the common people. ⁹ Behold, he lurketh now in some cave or in some other place. And thereto, though some of his men be overthrown at the first brunt, yet they that hear it will think the people that followeth Absalom be put to the worse. ¹⁰ By the reason whereof, the best men thou hast whose hearts are as the hearts of lions, shall shrink thereat. For all Israel knoweth that thy father is a man, and that they which be with him be children of activity. ¹¹ But my counsel is, that all Israel be gathered unto thee, from Dan to Beersheba, as the sand of the sea in number, and that thou go to battle in thine own person. ¹² And we will come upon him in one place or other, where we shalt find him, and we will pitch a field against him, even as thick as the dew falleth on the ground. And there shall not one of them be left, neither he nor any of all that are with him. ¹³ Moreover, if he take a town then shall all the men of Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one stone found upon another." ¹⁴ And Absalom and all the men of Israel said that the counsel of Hushai the Archite was better than the counsel of Ahithophel - For it was even the LORD's determination to destroy the counsel of Ahithophel, which was good, that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.