Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.”

Now someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” And David said, “O Lord, I pray, make the counsel of Ahithophel foolishness.”

Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For the Lord had ordained to thwart the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring calamity on Absalom.

“He frustrates the plotting of the shrewd,
So that their hands cannot attain success.

There is no wisdom and no understanding
And no counsel against the Lord.

Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying,

“Be broken, O peoples, and be

shattered;

And give ear, all remote places of the earth.
Gird yourselves, yet be shattered;
Gird yourselves, yet be shattered.

“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;
And I will confound their strategy,
So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead
And to mediums and spiritists.

Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it!

Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth;

Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains,

O forest, and every tree in it;
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob
And in Israel He shows forth His glory.

Bringeth

Causing the omens of boasters to fail,

Making fools out of diviners,

Causing wise men to draw back

And turning their knowledge into foolishness,

He maketh

Though they

intended evil against You

And devised a plot,
They will not succeed.

“Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked;
Do not promote his evil device, that they not be exalted. Selah.

General references

[Everyone went to his home.