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

¹ And Ahithophel said unto Absalom, 'Let me choose, I pray thee, twelve thousand men, and I arise and pursue after David to-night, ² and come upon him, and he weary and feeble-handed, and I have caused him to tremble, and all the people have fled who are with him, and I have smitten the king by himself, ³ and I bring back all the people unto thee -- as the turning back of the whole is the man whom thou art seeking -- all the people are peace. ⁴ And the thing is right in the eyes of Absalom, and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel.

⁵ And Absalom saith, 'Call, I pray thee, also for Hushai the Archite, and we hear what is in his mouth -- even he.'

⁶ And Hushai cometh in unto Absalom, and Absalom speaketh unto him, saying, 'According to this word hath Ahithophel spoken; do we do his word? if not, thou -- speak thou.'

⁷ And Hushai saith unto Absalom, 'Not good is the counsel that Ahithophel hath counselled at this time.' ⁸ And Hushai saith, 'Thou hast known thy father and his men, that they are heroes, and they are bitter in soul as a bereaved bear in a field, and thy father is a man of war, and doth not lodge with the people; ⁹ lo, now, he is hidden in one of the pits, or in one of the places, and it hath been, at the falling among them at the commencement, that the hearer hath heard, and said, There hath been a slaughter among the people who are after Absalom; ¹⁰ and he also, the son of valour, whose heart is as the heart of the lion, doth utterly melt, for all Israel doth know that thy father is a hero, and sons of valour are those with him. ¹¹ So that I have counselled: Let all Israel be diligently gathered unto thee, from Dan even unto Beer-Sheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude, and thou thyself art going in the midst; ¹² and we have come in unto him in one of the places where he is found, and we are upon him as the dew falleth on the ground, and there hath not been left of him and of all the men who are with him even one. ¹³ And if unto a city he is gathered, then they have caused all Israel to bear unto that city ropes, and we have drawn it unto the brook till that there hath not been found there even a stone.' ¹⁴ And Absalom saith -- and all the men of Israel -- 'Better is the counsel of Hushai the Archite than the counsel of Ahithophel;' and Jehovah willed to make void the good counsel of Ahithophel for the sake of Jehovah's bringing unto Absalom the evil.