2 Samuel 17:15-29 - Hushai Sends Word To David

¹⁵ Then said Hushai unto Zadok and Abiathar the priests, "Of this and that manner did Ahithophel and the elders of Israel counsel Absalom. And thus and thus have I counseled. ¹⁶ Now therefore send quickly and show David, saying, 'Tarry not all night in the fields of the wilderness, but get thee over, lest the king be devoured and all the people that are with him.'"

¹⁷ As for Jonathan and Ahimaaz, they stood by the well of Rogel, and a damsel went thither and told them. They went on their way and told King David, for they durst not be seen to come into the city. ¹⁸ Nevertheless there was a lad saw them, which told it to Absalom. But they went both of them away quickly and came to a man's house in Bahurim, which had a well in his yard, into which they went down. ¹⁹ And the wife took and spread a coverlet on the top of the well and strawed thereon steeped barley to dry. And the thing was not spied.

²⁰ And when Absalom's servants came to the wife to the house and asked where one Ahimaaz and Jonathan were, the wife said unto them, "They be gone over the little brook of water." And when they had sought them and could not find them, then they returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ And as soon as they were departed, the other came out of the well, and went and told King David and said unto him, "Up, and get you quickly over the water for such counsel hath Ahithophel given." ²² Then David arose and all the people that were with him, and they were come over Jordan by that it was day, that there lacked not one of them that was not come over Jordan. ²³ And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass and arose and gat him home to his own house and to his own city, and put his household in order and hanged himself and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.

²⁴ Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, both he and all the men of Israel with him. ²⁵ And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host in the stead of Joab, which Amasa was a man's son named Ithra a Jezreelite that went into Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab's mother. ²⁶ And Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead. ²⁷ And when David was come to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash out of Rabbah, the city of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel out of Lodebar and Barzillai the Gileadite out of Rogelim, ²⁸ brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels: and also corn, barley, flour and parched corn, beans and rice, ²⁹ honey, butter, sheep and cheese of kine - for David, and all the people that were with him, to eat. For they supposed that the people should be hungry, fainty, and thirsty in the wilderness.