MOREOVER Achiythophel said unto Avshalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:
And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only:
And I will bring back all the people unto you: the man whom you seek is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace.
And the saying pleased Avshalom well, and all the elders of Yashar'el.
Then said Avshalom, Call now Chushai the Arkiy also, and let us hear likewise what he says.
And when Chushai was come to Avshalom, Avshalom spoke unto him, saying, Achiythophel has spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying? if not; speak you.
And Chushai said unto Avshalom, The counsel that Achiythophel has given is not good at this time.
For, said Chushai, you know your father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever hears it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Avshalom.
And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all Yashar'el knows that your father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men.
Therefore I counsel that all Yashar'el be generally gathered unto you, from Dan even to Be'er Sheva, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person.
So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falls on the ground: and of him and of all the men that are with him there shall not be left so much as one.
Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Yashar'el bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one small stone found there.
And Avshalom and all the men of Yashar'el said, The counsel of Chushai the Arkiy is better than the counsel of Achiythophel. For Yahuah had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Achiythophel, to the intent that Yahuah might bring the evil upon Avshalom.
Then said Chushai unto Tsadoq and to Avyathar the priests, Thus and thus did Achiythophel counsel Avshalom and the elders of Yashar'el; and thus and thus have I counseled.
Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him.
Now Yahunathan and Achiyma`ats stayed by Eyn Rogel; for they might not be seen to come into the city: and a wench went and told them; and they went and told King David.
Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Avshalom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man's house in Bachuriym, which had a well in his court; whither they went down.
And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known.
And when Avshalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is Achiyma`ats and Yahunathan? And the woman said unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Yerushalayim.
And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told King David, and said unto El-David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus has Achiythophel counseled against you.
Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over the Yardan: by the morning light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over the Yardan.
And when Achiythophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and got him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.
Then David came to Machanayim. And Avshalom passed over the Yardan, he and all the men of Yashar'el with him.
And Avshalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Yo'av: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was Yithra a Yashar'e'liy, that went in to Aviygayil the daughter of Nachash, sister to Tseruyah Yo'av's mother.
So Yashar'el and Avshalom pitched in the land of Gil'ad.
And it came to pass, when David was come to Machanayim, that Shoviy the son of Nachash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Makiyr the son of Ammiy'el of Lo Devar, and Barzillai the Gil'adiy of Rogeliym,
Brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched grain, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,
And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.