| 17:1 | Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me take out twelve thousand men and this very night I will go after David: |
| 17:2 | And I will come up with him when he is tired and feeble, and make him full of fear: and all the people with him will go in flight; and I will make an attack on the king only: |
| 17:3 | And I will make all the people come back to you as a bride comes back to her husband: it is the life of only one man you are going after; so all the people will be at peace. |
| 17:4 | And the saying was pleasing to Absalom and to the responsible men of Israel. |
| 17:5 | Then Absalom said, Now send for Hushai the Archite, and let us give ear to what he has to say. |
| 17:6 | And when Hushai came, Absalom said to him, This is what Ahithophel has said: are we to do as he says? if not, what is your suggestion? |
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| 17:10 | Then even the strongest, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will become like water; for all Israel is conscious that your father is a man of war, and those who are with him are strong and without fear. |
| 17:11 | But my suggestion is that all Israel, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, comes together to you, a great army like the sands of the sea in number; and that you yourself go out among them. |
| 17:12 | Then we will come on him in some place, wherever he may be, falling on him as the dew comes on the earth: and of him and all the men who are with him not one will get away with his life. |
| 17:13 | And if he has gone into some town, then let all Israel take strong cords to that town, and we will have it pulled into the valley, till not one small stone is to be seen there. |
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| 17:15 | Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, This is the suggestion made by Ahithophel to Absalom and the responsible men of Israel, and this is what I said to them. |
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| 17:17 | Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting by En-rogel; and a servant-girl went from time to time and gave them news and they went with the news to King David, for it was not wise for them to let themselves be seen coming into the town. |
| 17:18 | But a boy saw them, and gave word of it to Absalom: so the two of them went away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bahurim who had a water-hole in his garden, and they went down into it. |
| 17:19 | And a woman put a cover over the hole, and put crushed grain on top of it, and no one had any knowledge of it. |
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| 17:22 | So David and all the people who were with him went up over Jordan: when dawn came, every one of them had gone over Jordan. |
| 17:23 | Now when Ahithophel saw that his suggestion was not acted on, he got his ass ready, and went back to his house, to the town where he came from, and having put his house in order, he put himself to death by hanging; so he came to his end and was put in the resting-place of his father. |
| 17:24 | And David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom, with all the men of Israel, went over Jordan. |
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| 17:26 | And Israel and Absalom put up their tents in the land of Gilead. |
| 17:27 | Now when David had come to Mahanaim, Shobi, the son of Nahash of Rabbah, the Ammonite, and Machir, the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, |
| 17:28 | Came with beds and basins and pots, and grain and meal, and all sorts of dry foods, |
| 17:29 | And honey and butter and sheep and milk-cheeses, for David and his people: for they said, This people is in the waste land, needing food and drink and rest. |
2 Samuel 17 - Bible in Basic English
