1 And Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Please let me choose twelve thousand men, and let me arise and pursue after David tonight. 2 And I will come upon him, and he will be weary and slack of hands. And I will terrify him, and all the people who are with him will flee. And I will strike only the king. 3 And I will bring back all the people to you. When all return, except the man whom you seek, all the people will be at peace.” 4 And the word was right in Absalom's eyes and in all Israel's elders' eyes.
5 And Absalom said, “Please also call Hushai the Archite, and we shall hear also him, what is in his mouth.” 6 And Hushai came to Absalom, and Absalom spoke to him, saying, “According to this word Ahithophel spoke. Should we do his word? If not, you speak.” 7 And Hushai said to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel gave at this time is not good.” 8 And Hushai said, “You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men. And they are bitter of soul, as a bear bereaved i in the field. And your father is a man of war and will not lodge with the people. 9 Behold now, he is hidden in one of the pits or one of the places. And it shall be, when a falling happens among them in the beginning, so it will surely be heard and said, 'There has been a slaughter among the people who are after Absalom.' 10 And even he who is a son of valor, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall surely melt. For all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man and sons of valor are with him. 11 So, I counsel all Israel be fully gathered unto you, from Dan and unto Beersheba, as the sand upon the sea for multitude, and your face going in the battle. 12 And we will come to him in one of the places where we find there. And we will be upon him, just as the dew falls upon the ground. And there will not be left among him and among all the men who are with him even one. 13 And if he assembles to a city, so all Israel will bring ropes to that city and we will drag it unto the brook; so that not even a pebble may be found there.”
14 And Absalom and all Israel's men said, “Hushai the Archite's counsel is better than Ahithophel's counsel.” So, Yehvah commanded ii to frustrate the good counsel of Ahithophel for the purpose of Yehvah bringing to Absalom the bad. 15 And Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, “According to this and according to this Ahithophel counseled Absalom and Israel's elders, and according to this and according to this I counseled. 16 And now, send quickly and declare to David, saying, 'Do not lodge tonight in the plain of the wilderness, and also surely cross over, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up.'”
17 And Jonathan and Ahimaaz were standing ready at Spring of Rogel, and the maid-servant went and told them; and they went and told to the king, David. For they were not able to be seen coming in to the city. 18 And a young man saw them and told Absalom. And the two of them went quickly and came in to a house of a man in Young Men. And he had a well in his village, and they went down there. 19 And the woman took and spread out the covering upon the mouth of the well and spread out over it the grain. And the matter was not known.
20 And Absalom's servants came in to the woman to the house and said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them, “They crossed over the stream iii of water.” So, they sought and did not find and returned to Jerusalem.
21 And it was, after they went, so they went up from the well and went and told king David. And they said to David, “Arise and cross over the water quickly, for thus Ahithophel counseled against you.” 22 So, David arose and all the people who were with him, and they crossed over the Jordan until the morning light until there was not one left who had not crossed over the Jordan. 23 And Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not done. And he saddled the donkey and arose and went to his house to his city. And he gave command to his house and hanged himself and died. And he was buried in his father's grave.
24 And David came to Two Camps. And Absalom crossed over the Jordan, he and every man of Israel with him. 25 And Absalom set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. And Amasa was a man's son, and his name was Jithra, iv the Israeli v who went in to Abigail, daughter of Serpent, vi sister of Zeruiah mother of Joab. 26 So, Absalom and Israel camped in the land of Gilead.
27 And it was, when David came in to Two Camps, so Shobi, vii son of Serpent, from Rabbah of sons of Ammon, and Machir, son of Ammiel, from Lo Debar, and Barzillai viii the Gileadite from Rogelim, ix 28 brought bed, and basins, and earthen vessel, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and roasted grain, x and beans, and lentils, and roasted grain, xi 29 and honey, and curds, and sheep, and cream of the herd, for David and the people who were with him to eat. For they said, “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.”
Translated by Darwin Fish. See original pdf.
- ל וּככּשו) shakul) “bereaved” = “robbed of her cubs” (NKJV) in this context. ^
- ה וה ּצו) tsivvâh) “commanded” GW, NOG; “purposed” NKJV; “willed” YLT; “ordained” NAS; “appointed” KJV - same exact word e.g. in 2 Samuel 13:29 “commanded.” ^
- ל כּיכו מו) miykhal) “stream” CJB; “brook” NKJV – only used this way here, otherwise, “Michal,” Saul's daughter. ^
- רהאָיות) yitrâ') “Jithra” NKJV; “Ithra” KJV, NAS – only here. See 1 Chronicles 2:17 רר רת י) yeter) “Jether.” ^
- לוי לִראָררָיוש) yisre'êliy) “Israeli”; LXX “Israeli” & Codex Alexandrinus “Ishmaelite” - see 1 Chronicles 2:17 “Ishmaelite,” yet Codex 172 has “the Israeli” לויי לִראָררָכיושּהו) hayyisre'aliy). Ishmaelite by birth and Israeli by faith? ^
- ש חה נה) nâchâsh) “Serpent” - see footnote for 1 Samuel 11:1. Abigail is David's sister (1 Chronicles 2:16). Thus, “Serpent” is the name of either her mother, or if father, then Abigail would somehow be a half sister (same mother different father), a step-sister, or adopted. ^
- יִשי) shoviy) “Shobi” - only here. ^
- י כּלו זו רָר כּבו) barzillay) “Barzillai” = “Man of Iron” or “Ironite” (so to speak). Iron is ל ר ז רָר כּבו] barzel] (e.g. Genesis 4:22) - found also in 2 Samuel 19:31-34, 39; 21:8; 1 Kings 2:7; Ezra 2:61; Nehemiah 7:63. ^
- ים לו רָבגִרי) rogliym) “Rogelim” - found also in 2 Samuel 19:31. ^
- לוי קה) qâly) “roasted grain” ^
- וי קה) qâly) “roasted grain” - same word twice in this verse. Evidently, two kinds of roasted grain. ^