ACV(i)
1 Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night.
2 And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and will make him afraid. And all the people who are with him shall flee. And I will only smite the king,
3 and I will bring back all the people to thee. The man whom thou seek is as if all returned, so all the people shall be in peace.
4 And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
5 Then Absalom said, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he says.
6 And when Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, Ahithophel has spoken after this manner. Shall we do after his saying? If not, speak thou.
7 And Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.
8 Hushai said moreover, Thou know thy father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field. And thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
9 Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place. And it will come to pass, when some of them are fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.
10 And even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt, for all Israel knows that thy father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.
11 But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to thee, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude, and that thou go to battle in thine own person.
12 So we shall 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 who are with him we will not leave so much as one.
13 Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then all Israel shall bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river until there be not one small stone found there.
14 And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.