1. And Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me, I pray, choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David to-night;
2. 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;
3. and I will bring back all the people to thee. The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned: all the people shall be in peace.
4. And the saying was right in the eyes of Absalom, and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel.
5. And Absalom said, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and we will hear also what he says.
6. And Hushai came to Absalom, and Absalom spoke to him saying, Ahithophel has spoken after this manner: shall we carry out his word? If not, speak thou.
7. And Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.
8. And Hushai said, Thou knowest thy father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are of exasperated spirit, 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 some such place; and it will come to pass, when some of them fall at the first, whoever heareth it will say, There has been slaughter among the people that follow Absalom,