18. But one day a boy happened to see them, and he told Absalom; so they hurried off to hide in the house of a certain man in Bahurim. He had a well near his house, and they got down into it.
19. The man's wife took a covering, spread it over the opening of the well and scattered grain over it, so that no one would notice anything.
20. Absalom's officials came to the house and asked the woman, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”“They crossed the river,” she answered.The men looked for them but could not find them, and so they returned to Jerusalem.
21. After they left, Ahimaaz and Jonathan came up out of the well and went and reported to King David. They told him what Ahithophel had planned against him and said, “Hurry up and cross the river.”
22. So David and his men started crossing the Jordan, and by daybreak they had all gone across.
23. When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and went back to his own city. After putting his affairs in order, he hanged himself. He was buried in the family grave.
24. David had reached the town of Mahanaim by the time Absalom and the Israelites had crossed the Jordan.
25. (Absalom had put Amasa in command of the army in the place of Joab. Amasa was the son of Jether the Ishmaelite; his mother was Abigail, the daughter of Nahash and the sister of Joab's mother Zeruiah.)