20. Your arrival was only yesterday—should I make you wander around with us today, to go wherever I may go? Go back and take your kinsmen back with you. Kindness and truth be with you!”
21. But Ittai answered the king and said, “As Adonai lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in whatever place my lord the king will be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.”
22. So David said to Ittai, “Go on and cross over.” So Ittai the Gittite passed on, with all his men and all the little children who were with him.
23. While all the country was weeping with a loud voice, all the people were crossing over as the king was crossing over Kidron Valley. So all the people crossed over toward the road of the wilderness.
24. Then behold, Zadok also came and all the Levites with him, carrying the ark of the covenant of God. They set down the ark of God, then Abiathar came up, until all the people had passed by, out of the city.
25. But the king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in Adonai’s eyes, He will bring me back, and let me see it and His dwelling.
26. But if He says thus, ‘I have no delight in you,’ here I am, let Him do to me as seems good in His eyes.”
27. The king also said to Zadok the priest, “Do you not see? Return to the city in shalom with your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan son of Abiathar.
28. See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness, until word comes from you to inform me.”
29. Therefore Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there.
30. Then David continued to go up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he ascended. He had his head covered and was walking barefoot. So all the people with him each covered his head as they went up, weeping as they ascended.
31. Then someone told David saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David prayed, “Adonai, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”
32. Then David went on until he reached the summit—where God was worshiped—and behold, Hushai the Archite met him with his coat rent and dust on his head.
33. David said to him, “If you pass on with me then you will be a burden to me,
34. but if you return to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king—I was your father’s servant from then, but now I will be your servant,’ then you can thwart Ahithophel’s counsel for me.
35. Won’t you have with you Zadok and Abiathar the kohanim there? So whatever you hear from the royal palace, you should report it to Zadok and Abiathar the kohanim.
36. See, they have their two sons with them there, Zadok’s son Ahimaaz, and Abiathar’s son Jonathan—by them you can send to me everything you hear.”
37. So David’s friend Hushai reached the city just as Absalom was entering Jerusalem.