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Moreover Ahithophelsaid unto Absalom, Let me now choose outtwelvethousandmen, and I will arise and pursueafterDavid this night:
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And I will come upon him while he is weary and weakhanded, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only:
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And I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace.
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And the sayingpleasedAbsalomwell, and all the elders of Israel.
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Then saidAbsalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.
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And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalomspake unto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying? if not; speak thou.
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And Hushaisaid unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time.
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For, saidHushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bearrobbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
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Behold, he is hid now in somepit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoeverheareth it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that followAbsalom.
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And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterlymelt: for all Israelknoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiantmen.
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Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generallygathered unto 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.
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So shall we come upon him in someplace where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dewfalleth on the ground: and of him and of all the men that are with him there shall not be left so much asone.
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Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israelbringropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one small stonefound there.
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And Absalom and all the men of Israelsaid, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the LORD had appointed to defeat the goodcounsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bringevil upon Absalom.
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Then saidHushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did AhithophelcounselAbsalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled.
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Now therefore sendquickly, and tellDavid, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him.
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Now Jonathan and Ahimaazstayed by Enrogel; for they might not be seen to come into the city: and a wenchwent and told them; and they went and toldkingDavid.
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Nevertheless a ladsaw them, and toldAbsalom: but they wentboth of them away quickly, and came to a man's house in Bahurim, which had a well in his court; whither they wentdown.
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And the womantook and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known.
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And when Absalom's servantscame to the woman to the house, they said, Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the womansaid unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
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And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and toldkingDavid, and said unto David, Arise, and pass quicklyover the water: for thus hath Ahithophelcounselled against you.
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Then Davidarose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed overJordan: by the morninglight there lacked not one of them that was not gone overJordan.
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And when Ahithophelsaw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.
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Then Davidcame to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed overJordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.
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And AbsalommadeAmasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to ZeruiahJoab's mother.
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So Israel and Absalompitched in the land of Gilead.
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And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,
28Broughtbeds, and basons, and earthenvessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,
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And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.