2 Samuel 16:17-19

16:17 Absalom said to Hushai, “Do you call this loyalty to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?” 16:18 Hushai replied to Absalom, “No, I will be loyal to the one whom the Lord, these people, and all the men of Israel have chosen. ¹  16:19 Moreover, whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? Just as I served your father, so I will serve you.” ² 

2 Samuel 17:20

17:20 When the servants of Absalom approached the woman at her home, they asked, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” The woman replied to them, “They crossed over the stream.” Absalom’s men ³  searched but did not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem. ⁴ 

[16:18]  ¹ tn Heb “No for with the one whom the Lord has chosen, and this people, and all the men of Israel, I will be and with him I will stay.” The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading לוֹ (lo, “[I will be] to him”) rather than the MT לֹא (lo’, “[I will] not be”), which makes very little sense here.

[16:19]  ² tn Heb “Just as I served before your father, so I will be before you.”

[17:20]  ³ tn Heb “they”; the referents (Absalom’s men) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:20]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.