2 Samuel 15:32-37

15:32 When David reached the summit, where he used to worship God, Hushai the Arkite met him with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. 15:33 David said to him, “If you leave ¹  with me you will be a burden to me. 15:34 But you will be able to counter the advice of Ahithophel if you go back to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king! Previously I was your father’s servant, and now I will be your servant.’ 15:35 Zadok and Abiathar the priests will be there with you. ²  Everything you hear in the king’s palace ³  you must tell Zadok and Abiathar the priests. 15:36 Furthermore, their two sons are there with them, Zadok’s son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan. You must send them to me with any information you hear.” ⁴ 

15:37 So David’s friend Hushai arrived in the city, just as Absalom was entering Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 17:1-16

The Death of Ahithophel

17:1 Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me pick out twelve thousand men. Then I will go and pursue David this very night. 17:2 When I catch up with ⁵  him he will be exhausted and worn out. ⁶  I will rout him, and the entire army that is with him will flee. I will kill only the king 17:3 and will bring the entire army back to you. In exchange for the life of the man you are seeking, you will get back everyone. ⁷  The entire army will return unharmed.” ⁸ 

17:4 This seemed like a good idea to Absalom and to all the leaders ⁹  of Israel. 17:5 But Absalom said, “Call for ¹⁰  Hushai the Arkite, and let’s hear what he has to say.” ¹¹  17:6 So Hushai came to Absalom. Absalom said to him, “Here is what Ahithophel has advised. Should we follow his advice? If not, what would you recommend?”

17:7 Hushai replied to Absalom, “Ahithophel’s advice is not sound this time.” ¹²  17:8 Hushai went on to say, “You know your father and his men – they are soldiers and are as dangerous as a bear out in the wild that has been robbed of her cubs. ¹³  Your father is an experienced soldier; he will not stay overnight with the army. 17:9 At this very moment he is hiding out in one of the caves or in some other similar place. If it should turn out that he attacks our troops first, ¹⁴  whoever hears about it will say, ‘Absalom’s army has been slaughtered!’ 17:10 If that happens even the bravest soldier – one who is lion-hearted – will virtually melt away. For all Israel knows that your father is a warrior and that those who are with him are brave. 17:11 My advice therefore is this: Let all Israel from Dan to Beer Sheba – in number like the sand by the sea! – be mustered to you, and you lead them personally into battle. 17:12 We will come against him wherever he happens to be found. We will descend on him like the dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of the men who are with him will be spared alive – not one of them! 17:13 If he regroups in a city, all Israel will take up ropes to that city and drag it down to the valley, so that not a single pebble will be left there!”

17:14 Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Arkite sounds better than the advice of Ahithophel.” Now the Lord had decided ¹⁵  to frustrate the sound advice of Ahithophel, so that the Lord could bring disaster on Absalom.

17:15 Then Hushai reported to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, “Here is what Ahithophel has advised Absalom and the leaders ¹⁶  of Israel to do, and here is what I have advised. 17:16 Now send word quickly to David and warn him, ¹⁷  “Don’t spend the night at the fords of the desert ¹⁸  tonight. Instead, be sure you cross over, ¹⁹  or else the king and everyone who is with him may be overwhelmed.” ²⁰ 

[15:33]  ¹ tn Heb “cross over.”

[15:35]  ² tn Heb “Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be there with you?” The rhetorical question draws attention to the fact that Hushai will not be alone.

[15:35]  ³ tn Heb “from the house of the king.”

[15:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “and you must send by their hand to me every word which you hear.” Both of the second person verb forms are plural with Zadok, Abiathar, and Hushai being the understood subjects.

[17:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and I will come upon him.”

[17:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “exhausted and slack of hands.”

[17:3]  ⁷ tc Heb “like the returning of all, the man whom you are seeking.” The LXX reads differently: “And I will return all the people to you the way a bride returns to her husband, except for the life of the one man whom you are seeking.” The other early versions also struggled with this verse. Modern translations are divided as well: the NAB, NRSV, REB, and NLT follow the LXX, while the NASB and NIV follow the Hebrew text.

[17:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “all of the people will be safe.”

[17:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “elders.”

[17:5]  ¹⁰ tc In the MT the verb is singular, but in the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate it is plural.

[17:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “what is in his mouth.”

[17:7]  ¹² tn Heb “Not good is the advice which Ahithophel has advised at this time.”

[17:8]  ¹³ tc The LXX (with the exception of the recensions of Origen and Lucian) repeats the description as follows: “Just as a female bear bereft of cubs in a field.”

[17:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “that he falls on them [i.e., Absalom’s troops] at the first [encounter]; or “that some of them [i.e., Absalom’s troops] fall at the first [encounter].”

[17:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “commanded.”

[17:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “elders.”

[17:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “send quickly and tell David saying.”

[17:16]  ¹⁸ tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV, TEV).

[17:16]  ¹⁹ tn That is, “cross over the Jordan River.”

[17:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “swallowed up.”