2 Samuel 17

¹Moreouer Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me chuse out now twelue thousand men, and I will vp and follow after Dauid this night,

²And I will come vpon him: for he is wearie, and weake handed: so I will feare him, and all the people that are with him, shall flee, and I will smite the King onely,

³And I will bring againe all the people vnto thee, and when all shall returne, (the man whome thou seekest being slaine) all the people shalbe in peace.

⁴And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the Elders of Israel.

⁵Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let vs heare likewise what he sayth.

⁶So when Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom spake vnto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken thus: shall we doe after his saying, or no? tell thou.

⁷Hushai then answered vnto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath giuen, is not good at this time.

⁸For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father, and his men, that they be strong men, and are chafed in minde as a beare robbed of her whelps in the fielde: also thy father is a valiant warrier, and will not lodge with the people.

⁹Behold, he is hid now in some caue, or in some place: and though some of them be ouerthrowen at the first, yet the people shall heare, and say, The people that follow Absalom, be ouerthrowen.

¹⁰Then he also that is valiant whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall shrinke and faint: for all Israel knoweth, that thy father is valiant, and they which be with him, stout men.

¹¹Therefore my counsell is, that all Israel be gathered vnto thee, from Dan euen to Beer-sheba as the sand of the sea in nomber, and that thou goe to battell in thine owne person.