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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>2 Samuel 17 ESV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/2_samuel/17.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/2_samuel/17-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">ESV</a> > 2 Samuel 17</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../2_samuel/16.htm" title="2 Samuel 16">◄</a> 2 Samuel 17 <a href="../2_samuel/18.htm" title="2 Samuel 18">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/2_samuel/17.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">Hushai Saves David</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Moreover, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down only the king, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband. You seek the life of only one man,<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Septuagint; Hebrew back to you. Like the return of the whole is the man whom you seek">a</a></sup></span> and all the people will be at peace.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>And the advice seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders of Israel.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>Then Absalom said, “Call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear what he has to say.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>And when Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him, “Thus has Ahithophel spoken; shall we do as he says? If not, you speak.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Then Hushai said to Absalom, “This time the counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>Hushai said, “You know that your father and his men are mighty men, and that they are enraged,<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Hebrew bitter of soul">b</a></sup></span> like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Besides, your father is expert in war; he will not spend the night with the people. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>Behold, even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place. And as soon as some of the people fall<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or And as he falls on them">c</a></sup></span> at the first attack, whoever hears it will say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>Then even the valiant man, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will utterly melt with fear, for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and that those who are with him are valiant men. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>But my counsel is that all Israel be gathered to you, from Dan to Beersheba, as the sand by the sea for multitude, and that you go to battle in person. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>So we shall come upon him in some place where he is to be found, and we shall light upon him as the dew falls on the ground, and of him and all the men with him not one will be left. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>If he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we shall drag it into the valley, until not even a pebble is to be found there.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> had ordained<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Hebrew commanded">d</a></sup></span> to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> might bring harm upon Absalom.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, “Thus and so did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus and so have I counseled. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>Now therefore send quickly and tell David, ‘Do not stay tonight at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up.’” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En-rogel. A female servant was to go and tell them, and they were to go and tell King David, for they were not to be seen entering the city. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>But a young man saw them and told Absalom. So both of them went away quickly and came to the house of a man at Bahurim, who had a well in his courtyard. And they went down into it. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>And the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth and scattered grain on it, and nothing was known of it. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them, “They have gone over the brook<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain">e</a></sup></span> of water.” And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>After they had gone, the men came up out of the well, and went and told King David. They said to David, “Arise, and go quickly over the water, for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they crossed the Jordan. By daybreak not one was left who had not crossed the Jordan.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order and hanged himself, and he died and was buried in the tomb of his father.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>Now Absalom had set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite,<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Compare 1 Chronicles 2:17; Hebrew Israelite">f</a></sup></span> who had married Abigal the daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>And Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Machir the son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans and lentils,<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Hebrew adds and parched grain">g</a></sup></span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_samuel/17-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>honey and curds and sheep and cheese from the herd, for David and the people with him to eat, for they said, “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.”</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="footnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">3</span> Septuagint; Hebrew <i><span class="catch-word">back to you</span>. Like the return of the whole is the man whom you seek</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">8</span> Hebrew <i>bitter of soul</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">9</span> Or <i><span class="catch-word">And as</span> he falls on them</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">d</span> <span class="fnverse">14</span> Hebrew <i>commanded</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">e</span> <span class="fnverse">20</span> The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain<br /><span class="footnotesbot">f</span> <span class="fnverse">25</span> Compare 1 Chronicles 2:17; Hebrew <i>Israelite</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">g</span> <span class="fnverse">28</span> Hebrew adds <i>and parched grain</i><br /></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. 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