12. We will find David wherever he is, and attack him before he knows what's happening. Neither he nor any of his men will survive.
13. If he retreats into a city, our people will all bring ropes and just pull the city into the valley below. Not a single stone will be left there on top of the hill.”
14. Absalom and all the Israelites said, “Hushai's advice is better than Ahithophel's.” The Lord had decided that Ahithophel's good advice would not be followed, so that disaster would come on Absalom.
15. Then Hushai told the priests Zadok and Abiathar what advice he had given to Absalom and the Israelite leaders and what advice Ahithophel had given.
16. Hushai added, “Quick, now! Send a message to David not to spend the night at the river crossings in the wilderness, but to cross the Jordan at once, so that he and his men won't all be caught and killed.”
17. Abiathar's son Jonathan and Zadok's son Ahimaaz were waiting at the spring of Enrogel, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, because they did not dare to be seen entering the city. A servant woman would regularly go and tell them what was happening, and then they would go and tell King David.
18. But one day a boy happened to see them, and he told Absalom; so they hurried off to hide in the house of a certain man in Bahurim. He had a well near his house, and they got down into it.
19. The man's wife took a covering, spread it over the opening of the well and scattered grain over it, so that no one would notice anything.
20. Absalom's officials came to the house and asked the woman, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”“They crossed the river,” she answered.The men looked for them but could not find them, and so they returned to Jerusalem.
21. After they left, Ahimaaz and Jonathan came up out of the well and went and reported to King David. They told him what Ahithophel had planned against him and said, “Hurry up and cross the river.”
22. So David and his men started crossing the Jordan, and by daybreak they had all gone across.
23. When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and went back to his own city. After putting his affairs in order, he hanged himself. He was buried in the family grave.
24. David had reached the town of Mahanaim by the time Absalom and the Israelites had crossed the Jordan.