11. “This is what I suggest: Gather all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba. There will be as many people as grains of sand by the sea. Then you yourself must go into the battle.
12. We will go to David wherever he is hiding. We will fall on him as dew falls on the ground. We will kill him and all of his men so that no one will be left alive.
13. If David escapes into a city, all the Israelites will bring ropes to that city and pull it into the valley. Not a stone will be left!”
14. Absalom and all the Israelites said, “The advice of Hushai the Arkite is better than that of Ahithophel.” (The Lord had planned to destroy the good advice of Ahithophel so the Lord could bring disaster on Absalom.)
15. Hushai told Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, what Ahithophel had suggested to Absalom and the elders of Israel. He also reported to them what he himself had suggested. Hushai said,