1. Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.
2. I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will make him afraid. All the people who are with him will flee. I will strike the king only,
3. and I will bring back all the people to you. The man whom you seek is as if all returned. All the people shall be in peace.”
4. The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
5. Then Absalom said, “Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let’s hear likewise what he says.”
6. When Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, “Ahithophel has spoken like this. Shall we do what he says? If not, speak up.”
7. Hushai said to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.”
8. Hushai said moreover, “You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
9. Behold, he is now hidden in some pit, or in some other place. It will happen, when some of them have fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter amongst the people who follow Absalom!’
10. Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.