17The king left, followed by e-all the people,-e and they stopped at f-the last house.-f 18All g-his followers-g marched past him, including all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites; andh all the Gittites, six hundred men who had accompanied him from Gath, also marched by the king. 19And the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you too go with us? Go back and stay with the [new] king, for you are a foreigner and you are also an exile fromi your country. 20You came only yesterday; should I make you wander about with us today, when I myself must go wherever I can? Go back, and take your kinsmen with you, [in]j true faithfulness.” 21Ittai replied to the king, “As the LORD lives and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, there your servant will be, whether for death or for life!” 22And David said to Ittai, “Then march by.” And Ittai the Gittite and all his men and all the children who were with him marched by.
23The whole countryside wept aloud as the troops marched by. The king k-crossed the Kidron Valley, and all the troops crossed by the road to-k the wilderness. 24Then Zadok appeared, with all the Levites carrying the Ark of the Covenant of God; and they set down the Ark of God until all the people had finished marching out of the city. f-Abiathar also came up.-f 25But the king said to Zadok, “Take the Ark of God back to the city. If I find favor with the LORD, He will bring me back and let me see it and its abode. 26And if He should say, ‘I do not want you,’ I am ready; let Him do with me as He pleases.” 27And the king said to the priest Zadok, l-“Do you understand? You return-l to the safety of the city with your two sons, your own son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan. 28Look, I shall linger in the steppes of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.” 29Zadok and Abiathar brought the Ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they stayed there.
30David meanwhile went up the slope of the [Mount of] Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered and he walked barefoot. And all the people who were with him covered their heads and wept as they went up. 31David [was] told that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom, and he prayed, “Please, O LORD, frustrate Ahithophel’s counsel!”
32When David reached the top, where people would prostrate themselves to God, Hushai the Archite was there to meet him, with his robe torn and with earth on his head. 33David said to him, “If you march on with me, you will be a burden to me. 34But if you go back to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king; I was your father’s servant formerly, and now I will be yours,’ then you can nullify Ahithophel’s counsel for me. 35You will have the priests Zadok and Abiathar there, and you can report everything that you hear in the king’s palace to the priests Zadok and Abiathar. 36Also, their two sons are there with them, Zadok’s son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan; and through them you can report to me everything you hear.” 37And so Hushai, the friend of David, reached the city as Absalom was entering Jerusalem.
16 David had passed a little beyond the summit when Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth came toward him with a pair of saddled asses carrying two hundred loaves of bread, one hundred cakes of raisin, one hundred cakes of figs,a and a jar of wine. 2The king asked Ziba, “What are you doing with these?” Ziba answered, “The asses are for Your Majesty’s family to ride on, the bread and figs are for the attendants to eat, and the wine is to be drunk by any who are exhausted in the wilderness.” 3“And where is your master’s son?” the king asked. “He is staying in Jerusalem,” Ziba replied to the king, “for he thinks that the House of Israel will now give him back the throne of his grandfather.” 4The king said to Ziba, “Then all that belongs to Mephibosheth is now yours!” And Ziba replied, “I bow low. Your Majesty is most gracious to me.”
5As King David was approaching Bahurim, a member of Saul’s clan— a man named Shimei son of Gera—came out from there, hurling insults as he came. 6He threw stones at David and all King David’s courtiers, while all the troops and all the warriors were at his right and his left. 7And these are the insults that Shimei hurled: “Get out, get out, you criminal, you villain! 8The LORD is paying you back for all your crimes against the family of Saul, whose throne you seized. The LORD is handing over the throne to your son Absalom; you are in trouble because you are a criminal!”
9Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why let that dead dog abuse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head!” 10But the king said, b-“What has this to do with you,-b you sons of Zeruiah? He is abusing [me] only because the LORD told him to abuse David; and who is to say, ‘Why did You do that?’ ” 11David said further to Abishai and all the courtiers, “If my son, my own issue, seeks to kill me, how much more the Benjaminite! Let him go on hurling abuse, for the LORD has told him to. 12Perhaps the LORD will look upon my punishmentc and recompense me for the abuse [Shimei] has uttered today.” 13David and his men continued on their way, while Shimei walked alongside on the slope of the hill, insulting him as he walked, and throwing stones at him and flinging dirt. 14The king and all who accompanied him arrivedd exhausted, and he rested there.
15Meanwhile Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, arrived in Jerusalem, together with Ahithophel. 16When Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, came before Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!” 17But Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your loyalty to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?” 18“Not at all!” Hushai replied. “I am for the one whom the LORD and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, and I will stay with him. 19Furthermore, whom should I serve, if not David’se son? As I was in your father’s service, so I will be in yours.”
20Absalom then said to Ahithophel, “What do you advise us to do?” 21And Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Have intercourse with your father’s concubines, whom he left to mind the palace; and when all Israel hears that you have dared the wrath of your father, all who support you will be encouraged.” 22So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and Absalom lay with his father’s concubines f-with the full knowledge-f of all Israel.—23In those days, the advice which Ahithophel gave was accepted like an oracle sought from God; that is how all the advice of Ahithophel was esteemed both by David and by Absalom.
17 And Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me pick twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David. 2I will come upon him when he is weary and disheartened, and I will throw him into a panic; and when all the troops with him flee, I will kill the king alone. 3And I will bring back all the people a-to you; when all have come back [except] the man you are after,-a all the people will be at peace.” 4The advice pleased Absalom and all the elders of Israel. 5But Absalom said, “Summon Hushai the Archite as well, so we can hear what he too has to say.” 6Hushai came to Absalom, and Absalom said to him, “This is what Ahithophel has advised. Shall we follow his advice? If not, what do you say?”
7Hushai said to Absalom, “This time the advice that Ahithophel has given is not good. 8You know,” Hushai continued, “that your father and his men are courageous fighters, and they are as desperate as a bear in the wild robbed of her whelps. Your father is an experienced soldier, and he will not spend the night with the troops; 9even now he must be hiding in one of the pits or in some other place. And if any of themb fall at the first attack, whoever hears of it will say, ‘A disaster has struck the troops that follow Absalom’; 10and even if he is a brave man with the heart of a lion, he will be shaken—for all Israel knows that your father and the soldiers with him are courageous fighters. 11So I advise that all Israel from Dan to Beersheba—as numerous as the sands of the sea—be called up to join you, and that you yourself march c-into battle.-c 12When we come upon him in whatever place he may be, we’ll descend on him [as thick] as dew falling on the ground; and no one will survive, neither
