Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:

 2 And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only:

 3 And I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace.

 4 And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the ^aelders of Israel.

 5 Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.

 6 And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spake unto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying? if not; speak thou.

 7 And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time.

 8 For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be ^achafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.

 9 Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow Absalom.

 10 And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt: for all Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men.

 11 Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person.