2 Samuel
2 Samuel 17
King James Version · tap any highlighted word for context
2 Samuel 17 — Scripture text (King James Version)
Moreover said unto , Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after this night: 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: 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. And the saying pleased , and all the elders of . Then said , Call now the also, and let us hear likewise what he saith. And when was come to , spake unto him, saying, hath spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying? if not; speak thou. And said unto , The counsel that hath given is not good at this time. For, said , thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people. 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 . And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a , shall utterly melt: for all knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men. Therefore I counsel that all be generally gathered unto thee, from even to -, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person. So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falleth the ground: and of him and of all the men that are with him there shall not be left so much as one. Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one small stone found there. And and all the men of said, The counsel of the is better than the counsel of . For the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of , to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon . Then said unto and to the priests, Thus and thus did counsel and the elders of ; and thus and thus have I counselled. Now therefore send quickly, and tell , saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him. Now and stayed by En-rogel; for they might not be seen to come into the city: and a wench went and told them; and they went and told king . Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told : but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man’s house in , which had a in his court; whither they went down. And the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known. And when ’s servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is and ? And the woman said unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to . And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came up out of the , and went and told king , and said unto , Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus hath counselled against you. Then arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over : by the morning light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over . And when saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father. Then came to . And passed over , he and all the men of with him. And made captain of the host instead of : which was a man’s son, whose name was an , that went in to the daughter of , sister to ’s mother. So and pitched in the land of . And it came to pass, when was come to , that the son of Nahash of of the children of , and the son of of Lo-debar, and the , Brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse, And honey, and butter, and , and cheese of kine, for , and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.