The Daily Audio Bible

17 Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will set out and pursue David tonight. ² I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down only the king,^{(A) 3} and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband. You seek the life of only one man,^[a] and all the people will be at peace.” ⁴ The advice pleased Absalom and all the elders of Israel.

The Counsel of Hushai

⁵ Then Absalom said, “Call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear too what he has to say.”^{(B) 6} When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him, “This is what Ahithophel has said; shall we do as he advises? If not, you tell us.” ⁷ Then Hushai said to Absalom, “This time the counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good.” ⁸ Hushai continued, “You know that your father and his men are warriors and that they are enraged, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Besides, your father is expert in war; he will not spend the night with the troops.^{(C) 9} Even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place. And when some of our troops^[b] fall at the first attack, whoever hears it will say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the troops who follow Absalom.’ ¹⁰ Then even the valiant warrior whose heart is like the heart of a lion will utterly melt with fear, for all Israel knows that your father is a warrior and that those who are with him are valiant warriors.^{(D) 11} But my counsel is that all Israel be gathered to you, from Dan to Beer-sheba, like the sand by the sea for multitude, and that you go to battle in person. ¹² So we shall come upon him in whatever place he may be found, and we shall light on him as the dew falls on the ground, and he will not survive, nor will any of those with him. ¹³ If he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we shall drag it into the valley until not even a pebble is to be found there.” ¹⁴ Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring ruin on Absalom.^(E)

Hushai Warns David to Escape

¹⁵ Then Hushai said to the priests Zadok and Abiathar, “Thus and so did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus and so I have counseled.^{(F) 16} Therefore send quickly and tell David, ‘Do not lodge tonight at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means cross over, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up.’ ”^{(G) 17} Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En-rogel; a female slave used to go and tell them, and they would go and tell King David, for they could not risk being seen entering the city.^{(H) 18} But a young man saw them and told Absalom, so both of them went away quickly and came to the house of a man at Bahurim who had a well in his courtyard, and they went down into it.^{(I) 19} The man’s wife took a covering, stretched it over the well’s mouth, and spread out grain on it, and nothing was known of it.^{(J) 20} When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” The woman said to them, “They have crossed over the brook^[c] of water.” And when they had searched and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.^(K)

²¹ After they had gone, the men came up out of the well and went and told King David. They said to David, “Go and cross the water quickly, for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you.”^{(L) 22} So David and all the people who were with him set out and crossed the Jordan; by daybreak not one was left who had not crossed the Jordan.

²³ When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order and hanged himself; he died and was buried in the tomb of his father.^(M)

²⁴ Then David came to Mahanaim, while Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel.^{(N) 25} Now Absalom had set Amasa over the army in the place of Joab. Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite,^[d] who had married Abigal daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.^{(O) 26} The Israelites and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.

²⁷ When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Machir son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim^{(P) 28} brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans and lentils,^{[e] 29} honey and curds, sheep, and cheese from the herd, for David and the people with him to eat, for they said, “The troops are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.”^(Q)

²³ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. ²⁴ So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says,

²⁵ And that is what the soldiers did.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.^{(B) 26} When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”^{(C) 27} Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

²⁸ After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.”^{(D) 29} A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. ³⁰ When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.^(E)

Jesus’s Side Is Pierced

³¹ Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the Sabbath, especially because that Sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed.^{(F) 32} Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him.^{(G) 33} But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.^{(H) 35} (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows^[a] that he tells the truth, so that you also may continue^[b] to believe.)^{(I) 36} These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “None of his bones shall be broken.”^{(J) 37} And again another passage of scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”^(K)

The Burial of Jesus

³⁸ After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and removed his body. ³⁹ Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.^{(L) 40} They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.^{(M) 41} Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. ⁴² And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.