¹⁶ Now send word quickly to David and warn him,^[a] “Don’t spend the night at the fords^[b] of the wilderness tonight. Instead, be sure you cross over,^[c] or else the king and everyone who is with him may be overwhelmed.”^[d]

¹⁷ Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying in En Rogel. A female servant would go and inform them, and they would then go and inform King David. It was not advisable for them to be seen going into the city. ¹⁸ But a young man saw them on one occasion and informed Absalom. So the two of them quickly departed and went to the house of a man in Bahurim. There was a well in his courtyard, and they got down in it.