2 Samuel 16:17-23

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁷ Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your loyalty to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?”^{(A) 18} Hushai said to Absalom, “No, but the one whom the Lord and this people and all the Israelites have chosen, his I will be, and with him I will remain. ¹⁹ Moreover, whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? Just as I have served your father, so I will serve you.”^(B)

²⁰ Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give us your counsel; what shall we do?” ²¹ Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines, the ones he has left to look after the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”^{(C) 22} So they pitched a tent for Absalom upon the roof, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.^{(D) 23} Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the oracle^[a] of God, so all the counsel of Ahithophel was esteemed both by David and by Absalom.^(E)