Book of Common Prayer

A Prayer of Thanks for Victory

A Hymn of Praise^[a]

Hushai Misleads Absalom

17 Not long after that, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and tonight I will set out after David. ² I will attack him while he is tired and discouraged. He will be frightened, and all his men will run away. I will kill only the king ³ and then bring back all his men to you, like a bride returning to her husband. You want to kill only one man;^[a] the rest of the people will be safe.” ⁴ This seemed like good advice to Absalom and all the Israelite leaders.

⁵ Absalom said, “Now call Hushai, and let us hear what he has to say.” ⁶ When Hushai arrived, Absalom said to him, “This is the advice that Ahithophel has given us; shall we follow it? If not, you tell us what to do.”

⁷ Hushai answered, “The advice Ahithophel gave you this time is no good. ⁸ You know that your father David and his men are hard fighters and that they are as fierce as a mother bear robbed of her cubs. Your father is an experienced soldier and does not stay with his men at night. ⁹ Right now he is probably hiding in a cave or some other place. As soon as David attacks your men, whoever hears about it will say that your men have been defeated. ¹⁰ Then even the bravest men, as fearless as lions, will be afraid because everyone in Israel knows that your father is a great soldier and that his men are hard fighters. ¹¹ My advice is that you bring all the Israelites together from one end of the country to the other, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore, and that you lead them personally in battle. ¹² We will find David wherever he is, and attack him before he knows what's happening. Neither he nor any of his men will survive. ¹³ If he retreats into a city, our people will all bring ropes and just pull the city^[b] into the valley below. Not a single stone will be left there on top of the hill.”

¹⁴ Absalom and all the Israelites said, “Hushai's advice is better than Ahithophel's.” The Lord had decided that Ahithophel's good advice would not be followed, so that disaster would come on Absalom.

David Is Warned and Escapes

¹⁵ Then Hushai told the priests Zadok and Abiathar what advice he had given to Absalom and the Israelite leaders and what advice Ahithophel had given. ¹⁶ Hushai added, “Quick, now! Send a message to David not to spend the night at the river crossings in the wilderness, but to cross the Jordan at once, so that he and his men won't all be caught and killed.”

¹⁷ Abiathar's son Jonathan and Zadok's son Ahimaaz were waiting at the spring of Enrogel, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, because they did not dare be seen entering the city. A servant woman would regularly go and tell them what was happening, and then they would go and tell King David. ¹⁸ But one day a boy happened to see them, and he told Absalom; so they hurried off to hide in the house of a certain man in Bahurim. He had a well near his house, and they got down in it. ¹⁹ The man's wife took a covering, spread it over the opening of the well and scattered grain over it, so that no one would notice anything. ²⁰ Absalom's officials came to the house and asked the woman, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”

“They crossed the river,” she answered.

The men looked for them but could not find them, and so they returned to Jerusalem. ²¹ After they left, Ahimaaz and Jonathan came up out of the well and went and reported to King David. They told him what Ahithophel had planned against him and said, “Hurry up and cross the river.” ²² So David and his men started crossing the Jordan, and by daybreak they had all gone across.

²³ When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and went back to his hometown. After putting his affairs in order, he hanged himself. He was buried in the family grave.

^6 (A)Consider the experience of Abraham; as the scripture says, “He believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.” ^7 (B)You should realize, then, that the real descendants of Abraham are the people who have faith. ^8 (C)The scripture predicted that God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith. And so the scripture announced the Good News to Abraham: “Through you God will bless all people.” ⁹ Abraham believed and was blessed; so all who believe are blessed as he was.

^10 (D)Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, “Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!” ^11 (E)Now, it is clear that no one is put right with God by means of the Law, because the scripture says, “Only the person who is put right with God through faith shall live.”^{[a] 12 (F)}But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, as the scripture says, “Whoever does everything the Law requires will live.”

^13 (G)But by becoming a curse for us Christ has redeemed us from the curse that the Law brings; for the scripture says, “Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God's curse.” ¹⁴ Christ did this in order that the blessing which God promised to Abraham might be given to the Gentiles by means of Christ Jesus, so that through faith we might receive the Spirit promised by God.

Witnesses to Jesus

³⁰ “I can do nothing on my own authority; I judge only as God tells me, so my judgment is right, because I am not trying to do what I want, but only what he who sent me wants.

³¹ “If I testify on my own behalf, what I say is not to be accepted as real proof. ³² But there is someone else who testifies on my behalf, and I know that what he says about me is true. ^33 (A)John is the one to whom you sent your messengers, and he spoke on behalf of the truth. ³⁴ It is not that I must have a human witness; I say this only in order that you may be saved. ^35 (B)John was like a lamp, burning and shining, and you were willing for a while to enjoy his light. ³⁶ But I have a witness on my behalf which is even greater than the witness that John gave: what I do, that is, the deeds my Father gave me to do, these speak on my behalf and show that the Father has sent me. ^37 (C)And the Father, who sent me, also testifies on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his face, ³⁸ and you do not keep his message in your hearts, for you do not believe in the one whom he sent. ^39 (D)You study the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. And these very Scriptures speak about me! ⁴⁰ Yet you are not willing to come to me in order to have life.

⁴¹ “I am not looking for human praise. ⁴² But I know what kind of people you are, and I know that you have no love for God in your hearts. ⁴³ I have come with my Father's authority, but you have not received me; when, however, someone comes with his own authority, you will receive him. ⁴⁴ You like to receive praise from one another, but you do not try to win praise from the one who alone is God; how, then, can you believe me? ⁴⁵ Do not think, however, that I am the one who will accuse you to my Father. Moses, in whom you have put your hope, is the very one who will accuse you. ⁴⁶ If you had really believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But since you do not believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say?”