Book of Common Prayer

A praise psalm by David.^[a]

17 Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight. ² I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will make him afraid. All the people who are with him will flee. I will strike the king only, ³ and I will bring back all the people to you. The man whom you seek is as if all returned. All the people shall be in peace.”

⁴ The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel. ⁵ Then Absalom said, “Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let’s hear likewise what he says.”

⁶ When Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, “Ahithophel has spoken like this. Shall we do what he says? If not, speak up.”

⁷ Hushai said to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.” ⁸ Hushai said moreover, “You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people. ⁹ Behold, he is now hidden in some pit, or in some other place. It will happen, when some of them have fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom!’ ¹⁰ Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men. ¹¹ But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person. ¹² So we will come on him in some place where he will be found, and we will light on him as the dew falls on the ground, then we will not leave so much as one of him and of all the men who are with him. ¹³ Moreover, if he has gone into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there isn’t one small stone 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 Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil on Absalom.

¹⁵ Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, “Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel that way; and I have counseled this way. ¹⁶ Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, ‘Don’t lodge tonight at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over, lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him.’”

¹⁷ Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying by En Rogel; and a female servant used to go and report to them, and they went and told King David; for they couldn’t risk being seen coming into the city. ¹⁸ But a boy saw them, and told Absalom. Then they both went away quickly and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his court; and they went down there. ¹⁹ The woman took and spread the covering over the well’s mouth, and spread out crushed grain on it; and nothing was known. ²⁰ Absalom’s servants came to the woman to the house; and they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”

The woman said to them, “They have gone over the brook of water.”

When they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. ²¹ After they had departed, they came up out of the well and went and told King David; and they said to David, “Arise and pass quickly over the water; for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you.”

²² Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they passed over the Jordan. By the morning light there lacked not one of them who had not gone over the Jordan.

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

⁶ Even so, Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”^{(A) 7} Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham. ⁸ The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.”^{(B) 9} So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.

¹⁰ For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”^{(C) 11} Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.”^{(D) 12} The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”^(E)

¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”^{(F) 14} that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

³⁰ I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous, because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid. ³² It is another who testifies about me. I know that the testimony which he testifies about me is true. ³³ You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴ But the testimony which I receive is not from man. However, I say these things that you may be saved. ³⁵ He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. ³⁶ But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me, that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ The Father himself, who sent me, has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form. ³⁸ You don’t have his word living in you, because you don’t believe him whom he sent.

³⁹ “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me. ⁴⁰ Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life. ⁴¹ I don’t receive glory from men. ⁴² But I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in yourselves. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵ “Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶ For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”