God turns treachery into deliverance. 2 Samuel 17 is the moment in Absalom’s rebellion when Hushai outwits Ahithophel - and the narrator reveals why: the LORD had ordained it.
Full sung version coming soon.
Lyrics
Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose twelve thousand men And I will arise and pursue after David tonight 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 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 The saying pleased Absalom well and all the elders of Israel
Then Absalom said, Now call Hushai the Archite also and let’s hear likewise what he says 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
Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good 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
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 amongst the people who follow Absalom 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 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
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 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 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
To the intent that the LORD might bring evil on Absalom 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 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
Listen
2 Samuel 17 sung by Psalm Selah. The whole Bible, one chapter at a time.