Counsel and Countercounsel

Ahithophel: "Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night: And I will come upon him while he is weary… and I will smite the king only." Hushai: "The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time… thy father and his men… be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps." Gather all Israel "as the sand that is by the sea… and that thou go to battle in thine own person."

"For the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom." Hushai sends word through a servant girl to Jonathan and Ahimaaz at En-rogel. A boy sees them; they hide in a well at Bahurim, and a woman spreads a covering over it with grain on top.

David crosses the Jordan by morning. Ahithophel saddles his donkey, goes home, "put his household in order, and hanged himself." David reaches Mahanaim, where Shobi son of Nahash of Rabbah, Machir of Lo-debar and Barzillai the Gileadite bring beds, basins, wheat, barley, flour, beans, honey, butter and cheese, "for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness."

Ahithophel

Ahithophel of Giloh is the father of Eliam (23:34); Bathsheba is the daughter of an Eliam (11:3). Some suggest Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandfather, which would explain his turn against David. The two Eliams are not explicitly identified; it is a proposal.

Mahanaim

Mahanaim, where Jacob saw angels (Genesis 32:2) and Ish-bosheth reigned, lay east of the Jordan near the Jabbok. Tell edh-Dhahab el-Gharbi is often proposed; the identification is uncertain.

Help from Ammon

Shobi son of Nahash, from Rabbah of the Ammonites, brings supplies. After the war of chapters 10–12, an Ammonite prince is among David's helpers.