⁷ Then Hushai said to Absalom, ‘This time the counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good.’ ⁸ Hushai continued, ‘You know that your father and his men are warriors, and that they are enraged, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Besides, your father is expert in war; he will not spend the night with the troops. ⁹ Even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits, or in some other place. And when some of our troops^[a] fall at the first attack, whoever hears it will say, “There has been a slaughter among the troops who follow Absalom.”