Hushai the Archite חושי הארכי

Hushai is given a title of his own in the text — "David's friend." He came out to meet the departing king at the summit where God is worshipped, with his coat torn and earth on his head.

David refused to take him: if you come with me you will be a burden to me; but if you return to the city and say to Absalom, "I am your servant, O king — I was your father's servant before, and now I am your servant," then you will break Ahithophel's counsel for me. And pass everything you hear through the priests, Zadok and Abiathar, and their sons.

He entered the city at the same moment as Absalom and played the part exactly. To the direct question — "is this your loyalty to your friend?" — he answered so that the double meaning went unnoticed: whomever the LORD and this people have chosen, to him I will belong.

That night, when Ahithophel proposed striking at once, Absalom asked Hushai as well. He spoke of what everyone understood: your father and his men are soldiers, and they are enraged like a bear robbed of her cubs; he does not sleep among the troops. Gather all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, like the sand by the sea, and go yourself at their head.

The counsel was accepted. Hushai at once sent the priests to warn David: do not spend the night in the plains, cross the Jordan. The king crossed — and the revolt was lost before the battle.