2 Samuel 17:2
And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only: And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid: and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only:
Ahithophel pressed Absalom for immediate action against David, asking leave to choose twelve thousand men and to pursue the fugitive king that very night. His strategy was to fall upon David while he was exhausted and enfeebled, to strike terror into him and scatter all the people who were with him in flight. The blow was to fall on the king alone, after which all the people would be brought back to Absalom.
The proposal commended itself to the king's counselors and was approved by them. Had it been carried out, David would certainly have been killed unless the Lord had directly intervened to save him. A higher wisdom was overruling events, for the Lord had purposed to defeat the shrewd counsel of Ahithophel in order to bring calamity upon Absalom.