When David was told that Ahithophel had joined Absalom's rebellion, he prayed, "Please, LORD, turn Ahithophel's advice into nonsense!"

The man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have struggled with God and with men, and you have won; so your name will be Israel."

But to show you my power I have let you live so that my fame might spread over the whole world.

"But King Sihon would not let us pass through his country. The LORD your God had made him stubborn and rebellious, so that we could defeat him and take his territory, which we still occupy.

"Since when," Amaziah interrupted, "have we made you adviser to the king? Stop talking, or I'll have you killed!" The prophet stopped, but not before saying, "Now I know that God has decided to destroy you because you have done all this and have ignored my advice."

But Amaziah refused to listen. It was God's will for Amaziah to be defeated, because he had worshiped the Edomite idols.

When he spoke, the world was created; at his command everything appeared.

The LORD frustrates the purposes of the nations; he keeps them from carrying out their plans.

The will of the Lord alone is always carried out.

If they hide on the top of Mount Carmel, I will search for them and catch them. If they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, I will command the sea monster to bite them.

but you can help me by returning to the city and telling Absalom that you will now serve him as faithfully as you served his father. And do all you can to oppose any advice that Ahithophel gives.

Any advice that Ahithophel gave in those days was accepted as though it were the very word of God; both David and Absalom followed it.

He upsets the plans of cunning people, and traps the wise in their own schemes, so that nothing they do succeeds;

even at noon they grope in darkness.

People may plan all kinds of things, but the LORD's will is going to be done.

Human wisdom, brilliance, insight---they are of no help if the LORD is against you.

Make your plans! But they will never succeed. Talk all you want to! But it is all useless, because God is with us.

The scripture says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars."

So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skillful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world's wisdom is foolishness!

For what this world considers to be wisdom is nonsense in God's sight. As the scripture says, "God traps the wise in their cleverness";

As a result the master of this dishonest manager praised him for doing such a shrewd thing; because the people of this world are much more shrewd in handling their affairs than the people who belong to the light."