Shmuel Bais 19-21

Orthodox Jewish Bible

19 And it was told Yoav, Hinei, HaMelech weepeth and mourneth for Avshalom.

^2 (3) And the teshu’ah (salvation, deliverance) on that day was turned into evel (mourning) unto kol HaAm; for the people heard say that day how HaMelech was grieved for bno.

^3 (4) And the people stole that day into the Ir [Machanayim] as people being ashamed steal in when they flee in milchamah.

^4 (5) But HaMelech covered his face, and HaMelech cried with a kol gadol, O beni Avshalom, O Avshalom, beni, beni!

^5 (6) And Yoav came into the bais to HaMelech, and said, Thou hast disgraced this day the faces of all thy avadim, which this day have saved thy nefesh, and the nefesh of thy banim and of thy banot, and the nefesh of thy nashim, and the nefesh of thy pilagshim (concubines);

^6 (7) In that thou lovest thine enemies, and hatest thy friends. For thou hast declared this day, that thou hast no regard for sarim nor avadim; for this day I perceive, that if Avshalom had lived, and this day all we were mesim (dead ones), then it would have been yashar in thy sight.

^7 (8) Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak to the lev unto thy avadim; for I swear by Hashem, if thou go not forth, there will not tarry one ish with thee halailah (this night); and that will be worse unto thee than kol hara’ah that befell thee from thy youth until now.

^8 (9) Then HaMelech arose, and sat in the sha’ar. And they told unto kol haAm, saying, Hinei, HaMelech doth sit in the sha’ar. And kol haAm came before HaMelech: for Yisroel had fled every ish to his ohel.

^9 (10) And kol haAm were having dissension throughout kol Shivtei Yisroel saying, HaMelech saved us out of the palm of oyveinu (our enemies) and he delivered us out of the palm of the Pelishtim; and now he is fled from HaAretz because of Avshalom.

^10 (11) And Avshalom, whom mashachnu (we anointed) over us, is dead in milchamah. Now therefore why are ye not speaking of bringing back HaMelech?

^11 (12) And Dovid HaMelech sent to Tzadok and to Evyatar the kohanim, saying, Speak unto the Ziknei Yehudah, saying, Why are ye the last ones to bring HaMelech back to his Bais? Seeing the talk of kol Yisroel is come to HaMelech, even to his Bais.

^12 (13) Ye are my brethren, ye are my atzmot and my basar; why then are ye the last ones to bring back HaMelech?

^13 (14) And say ye to Amasa, Art thou not of my etzem, and of my basar? Elohim do so to me, and more also, if thou be not sar tzava before me continually in place of Yoav.

^14 (15) And he swayed the levav kol Ish Yehudah, even as the lev of one man; so that they sent this word unto HaMelech, Return thou, and all thy avadim.

^15 (16) So HaMelech returned, and came to Yarden. And Yehudah came to Gilgal, to go to meet HaMelech, to conduct HaMelech over Yarden.

^16 (17) And Shimei Ben Gera, a Ben HaYemini, which was of Bachurim, hasted and came down with the Ish Yehudah to meet Dovid HaMelech.

^17 (18) And there were an elef ish of Binyamin with him, and Tziva the na’ar of the Bais Sha’ul, and his fifteen banim and his twenty avadim with him; and they went over Yarden before HaMelech.

^18 (19) And there went over a ferry to carry over the Bais HaMelech, and to do what he thought good. And Shimei Ben Gera fell down before HaMelech, as he was come over Yarden;

^19 (20) And said unto HaMelech, Let not adoni impute avon (iniquity) unto me, neither do thou remember that which thy eved did perversely the day that adoni HaMelech went out of Yerushalayim, that HaMelech should take it to his lev.

^20 (21) For thy eved doth know that I have sinned; therefore, hinei, I am come rishom (first) this day of all the Bais Yosef to go down to meet adoni HaMelech.

^21 (22) But Avishai Ben Tzeruyah answered and said, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed Hashem’s Moshiach?

^22 (23) And Dovid said, What have I to do with you, ye Bnei Tzeruyah, that ye should this day be as satan unto me? Shall there be ish put to death this day in Yisroel? For do not I know that I am this day Melech al Yisroel?

^23 (24) Therefore HaMelech said unto Shimei, Thou shalt not die. And HaMelech swore a shevu’a unto him.

^24 (25) And Mephivoshet Ben Sha’ul came down to meet HaMelech, and had neither bathed his regal, nor trimmed his safam (mustache), nor washed his clothes, from the day HaMelech departed until the day he came again in shalom.

^25 (26) And it came to pass, when he [Mephivoshet] was come to Yerushalayim to meet HaMelech, that HaMelech said unto him, why wentest not thou with me, Mephivoshet?

^26 (27) And he answered, Adoni, O Melech, avdi deceived me: for thy eved said, I will saddle me a chamor, that I may ride thereon, and go to HaMelech; because thy eved is pise’ach (lame).

^27 (28) And he hath slandered thy eved unto adoni HaMelech; but adoni HaMelech is like malach HaElohim; do therefore what is tov in thine eyes.

^28 (29) For all of the bais avi were but anshei mavet before adoni HaMelech; yet didst thou set thy eved among them that did eat at thine own shulchan. What tzedakah (right) therefore have I yet to appeal any more unto HaMelech?

^29 (30) And HaMelech said unto him, Why speakest thou any more of thy devarim? I have said, Thou and Tziva divide the sadeh.

^30 (31) And Mephivoshet said unto HaMelech, Indeed, let him take all, forasmuch as adoni HaMelech is come again in shalom unto his own bais.

^31 (32) And Barzillai the Gileadi came down from Roglim, and went over Yarden with HaMelech, to conduct him over Yarden.

^32 (33) Now Barzillai was zaken me’od, even fourscore shanah; and he had been the support of HaMelech while he dwelt at Machanayim; for he was an ish gadol me’od.

^33 (34) HaMelech said unto Barzillai, Come thou over with me, and with me I will be your support in Yerushalayim.

^34 (35) And Barzillai said unto HaMelech, How long have I to live, that I should go up with HaMelech to Yerushalayim?

^35 (36) I am this day fourscore shanah old; and can I discern between tov and rah? Can thy eved taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of sharim (singing men) and sharot (singing women)? Why then should thy eved be yet a massa (burden) unto adoni HaMelech?

^36 (37) Thy eved will go a little way over Yarden with HaMelech; and why should HaMelech reward me with such a reward?

^37 (38) Let thy eved, now, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried near the kever of avi and of immi. But hinei thy eved Chimham [i.e., one of his sons, 1Kgs 2:7]; let him go over with adoni HaMelech; and do to him what shall seem tov unto thee.

^38 (39) And HaMelech answered, Chimham shall cross over with me, and I will do for him that which shall seem tov unto thee; and whatsoever thou shalt request of me, that will I do for thee.

^39 (40) And kol haAm crossed over Yarden. And when HaMelech was come over, HaMelech kissed Barzillai, and put a bracha on him; and he returned unto his own makom (place, home).

^40 (41) Then HaMelech went on to Gilgal, and Kimham crossed over with him; and kol Am Yehudah conducted HaMelech, and also half Am Yisroel.

^41 (42) And, hinei, kol Ish Yisroel came to HaMelech, and said unto HaMelech, Why have acheinu Ish Yehudah stolen thee away, and have brought HaMelech across, and his Bais (household), and kol Anshei Dovid with him, over Yarden?

^42 (43) And kol Ish Yehudah answered Ish Yisroel, Because HaMelech is near of kin to us; why then be ye angry for this matter? Have we eaten at all from HaMelech? Or hath he given us anything?

^43 (44) And Ish Yisroel answered the Ish Yehudah, and said, We have ten shares as much in HaMelech, and we have also more in Dovid than ye; why then did ye slight us? Were we not the first to give the davar in bringing back my melech? And the devar Ish Yehudah were harsher than the devar Ish Yisroel.

20 And there happened to be there an ish Beliyaal [rebel], shmo Sheva Ben Bichri an ish from Binyamin; and he blew a shofar, and said, We have no chelek in Dovid, neither have we nachalah in Ben Yishai; every ish to his ohal, O Yisroel.

² So kol Ish Yisroel went up from after Dovid, and followed Sheva Ben Bichri; but the Ish Yehudah had deveykus unto their Melech, from Yarden even to Yerushalayim.

³ And Dovid came to his Bais (palace) at Yerushalayim; and HaMelech took the ten nashim, his pilagshim, whom he had left to be shomer over the Bais, and put them in Bais Mishmeret (seclusion), and provided for them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up unto their yom mot, living in almenut (widowhood).

⁴ Then said HaMelech to Amasa, Assemble the Ish Yehudah within shloshet yamim; be thou here present.

⁵ So Amasa went to assemble Yehudah; but he tarried longer than the mo’ed which he had appointed him.

⁶ And Dovid said to Avishai, Now shall Sheva Ben Bichri do us more harm than did Avshalom; take thou the avadim of adoneicha, pursue after him, lest he get him fortified cities, and escape us.

⁷ And there went out after him anshei Yoav, and the Kereti, and the Peleti, and kol Gibborim; and they went out of Yerushalayim, to pursue after Sheva Ben Bichri.

⁸ When they were at the Even Hagedolah (Great Stone) which is in Giveon, Amasa went before them. And Yoav’s military garment that he had put on was girded unto him, and upon it a khagor with a cherev fastened upon his waist in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth it fell out.

⁹ Yoav said to Amasa, Art thou in shalom, my brother? And Yoav took Amasa by the zaken (beard) with the right hand to kiss him.

¹⁰ But Amasa took no heed to the cherev that was in the yad Yoav; so he stabbed him therewith in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died. So Yoav and Avishai achiv pursued after Sheva Ben Bichri.

¹¹ And one of the nearim of Yoav stood by him, and said, He that favoreth Yoav, and he that is for Dovid, let him go after Yoav.

¹² And Amasa wallowed in dahm in the midst of the mesilah (road). And when the ish saw that kol haAm halted, he removed Amasa out of the mesilah into the sadeh, and threw a beged (garment) over him, when he saw that every one that came by him halted.

¹³ When he was removed from the mesilah, kol haAm went on after Yoav, to pursue after Sheva Ben Bichri.

¹⁴ And he passed through all the Shivtei Yisroel unto Abel, and to Beit-Maachah, and all the Berim; and they were gathered together, and went also after him [Sheva].

¹⁵ And they came and besieged him in Abel of Beit-Maachah, and they cast up a siege ramp against the Ir, until it stood by the rampart; and kol haAm that were with Yoav battered the chomah (wall), to throw it down.

¹⁶ Then cried an isha chachamah (wise woman) from the Ir, Hear, hear; say, now unto Yoav, Come here, that I may speak with thee.

¹⁷ And when he was come near unto her, the isha said, Art thou Yoav? And he answered, I am he. Then she said unto him, Hear the devarim of thine amah. And he answered, I do hear.

¹⁸ Then she spoke, saying, They used to speak in rishonah (old times), saying, They shall surely ask counsel at Abel; and so they settled the matter.

¹⁹ I am one of them that are of shalom and of emunah in Yisroel; thou seekest to destroy an Ir and an em b’Yisroel; why wilt thou swallow up the nachalat Hashem?

²⁰ And Yoav answered and said, Chalilah (far be it), chalilah from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.

²¹ The matter is not so; but an ish of har Ephrayim, Sheva Ben Bichri shmo, hath lifted up his yad against HaMelech, even against Dovid; hand over him only, and I will depart from the Ir. And the woman said unto Yoav, Hinei, his rosh shall be thrown to thee from the chomah.

²² Then the isha went unto kol haAm in her chochmah. And they cut off the rosh of Sheva Ben Bichri, and threw it out to Yoav. And he blew a shofar, and they retired from the city, every ish to his ohel. And Yoav returned to Yerushalayim unto HaMelech.

²³ Now Yoav was over kol HaTzava Yisroel; and Benayah Ben Yehoyada was over the Kereti and over the Peleti;

²⁴ And Adoram was over the forced labor; and Yehoshaphat Ben Achilud was mazkir (secretary);

²⁵ And Sheva was sofer; and Tzadok and Evyatar (Abiathar) were the kohanim;

²⁶ And also Ira the Yairi was kohen to Dovid.

21 Then there was a ra’av (famine) in the days of Dovid shalosh shanim, shanah after shanah; and Dovid inquired of Hashem. And Hashem answered, It is on account of Sha’ul, and for his bais hadamim, because he slaughtered the Giveonim.

² And HaMelech called the Giveonim, and said unto them; (now the Giveonim were not of the Bnei Yisroel, but of the remnant of the Emori; and the Bnei Yisroel had sworn unto them; and Sha’ul sought to annihilate them in his kinot (zeal) for the Bnei Yisroel and Yehudah.)

³ Therefore Dovid said unto the Giveonim, What shall I do for you? And wherewith shall I make the kapporah, that ye may bless the nachalat Hashem?

⁴ And the Giveonim said unto him, We will have no kesef nor zahav of Sha’ul, nor of his bais; neither for us shalt thou kill any ish in Yisroel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.

⁵ And they answered HaMelech, The ish that consumed us, and that plotted against us that we should be made shmad from remaining in any of the territories of Yisroel,

⁶ Let shivah anashim of his banim be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto Hashem in Giveah of Sha’ul, whom Hashem did choose. And HaMelech said, I will give them.

⁷ But HaMelech spared Mephivoshet Ben Yonatan Ben Sha’ul, because of Hashem’s shevua (oath) that was between them, between Dovid and Yonatan Ben Sha’ul.

⁸ But HaMelech took the two Bnei Ritzpah Bat Ayah, whom she bore unto Sha’ul, Armoni and Mephivoshet; and the five Bnei Michal [Merav] Bat Sha’ul, whom she bore to Adriel Ben Barzillai the Mecholati;

⁹ And he delivered them into the hands of the Giveonim, and they hanged them in the hill before Hashem; and they fell all shivah together and were put to death in the yamim of katzir (harvest), in the rishonim, in the beginning of katzir se’orim (barley harvest).

¹⁰ And Ritzpah Bat Ayah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the tzur, from the beginning of katzir until mayim dropped upon them out of Shomayim, and suffered neither the oph haShomayim to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the sadeh by night.

¹¹ And it was told Dovid what Ritzpah Bat Ayah, the pilegesh (concubine) of Sha’ul, had done.

¹² And Dovid went and took the atzmot Sha’ul and the atzmot Yonatan bno from the citizens of Yavesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the rechov (street) of Beit-shan, where the Pelishtim had hanged them, when the Pelishtim had slain Sha’ul in Gilboa;

¹³ And he brought up from there the atzmot Sha’ul and the atzmot Yonatan bno; and they gathered the atzmot of them that were hanged.

¹⁴ And the atzmot Sha’ul and Yonatan bno buried they in eretz Binyamin in Tzela, in the kever of Kish aviv; and they performed all that HaMelech commanded. And after that Elohim was entreated for the land.

¹⁵ Moreover the Pelishtim had yet milchamah again with Yisroel; and Dovid went down, and his avadim with him, and fought against the Pelishtim; and Dovid grew faint.

¹⁶ And Yishbi-benov, which was of the yeladim of Rafah (Giant), the weight of whose spearhead weighed three hundred shekels of nechoshet in weight, he being girded chadashah (belted anew), declared that he could slay Dovid.

¹⁷ But Avishai Ben Tzeruyah came to his aid, and struck the Pelishti (Philistine), and killed him. Then the anshei Dovid swore an oath unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to milchamah (battle), that thou quench not the Ner Yisroel (Lamp of Israel).

¹⁸ And it came to pass after this, that there was again milchamah with the Pelishtim at Gov; then Sibbechai the Chushati slaughtered Saph, which was of the banim of the Rafah.

¹⁹ And there was again milchamah in Gov with the Pelishtim, where Elchanan Ben Ya’arei-orgim, from Beit-Lechem, slaughtered the brother of Golyat (Goliath) the Gitti, the staff of whose khanit (spear) was like a weaver’s beam.

²⁰ And there was yet again a milchamah in Gat, where was a man of great stature, that had on every yad six fingers, and on every regel six toes, four and twenty in mispar (number); and he also was born to the Rafah.

²¹ And when he defied Yisroel, Yonatan Ben Shimea the brother of Dovid slaughtered him.

²² These four were born to the Rafah in Gat, and fell by the yad Dovid, and by the yad of his avadim. [T.N. Kapporah is made here by that which is hanged unto Hashem—see 2Sm 21:3,6; Isa 53:10]