The Daily Audio Bible

18 David took a census of the people who were with him and appointed over them commanders of thousands and of hundreds. ² Then David dispatched the people, a third of them under the command of Yo’av, a third under Avishai the son of Tz’ruyah, Yo’av’s brother, and a third under Ittai the Gitti; and the king said to the people, “I will also go out with you, myself.” ³ But the people replied, “Don’t go out; because if we flee, they won’t care about us. Even if half of us die, they won’t care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us; so it is better now that you stay in the city and be ready if we need help.” ⁴ The king answered them, “I will do whatever you think best.” So the king stood at the side of the gate, while all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. ⁵ The king gave orders to Yo’av, Avishai and Ittai, “For my sake, deal gently with young Avshalom.” All the people were listening when the king gave all the commanders this order concerning Avshalom.

⁶ So the people went out into the field against Isra’el; the battle took place in the forest of Efrayim. ⁷ The people of Isra’el were defeated there by David’s servants; there was a terrible slaughter that day of 20,000 men. ⁸ For the battle there was spread all over the countryside; the forest devoured more people that day than did the sword.

⁹ Avshalom happened to meet some of David’s servants. Avshalom was riding his mule, and as the mule walked under the thick branches of a big terebinth tree, his head got caught in the terebinth, so that he was left hanging between earth and sky, as the mule went on from under him. ¹⁰ Someone saw it and told Yo’av, “I saw Avshalom hanging in a terebinth.” ¹¹ Yo’av asked the man who told him, “Here now, you saw it; so why didn’t you strike him to the ground then and there? I would have had to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt besides.” ¹² The man replied to Yo’av, “Even if I were to get a thousand pieces of silver, I still wouldn’t raise my hand against the son of the king! After all, while we were listening, the king ordered you, Avishai and Ittai, ‘Be careful that no one touches young Avshalom.’ ¹³ Or, if I had pretended that I didn’t know, the king would have known otherwise anyway; and you wouldn’t have interceded for me either.” ¹⁴ Yo’av said, “I can’t waste time arguing with you!” He took three darts in his hand and rammed them through Avshalom’s heart while he was still alive, hanging from the terebinth. ¹⁵ Then Yo’av’s ten young armor-bearers surrounded Avshalom, struck him and killed him.

¹⁶ Yo’av sounded the shofar, and the people returned from pursuing Isra’el, because Yo’av held back the troops. ¹⁷ They took Avshalom and threw him into a big pit in the forest and piled a big heap of stones over him. All Isra’el fled, each one to his tent. ¹⁸ In his own lifetime Avshalom had taken and raised for himself the pillar which stands in the King’s Valley; because he said, “I don’t have a son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he named the pillar after himself, and it’s called Avshalom’s Monument to this day.

¹⁹ Then Achima‘atz the son of Tzadok said, “Let me run now and bring news to the king that Adonai has judged in his favor by releasing him from his enemies.” ²⁰ Yo’av said to him, “You are not to be the one to bring the news today; you can convey news another day; but today you will not bring news, because the king’s son is dead.” ²¹ Then Yo’av said to the Ethiopian, “Go, tell the king what you saw.” The Ethiopian bowed to Yo’av, then ran off. ²² But Achima‘atz the son of Tzadok said again to Yo’av, “Come what may, please let me also run after the Ethiopian.” Yo’av answered, “Why do you want to run, my son? You won’t receive any reward for bringing the news.” ²³ “I don’t care — whatever happens, I want to run.” So he said to him, “Run.” Then Achima‘atz ran by the road through the desert flats and outran the Ethiopian.

²⁴ David was sitting between the two gates. A watchman went up to the roof of the gate and out onto the wall, raised his eyes, looked, and saw there a man running by himself. ²⁵ The watchman cried out and told the king. The king said, “If he’s alone, he has good news to tell.” As he ran along and came close, ²⁶ the watchman saw another man running and called to the gatekeeper, “There’s another man running by himself.” The king said, “He too must have good news.” ²⁷ The watchman said, “The first one runs like Achima‘atz the son of Tzadok.” The king said, “He’s a good man, he comes with good news.”

²⁸ Achima‘atz called to the king, “Shalom,” prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground and said, “Blessed be Adonai your God, who has handed over the men who rebelled against my lord the king.” ²⁹ The king asked, “Is everything all right with young Avshalom?” Achima‘atz answered, “When Yo’av sent the king’s servant and me your servant, I saw a big commotion; but I didn’t know what it was.” ³⁰ The king said, “Go, and stand over there.” So he went and stood there. ³¹ Then up came the Ethiopian, and the Ethiopian said, “There’s good news for my lord the king, for Adonai has judged in your favor and rid you of all those who rebelled against you.” ³² The king asked the Ethiopian, “Is everything all right with young Avshalom?” The Ethiopian answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rebel against you in order to harm you be as that young man is.”

19 ^(18:33) Trembling, the king went up to the room over the gate, weeping and crying, “Oh, my son Avshalom! My son! My son Avshalom! If only I had died instead of you! Oh, Avshalom, my son, my son!”

^2 (1) Yo’av was told, “The king is weeping, mourning for Avshalom.” ^3 (2) Thus the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people, for the people heard it said that day that the king was grieving for his son; ^4 (3) so that the people entered the city furtively that day, the way that people who are ashamed creep away when fleeing a battlefield. ^5 (4) Meanwhile, the king covered his face and cried aloud, “Oh, my son Avshalom! Oh, Avshalom, my son, my son!”

^6 (5) Yo’av went inside to the king and said, “Today you made all your servants feel ashamed. They saved your life today, and the lives of your sons, daughters, wives and concubines. ^7 (6) But you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. Today you said that princes and servants mean nothing to you — for I can see today that it would have pleased you more if Avshalom had lived today, and we had all died! ^8 (7) Now get up, go out and speak heart-to-heart with your servants. For I swear by Adonai that if you don’t go out, not one man will stay here with you tonight — and that will be worse for you than all the misfortunes you have suffered from your youth until now.” ^9 (8) So the king got up and sat in the city gateway; and when all the people were told, “Now the king is sitting in the gate,” they came before the king.

Meanwhile, Isra’el had fled, each man to his tent; ^10 (9) and throughout all the tribes of Isra’el there was dissension among all the people. They were saying, “The king delivered us from the power of our enemies, and he saved us from the power of the P’lishtim; but now he has fled the land to escape Avshalom.

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Miryam from Magdala went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. ² So she came running to Shim‘on Kefa and the other talmid, the one Yeshua loved, and said to them, “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!”

³ Then Kefa and the other talmid started for the tomb. ⁴ They both ran, but the other talmid outran Kefa and reached the tomb first. ⁵ Stooping down, he saw the linen burial-sheets lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then, following him, Shim‘on Kefa arrived, entered the tomb and saw the burial-sheets lying there, ⁷ also the cloth that had been around his head, lying not with the sheets but in a separate place and still folded up. ⁸ Then the other talmid, who had arrived at the tomb first, also went in; he saw, and he trusted. ⁹ (They had not yet come to understand that the Tanakh teaches that the Messiah has to rise from the dead.)

¹⁰ So the talmidim returned home, ¹¹ but Miryam stood outside crying. As she cried, she bent down, peered into the tomb, ¹² and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Yeshua had been, one at the head and one at the feet. ¹³ “Why are you crying?” they asked her. “They took my Lord,” she said to them, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

¹⁴ As she said this, she turned around and saw Yeshua standing there, but she didn’t know it was he. ¹⁵ Yeshua said to her, “Lady, why are you crying? Whom are you looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you’re the one who carried him away, just tell me where you put him; and I’ll go and get him myself.” ¹⁶ Yeshua said to her, “Miryam!” Turning, she cried out to him in Hebrew, “Rabbani!” (that is, “Teacher!”) ¹⁷ “Stop holding onto me,” Yeshua said to her, “because I haven’t yet gone back to the Father. But go to my brothers, and tell them that I am going back to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ¹⁸ Miryam of Magdala went to the talmidim with the news that she had seen the Lord and that he had told her this.

¹⁹ In the evening that same day, the first day of the week, when the talmidim were gathered together behind locked doors out of fear of the Judeans, Yeshua came, stood in the middle and said, “Shalom aleikhem!” ²⁰ Having greeted them, he showed them his hands and his side. The talmidim were overjoyed to see the Lord. ²¹ “Shalom aleikhem!” Yeshua repeated. “Just as the Father sent me, I myself am also sending you.” ²² Having said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Ruach HaKodesh! ²³ If you forgive someone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you hold them, they are held.”

²⁴ Now T’oma (the name means “twin”), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Yeshua came. ²⁵ When the other talmidim told him, “We have seen the Lord,” he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger into the place where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe it.”

²⁶ A week later his talmidim were once more in the room, and this time T’oma was with them. Although the doors were locked, Yeshua came, stood among them and said, “Shalom aleikhem!” ²⁷ Then he said to T’oma, “Put your finger here, look at my hands, take your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be lacking in trust, but have trust!” ²⁸ T’oma answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Yeshua said to him, “Have you trusted because you have seen me? How blessed are those who do not see, but trust anyway!”

³⁰ In the presence of the talmidim Yeshua performed many other miracles which have not been recorded in this book. ³¹ But these which have been recorded are here so that you may trust that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by this trust you may have life because of who he is.

ר (Resh)

ש (Shin)

ת (Tav)