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2 Samuel 15
New English Translation

Absalom Leads an Insurrection against David

15 Some time later Absalom managed to acquire[a] a chariot and horses, as well as fifty men to serve as his royal guard.[b] 2 Now Absalom used to get up early and stand beside the road that led to the city gate. Whenever anyone came by who had a complaint to bring to the king for arbitration, Absalom would call out to him, “What city are you from?” The person would answer, “I, your servant,[c] am from one of the tribes of Israel.” 3 Absalom would then say to him, “Look, your claims are legitimate and appropriate.[d] But there is no representative of the king who will listen to you.” 4 Absalom would then say, “If only they would make me[e] a judge in the land! Then everyone who had a judicial complaint[f] could come to me and I would make sure he receives a just settlement.”

5 When someone approached to bow before him, Absalom[g] would extend his hand and embrace him and kiss him. 6 Absalom acted this way toward everyone in Israel who came to the king for justice. In this way Absalom won the loyalty[h] of the citizens[i] of Israel.

7 After four[j] years Absalom said to the king, “Let me go and repay my vow that I made to the Lord while I was in Hebron. 8 For I made this vow[k] when I was living in Geshur in Aram: ‘If the Lord really does allow me to return to Jerusalem, I will serve the Lord.’” 9 The king replied to him, “Go in peace.” So Absalom[l] got up and went to Hebron.

10 Then Absalom sent spies through all the tribes of Israel who said, “When you hear the sound of the horn, you may assume[m] that Absalom rules in Hebron.” 11 Now 200 men had gone with Absalom from Jerusalem. Since they were invited, they went naively and were unaware of what Absalom was planning.[n] 12 While he was offering sacrifices, Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s adviser,[o] to come from his city, Giloh.[p] The conspiracy was gaining momentum, and the people were starting to side with Absalom.

David Flees from Jerusalem

13 Then a messenger came to David and reported, “The men of Israel are loyal to Absalom!”[q] 14 So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, “Come on![r] Let’s escape![s] Otherwise no one will be delivered from Absalom! Go immediately, or else he will quickly overtake us and bring[t] disaster on us and kill the city’s residents with the sword.”[u] 15 The king’s servants replied to the king, “We will do whatever our lord the king decides.”[v]

16 So the king and all the members of his royal court[w] set out on foot, though the king left behind ten concubines[x] to attend to the palace. 17 The king and all the people set out on foot, pausing[y] at a spot[z] some distance away. 18 All his servants were leaving with him,[aa] along with all the Kerethites, all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites—some 600 men who had come on foot from Gath. They were leaving with[ab] the king.

19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you come with us? Go back and stay with the new[ac] king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own country.[ad] 20 It seems as if you arrived just yesterday. Today should I make you wander around by going with us? I go where I must go. But as for you, go back and take your men[ae] with you. May genuine loyal love[af] protect[ag] you!”

21 But Ittai replied to the king, “As surely as the Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king is, whether it means death or life, there I[ah] will be as well!” 22 So David said to Ittai, “Come along then.”[ai] So Ittai the Gittite went along,[aj] accompanied by all his men and all the dependents[ak] who were with him.

23 All the land was weeping loudly[al] as all these people were leaving.[am] As the king was crossing over the Kidron Valley, all the people were leaving[an] on the road that leads to the desert. 24 Zadok and all the Levites who were with him were carrying the ark of the covenant of God. When they positioned the ark of God, Abiathar offered sacrifices until all the people had finished leaving[ao] the city.

25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Take the ark of God back to the city. If I find favor in the Lord’s sight he will bring me back and enable me to see both it and his dwelling place again. 26 However, if he should say, ‘I do not take pleasure in you,’ then he will deal with me in a way that he considers appropriate.”[ap]

27 The king said to Zadok the priest, “Are you a seer?[aq] Go back to the city in peace! Your son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan may go with you and Abiathar.[ar] 28 Look, I will be waiting at the fords of the desert until word from you[as] reaches me.” 29 So Zadok and Abiathar took the ark of God back to Jerusalem and remained there.

30 As David was going up the Mount of Olives, he was weeping as he went; his head was covered and his feet were bare. All the people who were with him also had their heads covered and were weeping as they went up. 31 Now David[at] had been told, “Ahithophel has sided with the conspirators who are with Absalom.” So David prayed,[au] “Make the advice of Ahithophel foolish, O Lord.”

32 When David reached the summit, where he used to worship God, Hushai the Arkite met him with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. 33 David said to him, “If you leave[av] with me you will be a burden to me. 34 But you will be able to counter the advice of Ahithophel if you go back to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king! Previously I was your father’s servant, and now I will be your servant.’ 35 Zadok and Abiathar the priests will be there with you.[aw] Everything you hear in the king’s palace[ax] you must tell Zadok and Abiathar the priests. 36 Furthermore, their two sons are there with them, Zadok’s son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan. You must send them to me with any information you hear.”[ay]

37 So David’s friend Hushai arrived in the city, just as Absalom was entering Jerusalem.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 15:1 tn Heb “acquired for himself.”
  2. 2 Samuel 15:1 tn Heb “to run ahead of him.”
  3. 2 Samuel 15:2 tn Heb “your servant.” So also in vv. 8, 15, 21.
  4. 2 Samuel 15:3 tn Heb “good and straight.”
  5. 2 Samuel 15:4 tn Heb “Who will make me?”
  6. 2 Samuel 15:4 tn Heb “a complaint and a judgment.” The expression is a hendiadys.
  7. 2 Samuel 15:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Absalom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  8. 2 Samuel 15:6 tn Heb “stole the heart.”
  9. 2 Samuel 15:6 tn Heb “the men.”
  10. 2 Samuel 15:7 tc The MT has here “forty,” but this is presumably a scribal error for “four.” The context will not tolerate a period of forty years prior to the rebellion of Absalom. The Lucianic Greek recension (τέσσαρα ἔτη, tessara etē), the Syriac Peshitta (ʾarbaʿ sanin), and Vulgate (post quattuor autem annos) in fact have the expected reading “four years.” Most English translations follow the versions in reading “four” here, although some (e.g. KJV, ASV, NASB, NKJV), following the MT, read “forty.”
  11. 2 Samuel 15:8 tn Heb “for your servant vowed a vow.” The formal court style of referring to one’s self in third person (“your servant”) has been translated here as first person for clarity.
  12. 2 Samuel 15:9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Absalom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  13. 2 Samuel 15:10 tn Heb “say.”
  14. 2 Samuel 15:11 tn Heb “being invited and going naively and they did not know anything.”
  15. 2 Samuel 15:12 tn Traditionally, “counselor,” but this term is more often associated with psychological counseling today, so “adviser” was used in the translation instead.
  16. 2 Samuel 15:12 tn Heb “Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, the adviser of David, from his city, from Giloh, while he was sacrificing.” It is not entirely clear who (Absalom or Ahithophel) was offering the sacrifices.
  17. 2 Samuel 15:13 tn Heb “the heart of the men of Israel is with Absalom.”
  18. 2 Samuel 15:14 tn Heb “Arise!”
  19. 2 Samuel 15:14 tn Heb “let’s flee.”
  20. 2 Samuel 15:14 tn Heb “thrust.”
  21. 2 Samuel 15:14 tn Heb “and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
  22. 2 Samuel 15:15 tn Heb “according to all that my lord the king will choose, behold your servants!”
  23. 2 Samuel 15:16 tn Heb “and all his house.”
  24. 2 Samuel 15:16 tn Heb “women, concubines.”
  25. 2 Samuel 15:17 tn Heb “and they stood.”
  26. 2 Samuel 15:17 tn Heb “house.”
  27. 2 Samuel 15:18 tn Heb “crossing over near his hand.”
  28. 2 Samuel 15:18 tn Heb “crossing over near the face of.”
  29. 2 Samuel 15:19 tn The word “new” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to make it clear that David refers to Absalom, not himself.
  30. 2 Samuel 15:19 tn Heb “place.”
  31. 2 Samuel 15:20 tn Heb “brothers,” but see v. 22.
  32. 2 Samuel 15:20 tn Heb “loyal love and truth.” The expression is a hendiadys.
  33. 2 Samuel 15:20 tn Heb “be with.”
  34. 2 Samuel 15:21 tn Heb “your servant.”
  35. 2 Samuel 15:22 tn Heb “Come and cross over.”
  36. 2 Samuel 15:22 tn Heb “crossed over.”
  37. 2 Samuel 15:22 tn Heb “all the little ones.”
  38. 2 Samuel 15:23 tn Heb “with a great voice.”
  39. 2 Samuel 15:23 tn Heb “crossing over.”
  40. 2 Samuel 15:23 tn Heb “crossing near the face of.”
  41. 2 Samuel 15:24 tn Heb “crossing from.”
  42. 2 Samuel 15:26 tn Heb “as [is] good in his eyes.”
  43. 2 Samuel 15:27 tn The Greek tradition understands the Hebrew word as an imperative (“see”). Most Greek mss have ἴδετε (idete); the Lucianic recension has βλέπε (blepe). It could just as well be taken as a question: “Don’t you see what is happening?” The present translation takes the word as a question, with the implication that Zadok is a priest and not a prophet (i.e., “seer”) and therefore unable to know what the future holds.
  44. 2 Samuel 15:27 tn Heb “And Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, two of your sons, with you.” The pronominal suffix on the last word is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.
  45. 2 Samuel 15:28 tn The pronoun is plural, referring to Zadok and Abiathar.
  46. 2 Samuel 15:31 tc The translation follows 4QSama, part of the Greek tradition, the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate in reading “and to David,” rather than MT וְדָוִד (vedavid, “and David”). As Driver points out, the Hebrew verb הִגִּיד (higgid, “he related”) never uses the accusative for the person to whom something is told (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 316).
  47. 2 Samuel 15:31 tn Heb “said.”
  48. 2 Samuel 15:33 tn Heb “cross over.”
  49. 2 Samuel 15:35 tn Heb “Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be there with you?” The rhetorical question draws attention to the fact that Hushai will not be alone.
  50. 2 Samuel 15:35 tn Heb “from the house of the king.”
  51. 2 Samuel 15:36 tn Heb “and you must send by their hand to me every word which you hear.” Both of the second person verb forms are plural with Zadok, Abiathar, and Hushai being the understood subjects.
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2 Samuel 15
World English Bible

15 After this, Absalom prepared a chariot and horses for himself, and fifty men to run before him. 2 Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. When any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, “What city are you from?”

He said, “Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.”

3 Absalom said to him, “Behold, your matters are good and right; but there is no man deputized by the king to hear you.” 4 Absalom said moreover, “Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!” 5 It was so, that when any man came near to bow down to him, he stretched out his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him. 6 Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. 7 At the end of forty years, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to Yahweh, in Hebron. 8 For your servant vowed a vow while I stayed at Geshur in Syria, saying, ‘If Yahweh shall indeed bring me again to Jerusalem, then I will serve Yahweh.’”

9 The king said to him, “Go in peace.”

So he arose, and went to Hebron. 10 But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron!’”

11 Two hundred men went with Absalom out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they didn’t know anything. 12 Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom. 13 A messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom.”

14 David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise! Let’s flee; or else none of us will escape from Absalom. Hurry to depart, lest he overtake us quickly, and bring down evil on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

15 The king’s servants said to the king, “Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king chooses.”

16 The king went out, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house. 17 The king went out, and all the people after him; and they stayed in Beth Merhak. 18 All his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, passed on before the king. 19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? Return, and stay with the king; for you are a foreigner, and also an exile. Return to your own place. 20 Whereas you came but yesterday, should I today make you go up and down with us, since I go where I may? Return, and take back your brothers. Mercy and truth be with you.”

21 Ittai answered the king, and said, “As Yahweh lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king is, whether for death or for life, your servant will be there also.”

22 David said to Ittai, “Go and pass over.” Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones who were with him. 23 All the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over. The king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness. 24 Behold, Zadok also came, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God; and they set down God’s ark; and Abiathar went up, until all the people finished passing out of the city. 25 The king said to Zadok, “Carry God’s ark back into the city. If I find favor in Yahweh’s eyes, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation; 26 but if he says, ‘I have no delight in you;’ behold, here I am. Let him do to me as seems good to him.” 27 The king said also to Zadok the priest, “Aren’t you a seer? Return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. 28 Behold, I will stay at the fords of the wilderness, until word comes from you to inform me.” 29 Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried God’s ark to Jerusalem again; and they stayed there. 30 David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot. All the people who were with him each covered his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.

31 Someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.”

David said, “Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”

32 When David had come to the top, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his tunic torn, and earth on his head. 33 David said to him, “If you pass on with me, then you will be a burden to me; 34 but if you return to the city, and tell Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king. As I have been your father’s servant in time past, so I will now be your servant; then will you defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.’ 35 Don’t you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? Therefore whatever you hear out of the king’s house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. 36 Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok’s son, and Jonathan, Abiathar’s son. Send to me everything that you shall hear by them.”

37 So Hushai, David’s friend, came into the city; and Absalom came into Jerusalem.

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