³² Absalom answered Joab, “Behold, I sent word to you, ‘Come here, that I may send you to the king, to ask, “Why have I come from ^(A)Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still.” Now therefore let me go into the presence of the king, ^(B)and if there is guilt in me, let him put me to death.’”

⁸ Therefore deal kindly with your servant, ^(A)for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. ^(B)But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?”

¹² Is not this what ^(A)we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever ^(A)the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, ^(B)so that every mouth may be stopped, and ^(C)the whole world may be held accountable to God.

⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’