2 Samuel 15:13-29
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
David Flees from Jerusalem
13 A messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the Israelites have gone after Absalom.”(A) 14 Then David said to all his officials who were with him at Jerusalem, “Get up! Let us flee, or there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Hurry, or he will soon overtake us, and bring disaster down upon us, and attack the city with the edge of the sword.”(B) 15 The king’s officials said to the king, “Your servants are ready to do whatever our lord the king decides.” 16 So the king left, followed by all his household, except ten concubines whom he left behind to look after the house.(C) 17 The king left, followed by all the people, and they stopped at the last house. 18 All his officials passed by him, and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the six hundred Gittites who had followed him from Gath passed on before the king.(D)
19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why are you also coming with us? Go back, and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home.(E) 20 You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us while I go wherever I can? Go back, and take your kinsfolk with you, and may the Lord show[a] steadfast love and faithfulness to you.”(F) 21 But Ittai answered the king, “As the Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether for death or for life, there also your servant will be.”(G) 22 David said to Ittai, “Go then, march on.” So Ittai the Gittite marched on, with all his men and all the little ones who were with him. 23 The whole country wept aloud as all the people passed by; the king crossed the Wadi Kidron, and all the people moved on toward the wilderness.
24 Abiathar came up, and Zadok also, with all the Levites, carrying the ark of the covenant of God. They set down the ark of God until the people had all passed out of the city.(H) 25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and the place where it stays.(I) 26 But if he says, ‘I take no pleasure in you,’ here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.”(J) 27 The king also said to the priest Zadok, “Look,[b] go back to the city in peace, you and Abiathar,[c] with your two sons, Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan son of Abiathar.(K) 28 See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.”(L) 29 So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there.
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