2 Samuel 18:19-33

Living Bible

¹⁹ Then Zadok’s son Ahimaaz said, “Let me run to King David with the good news that the Lord has saved him from his enemy Absalom.”

²⁰ “No,” Joab told him, “it wouldn’t be good news to the king that his son is dead. You can be my messenger some other time.”

²¹ Then Joab said to a man from Cush, “Go tell the king what you have seen.” The man bowed and ran off.

²² But Ahimaaz pleaded with Joab, “Please let me go too.”

“No, we don’t need you now, my boy,” Joab replied. “There is no further news to send.”

²³ “Yes, but let me go anyway,” he begged.

And Joab finally said, “All right, go ahead.” Then Ahimaaz took a shortcut across the plain and got there ahead of the man from Cush. ²⁴ David was sitting at the gate of the city. When the watchman climbed the stairs to his post at the top of the wall, he saw a lone man running toward them.

²⁵ He shouted the news down to David, and the king replied, “If he is alone, he has news.”

As the messenger came closer, ²⁶ the watchman saw another man running toward them. He shouted down, “Here comes another one.”

And the king replied, “He will have more news.”

²⁷ “The first man looks like Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok,” the watchman said.

“He is a good man and comes with good news,” the king replied.

²⁸ Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, “All is well!” He bowed low with his face to the ground and said, “Blessed be the Lord your God who has destroyed the rebels who dared to stand against you.”

²⁹ “What of young Absalom?” the king demanded. “Is he all right?”

“When Joab told me to come, there was a lot of shouting; but I didn’t know what was happening,”^[a] Ahimaaz answered.

³⁰ “Wait here,” the king told him. So Ahimaaz stepped aside.

³¹ Then the man from Cush arrived and said, “I have good news for my lord the king. Today Jehovah has rescued you from all those who rebelled against you.”

³² “What about young Absalom? Is he all right?” the king demanded.

And the man replied, “May all of your enemies be as that young man is!”

³³ Then the king broke into tears, and went up to his room over the gate, crying as he went. “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom. If only I could have died for you! O Absalom, my son, my son.”