A Rebellious Son

¹⁸ “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, ¹⁹ then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, ²⁰ and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ^21 (A)Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. ^(B)So you shall purge the evil from your midst, ^(C)and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

¹⁴ Joab said, “I will not waste time like this with you.” And he took three javelins in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak. ¹⁵ And ten young men, Joab's armor-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him.

¹⁶ Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the troops came back from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained them. ¹⁷ And they took Absalom and threw him into a great pit in the forest and raised over him ^(A)a very great heap of stones. And all Israel ^(B)fled every one to his own home.

^10 (A)Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night.

⁴⁴ The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh ^(A)to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.”

²⁶ And ^(A)your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and ^(B)there shall be no one to frighten them away.

⁹ For ^(A)anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; ^(B)his blood is upon him.