A Psalm by David, when he fled from Absalom his son.

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.

16 When David was a little past the top, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him with a couple of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and one hundred summer fruits, and a container of wine. ² The king said to Ziba, “What do you mean by these?”

Ziba said, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that those who are faint in the wilderness may drink.”

³ The king said, “Where is your master’s son?”

Ziba said to the king, “Behold, he is staying in Jerusalem; for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will restore me the kingdom of my father.’”

⁴ Then the king said to Ziba, “Behold, all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours.”

Ziba said, “I bow down. Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, O king.”

⁵ When king David came to Bahurim, behold, a man of the family of Saul’s house came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came out and cursed as he came. ⁶ He cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. ⁷ Shimei said when he cursed, “Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and wicked fellow! ⁸ Yahweh has returned on you all the blood of Saul’s house, in whose place you have reigned! Yahweh has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son! Behold, you are caught by your own mischief, because you are a man of blood!”

⁹ Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head.” ¹⁰ The king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, ‘Curse David;’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’”

¹¹ David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, “Behold, my son, who came out of my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for Yahweh has invited him. ¹² It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today.” ¹³ So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him, and cursed as he went, threw stones at him, and threw dust. ¹⁴ The king, and all the people who were with him, came weary; and he refreshed himself there.

¹⁵ Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. ¹⁶ When Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, had come to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

¹⁷ Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your kindness to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?”

¹⁸ Hushai said to Absalom, “No; but whomever Yahweh, and this people, and all the men of Israel have chosen, I will be his, and I will stay with him. ¹⁹ Again, whom should I serve? Shouldn’t I serve in the presence of his son? As I have served in your father’s presence, so I will be in your presence.”

²⁰ Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your counsel what we shall do.”

²¹ Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.”

²² So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel. ²³ The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the inner sanctuary of God. All the counsel of Ahithophel both was like this with David and with Absalom.

17 Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight. ² I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will make him afraid. All the people who are with him will flee. I will strike the king only, ³ and I will bring back all the people to you. The man whom you seek is as if all returned. All the people shall be in peace.”

⁴ The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel. ⁵ Then Absalom said, “Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let’s hear likewise what he says.”

⁶ When Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, “Ahithophel has spoken like this. Shall we do what he says? If not, speak up.”

⁷ Hushai said to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.” ⁸ Hushai said moreover, “You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people. ⁹ Behold, he is now hidden in some pit, or in some other place. It will happen, when some of them have fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom!’ ¹⁰ Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men. ¹¹ But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person. ¹² So we will come on him in some place where he will be found, and we will light on him as the dew falls on the ground, then we will not leave so much as one of him and of all the men who are with him. ¹³ Moreover, if he has gone into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there isn’t one small stone found there.”

¹⁴ Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil on Absalom. ¹⁵ Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, “Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel that way; and I have counseled this way. ¹⁶ Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, ‘Don’t lodge tonight at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him.’”

¹⁷ Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying by En Rogel; and a female servant used to go and tell them; and they went and told king David. For they might not be seen to come into the city. ¹⁸ But a boy saw them, and told Absalom. Then they both went away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his court; and they went down there. ¹⁹ The woman took and spread the covering over the well’s mouth, and spread out crushed grain on it; and nothing was known. ²⁰ Absalom’s servants came to the woman to the house; and they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”

The woman said to them, “They have gone over the brook of water.”

When they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. ²¹ After they had departed, they came up out of the well, and went and told king David; and they said to David, “Arise and pass quickly over the water; for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you.”

²² Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they passed over the Jordan. By the morning light there lacked not one of them who had not gone over the Jordan. ²³ When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, arose, and went home, to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father. ²⁴ Then David came to Mahanaim. Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. ²⁵ Absalom set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab’s mother. ²⁶ Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead. ²⁷ When David had come to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, ²⁸ brought beds, basins, earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans, lentils, roasted grain, ²⁹ honey, butter, sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people who were with him, to eat; for they said, “The people are hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.”

18 David counted the people who were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. ² David sent the people out, a third part under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the people, “I will also surely go out with you myself.”

³ But the people said, “You shall not go out; for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. Therefore now it is better that you are ready to help us out of the city.”

⁴ The king said to them, “I will do what seems best to you.”

The king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. ⁵ The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom.” All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

⁶ So the people went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was in the forest of Ephraim. ⁷ The people of Israel were struck there before David’s servants, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men. ⁸ For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. ⁹ Absalom happened to meet David’s servants. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the sky and earth; and the mule that was under him went on. ¹⁰ A certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.”

¹¹ Joab said to the man who told him, “Behold, you saw it, and why didn’t you strike him there to the ground? I would have given you ten pieces of silver, and a sash.”

¹² The man said to Joab, “Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn’t stretch out my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Beware that no one touch the young man Absalom.’ ¹³ Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there is no matter hidden from the king), then you yourself would have set yourself against me.”

¹⁴ Then Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this with you.” He took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the middle of the oak. ¹⁵ Ten young men who bore Joab’s armor surrounded and struck Absalom, and killed him. ¹⁶ Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab held the people back. ¹⁷ They took Absalom and cast him into a great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones. Then all Israel fled, each to his own tent. ¹⁸ Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar which is in the king’s valley, for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in memory.” He called the pillar after his own name. It is called Absalom’s monument, to this day.

¹⁹ Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said, “Let me now run and carry the king news, how Yahweh has avenged him of his enemies.”

²⁰ Joab said to him, “You must not be the bearer of news today, but you must carry news another day. But today you must carry no news, because the king’s son is dead.”

²¹ Then Joab said to the Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen!” The Cushite bowed himself to Joab, and ran.

²² Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said yet again to Joab, “But come what may, please let me also run after the Cushite.”

Joab said, “Why do you want to run, my son, since you will have no reward for the news?”

²³ “But come what may,” he said, “I will run.”

He said to him, “Run!” Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite.

²⁴ Now David was sitting between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate to the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, a man running alone. ²⁵ The watchman cried, and told the king. The king said, “If he is alone, there is news in his mouth.” He came closer and closer.

²⁶ The watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the gatekeeper, and said, “Behold, a man running alone!”

The king said, “He also brings news.”

²⁷ The watchman said, “I think the running of the first one is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok.”

The king said, “He is a good man, and comes with good news.”

²⁸ Ahimaaz called, and said to the king, “All is well.” He bowed himself before the king with his face to the earth, and said, “Blessed is Yahweh your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted up their hand against my lord the king!”

²⁹ The king said, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?”

Ahimaaz answered, “When Joab sent the king’s servant, even me your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I don’t know what it was.”

³⁰ The king said, “Come and stand here.” He came, and stood still.

³¹ Behold, the Cushite came. The Cushite said, “News for my lord the king, for Yahweh has avenged you today of all those who rose up against you.”

³² The king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?”

The Cushite answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you to do you harm, be as that young man is.”

³³ The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son!”

19 Joab was told, “Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Absalom.” ² The victory that day was turned into mourning among all the people; for the people heard it said that day, “The king grieves for his son.”

³ The people sneaked into the city that day, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. ⁴ The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, “My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!”

⁵ Joab came into the house to the king, and said, “Today you have shamed the faces of all your servants, who today have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and of your daughters, and the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines; ⁶ in that you love those who hate you, and hate those who love you. For you have declared today that princes and servants are nothing to you. For today I perceive that if Absalom had lived, and we had all died today, then it would have pleased you well. ⁷ Now therefore arise, go out, and speak to comfort your servants; for I swear by Yahweh, if you don’t go out, not a man will stay with you this night. That would be worse to you than all the evil that has happened to you from your youth until now.”

⁸ Then the king arose, and sat in the gate. They told to all the people, saying, “Behold, the king is sitting in the gate.” All the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled every man to his tent. ⁹ All the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king delivered us out of the hand of our enemies, and he saved us out of the hand of the Philistines; and now he has fled out of the land from Absalom. ¹⁰ Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why don’t you speak a word of bringing the king back?”

¹¹ King David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, “Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, ‘Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? Since the speech of all Israel has come to the king, to return him to his house. ¹² You are my brothers. You are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring back the king?’ ¹³ Say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my bone and my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if you aren’t captain of the army before me continually instead of Joab.’” ¹⁴ He bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as one man; so that they sent to the king, saying, “Return, you and all your servants.”

¹⁵ So the king returned, and came to the Jordan. Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Jordan. ¹⁶ Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, who was of Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet king David. ¹⁷ There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of Saul’s house, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went through the Jordan in the presence of the king. ¹⁸ A ferry boat went to bring over the king’s household, and to do what he thought good. Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, when he had come over the Jordan. ¹⁹ He said to the king, “Don’t let my lord impute iniquity to me, or remember that which your servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart. ²⁰ For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore behold, I have come today as the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.”

²¹ But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed Yahweh’s anointed?”

²² David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should be adversaries to me today? Shall any man be put to death today in Israel? For don’t I know that I am king over Israel today?” ²³ The king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” The king swore to him.

²⁴ Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither groomed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace. ²⁵ When he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?”

²⁶ He answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself, that I may ride on it and go with the king,’ because your servant is lame. ²⁷ He has slandered your servant to my lord the king, but my lord the king is as an angel of God. Therefore do what is good in your eyes. ²⁸ For all my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right therefore have I yet that I should cry any more to the king?”

²⁹ The king said to him, “Why do you speak any more of your matters? I say, you and Ziba divide the land.”

³⁰ Mephibosheth said to the king, “Yes, let him take all, because my lord the king has come in peace to his own house.” ³¹ Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim; and he went over the Jordan with the king, to conduct him over the Jordan. ³² Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old. He had provided the king with sustenance while he stayed at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man. ³³ The king said to Barzillai, “Come over with me, and I will sustain you with me in Jerusalem.” ³⁴ Barzillai said to the king, “How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? ³⁵ I am eighty years old, today. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear the voice of singing men and singing women any more? Why then should your servant be a burden to my lord the king? ³⁶ Your servant would but just go over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? ³⁷ Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold, your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to you.”

³⁸ The king answered, “Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to you. Whatever you request of me, that I will do for you.”

³⁹ All the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. Then the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned to his own place. ⁴⁰ So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went over with him. All the people of Judah brought the king over, and also half the people of Israel. ⁴¹ Behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, “Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king, and his household, over the Jordan, and all David’s men with him?”

⁴² All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, “Because the king is a close relative to us. Why then are you angry about this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king’s cost? Or has he given us any gift?”

⁴³ The men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, “We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more claim to David than you. Why then did you despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king?” The words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.