For you are God, O Sovereign Lord. Your words are truth, and you have promised these good things to your servant.

Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David.

Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife.

Nevertheless, because you have shown utter contempt for the word of the Lord by doing this, your child will die.”

and sent word through Nathan the prophet that they should name him Jedidiah (which means “beloved of the Lord”), as the Lord had commanded.

Absalom followed Ahithophel’s advice, just as David had done. For every word Ahithophel spoke seemed as wise as though it had come directly from the mouth of God.

He has probably already hidden in some pit or cave. And when he comes out and attacks and a few of your men fall, there will be panic among your troops, and the word will spread that Absalom’s men are being slaughtered.

Joab Rebukes the King

Word soon reached Joab that the king was weeping and mourning for Absalom.

Then Amasa convinced all the men of Judah, and they responded unanimously. They sent word to the king, “Return to us, and bring back all who are with you.”

David’s Last Words

These are the last words of David: “David, the son of Jesse, speaks— David, the man who was raised up so high, David, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, David, the sweet psalmist of Israel.

“The Spirit of the Lord speaks through me; his words are upon my tongue.

The next morning the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, who was David’s seer. This was the message: