Beginning
19 And it was told to Joab, “Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Absalom.”
2 Therefore, the victory of that day was turned into mourning for all the people. For the people heard say that day, “The king sorrows for his son.”
3 And the people went that day into the city, secretly, as ashamed people when they hide themselves while fleeing in battle.
4 So the king hid his face. And the king cried with a loud voice, “My son Absalom! Absalom, my son! My son!”
5 Then Joab came into the house, to the king, and said, “This day you have shamed the faces of all your servants who have saved your life this day, 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 your enemies and hate your friends. For this day you have declared that you regard neither your princes nor servants. Therefore, this day I perceive that if Absalom had lived, and we all had died this day, that then it would have pleased you well.
7 “Now, therefore, up! Come out and speak comfortably to your servants. For I swear by the LORD, unless you come out, there will not be one man stay with you this night! And that will be worse for you than all the evil that has fallen on you from your youth until now!”
8 Then the king arose and sat in the gate. And they declared to all the people, saying, “Behold, the king sits in the gate!” And all the people came before the king (for Israel had fled, each man to his tent).
9 Then all the people were quarreling throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king saved us out of the hand of our enemies, and he delivered us out of the hand of the Philistines, and now he has fled out of the land for Absalom!
10 “And Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle! Therefore, why are you so slow to bring the king back?”
11 But King David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar, the priests, saying, “Speak to the elders of Judah, and say, ‘Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house, since the saying of all Israel has come to the king, to his house?
12 ‘You are my brethren. My bones and my flesh are yours. Why, then, are you the last who bring the king back?’
13 “Also, say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me and more also if you are not captain of the army to me forever in the room of Joab!’”
14 So he turned the hearts of all the men of Judah, as of one man. Therefore, they sent to the king, saying, “Return with all your servants.”
15 So the king returned and came to Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal, to go meet the king and to cross over Jordan with him.
16 And Shimei, the son of Gera, the son of Benjamin (who was from Bahurim) hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet king David,
17 and a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the House of Saul and his fifteen sons and twenty servants with him. And they went over Jordan before the king.
18 And a boat went over to carry over the king’s household, and to bring him pleasure. Then Shimei, the son of Gera, fell before the king after he had come over Jordan,
19 and said to the king, “Do not let my lord think me guilty, or remember the thing that your servant did wickedly when my lord the king departed out of Jerusalem, so that the king would take it to heart.
20 “For your servant knows that I have done amiss. Therefore, behold, I am the first this day, of all the House of Joseph, who has come to go down to meet my lord the king.”
21 But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, answered and said, “Shall not Shimei die for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed?”
22 And David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that this day you should be adversaries to me? Shall there any man die this day in Israel? For do not I know that I am this day king over Israel?”
23 Therefore, the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king swore to him.
24 And Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king, and had neither washed his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes, from the time the king departed until he returned in peace.
25 And when he had come to Jerusalem, and met the king, the king said to him, “Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?”
26 And he answered, “My lord the king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, ‘I would have my donkey saddled, to ride on it to go with the king,’ because your servant is lame.
27 “And he has accused your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is as an angel of God. Therefore, do your pleasure.
28 “For all my father’s House were but dead men before my lord the king, yet you sat your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right, therefore, do I still have to cry anymore to the king?”
29 And the king said to him, “Why do you speak any more of your matters? I have said, ‘You and Ziba divide the lands.’”
30 And Mephibosheth said to the king, “Yes. Let him take it all, seeing my lord the king has come home in peace.”
31 Then Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim and went over Jordan with the king, to send him over Jordan.
32 Now Barzillai was a very aged man, eighty years old. And he had provided the king with supplies while he sojourned in Mahanaim. For he was a man of very great substance.
33 And the king said to Barzillai, “Come over with me, and I will feed you with me in Jerusalem.”
34 And Barzillai said to the king, “How long have I to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?
35 “I am this day eighty years old, and can I discern between good or evil? Has your servant any taste in what I eat, or in that I drink? Can I hear anymore the voice of singing men and women? Why, then, should your servant be a further burden to my lord the king?
36 “Your servant will go a little way over Jordan with the king. And why would the king repay me with such a reward?
37 “Please let your servant turn back again, so that I may die in my own city and be buried in the grave of my father and of my mother. But behold your servant Chimham. Let him go with my lord the king and do with him what shall please you.”
38 And the king answered, “Chimham shall go with me, and I will do with him that with which you shall be content. And whatever you shall require of me, that will I do for you.”
39 So all the people went over Jordan. And the king passed over. And the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him. And he returned to his own place.
40 Then the king went to Gilgal, and Chimham went with him. And all the people of Judah crossed over with the king, and also half the people of Israel.
41 And behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, “Why have our brethren, the men of Judah, stolen you away, and have brought the king and his household and all David’s men with him over Jordan?”
42 And all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, “Because the king is a close relative to us. And why now are you angry for this matter? Have we eaten at the king’s expense? Or have we taken any bribes?”
43 And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, “We have ten parts in the king, and have also more right to David than you. Why then did you despise us, so that our advice would not be first had in restoring our king?” And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.
20 Then a wicked man came there named Sheba, the son of Bichri, a man of Benjamin. And he blew the trumpet, and said, “We have no part in David! Nor have we inheritance in the son of Ishai! Every man to his tent, O Israel!”
2 So every man of Israel went from David and followed Sheba, the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah clung fast to their king, from Jordan to Jerusalem.
3 Then, when David came to his house, to Jerusalem, the king took the ten women (his concubines) whom he had left behind him to keep the house and put them in ward and fed them. But he no longer lay with them. But they were enclosed until the days of their deaths, living in widowhood.
4 Then the king said to Amasa, “Assemble the men of Judah for me within three days. And be present here yourself.”
5 So Amasa went to assemble Judah. But he took longer than the time which had been appointed to him.
6 Then David said to Abishai, “Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord’s servants and follow after him, lest he get himself walled cities and escapes us.”
7 And Joab’s men went out after him, and also the Cherethites and the Pelethites and all the mighty men. And they departed out of Jerusalem, to follow after Sheba the son of Bichri.
8 When they were at the great stone (which is in Gibeon), Amasa went before them. And Joab’s garment that he had put on was girded to him. And upon it was a sword, girded, which hung on his loins in the sheath. And as he went, it would fall out.
9 And Joab said to Amasa, “Are you in good health, my brother?” And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand, to kiss him.
10 But Amasa took no notice of the sword that was in Joab’s hand. For with it, he struck him in the fifth rib, and poured out his bowels to the ground, and did not strike him a second time. So, he died. Then Joab and Abishai, his brother, followed after Sheba the son of Bichri.
11 And one of Joab’s men stood by him, and said, “He who favors Joab, and he who is of David’s part, let him get behind Joab.”
12 And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the road. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the road, into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, because he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.
13 When he was removed out of the road, every man got behind Joab, to follow after Sheba the son of Bichri.
14 And he went through all the tribes of Israel: to Abel and Beth Maachah and all of Berim. And they gathered together and also got behind him.
15 So they came and besieged him in Abel, near Beth Maachah. And they cast up a siege mount against the city. And its people stood on the rampart. And all the people who were with Joab destroyed and cast down the wall.
16 Then a wise woman cried out of the city, “Hear! Hear! Please say to Joab, ‘Come here, so that I may speak with you.’”
17 And when he came near to her, the woman said, “Are you Joab?” And he answered, “Yes.” And she said to him, “Hear the words of your handmaid.” And he answered, “I do hear.”
18 Then she spoke this: “They spoke in the old time, saying, ‘They should ask of Abel.’ And so, they have continued.
19 “I am of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. And you go about to destroy a city, and a mother, in Israel. Why will you devour the inheritance of the LORD?”
20 And Joab answered, and said, “May it never be! May it never be that I should devour or destroy it!”
21 “The matter is not so! But a man of Mount Ephraim (Sheba the son of Bichri, by name) has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Deliver only him to us, and I will depart from the city.” And the woman said to Joab, “Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.”
22 Then the woman went, with her wisdom, to all the people. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and cast it to Joab. Then he blew the trumpet and they retreated from the city, each man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem, to the king.
23 Then Joab was over all the army of Israel, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites,
24 and Adoram over the tribute, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud the Recorder.
25 And Sheva was Scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
26 And also, Ira the Jairite was chief minister to David.
21 Then there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David asked counsel of the LORD. And the LORD answered: “It is for Saul, and for his bloody House, because he killed the [c]Gibeonites.”
2 Then the king called the Gibeonites, and said to them…(Now, the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but a remnant of the Amorites, with whom the children of Israel had sworn peace. But Saul sought to kill them for his zeal toward the children of Israel and Judah.)
3 And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make the atonement, so that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?”
4 The Gibeonites then answered him, “We will have no silver or gold from Saul, nor from his house. Nor shall you kill any man in Israel for us.” And he said, “Whatever you say, that will I do for you.”
5 Then they answered the king, “The man who consumed us, and who imagined evil against us, so that we have been destroyed from remaining in any territory of Israel,
6 “let seven men of his sons be delivered to us. And we will hang them up to the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the LORD’s chosen.” And the king said, “I will give them.”
7 But the king had compassion on Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the LORD’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.
8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul (Armoni and Mephibosheth) and the five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai, the Meholathite.
9 And he delivered them to the hands of the Gibeonites, who hanged them on the mountain, before the LORD. So they died, seven altogether. And they were killed in the time of harvest, in the first days, and in the beginning of barley harvest.
10 Then Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and hung it up for herself upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them from the sky, and allowed neither the birds of the air to light on them by day nor beasts of the field by night.
11 And it was told to David what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
12 And David went and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan where the Philistines had hanged them when the Philistines had killed Saul in Gilboa.
13 So he brought the bones of Saul there, and the bones of Jonathan, his son. And they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.
14 And they buried the bones of Saul and of Jonathan, his son, in the country of Benjamin, in Zelah, in the grave of Kish, his father. And when they had performed all that the king had commanded, God was then appeased with the land.
15 Again, the Philistines had war with Israel. And David went down, and his servants with him. And they fought against the Philistines. And David fainted.
16 Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giants whose spears weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, girded a new sword and thought to kill David.
17 But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, helped him and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, saying, “You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the light of Israel.”
18 And after this, there was also a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then, Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the sons of the giants.
19 And there was yet another battle with the Philistines in Gob, where Elhanan, the son of Jaare-Oregim, a Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
20 Afterward, there was also a battle in Gath, where there was a man of stature, who had six fingers on every hand and six toes on every foot (twenty-four in number) who was also the son of giants.
21 And when he reviled Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimea, the brother of David, killed him.
22 These four were born to giants in Gath, and died by the hand of David, and by the hands of his servants.
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