The Second Book of Samuel, starting at chapter 16
{16:1} 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 bottle of wine. {16:2}
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 such as are
faint in the wilderness may drink. {16:3} 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.'"
{16:4} Then the king said to Ziba, "Behold, all that pertains to
Mephibosheth is yours."
Ziba said, "I do obeisance. Let me find favor in your sight, my
lord, O king."
{16:5} When king David came to Bahurim, behold, a man of the family
of the house of Saul came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera.
He came out, and cursed still as he came. {16:6} 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. {16:7}
Shimei said when he cursed, "Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and
base fellow! {16:8} The LORD has returned on you all the blood of the
house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned! the LORD 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!"
{16:9} 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." {16:10} The king said, "What have I to do with you, you
sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because the LORD has said to
him, 'Curse David;' who then shall say, 'Why have you done so?'"
{16:11} David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, "Behold, my
son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this
Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD has
invited him. {16:12} It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong
done to me, and that the LORD will repay me good for the cursing of me
today." {16:13} 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. {16:14} The king, and all the people
who were with him, came weary; and he refreshed himself there. {16:15}
Absalom, and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and
Ahithophel with him. {16:16} It happened, when Hushai the Archite,
David's friend, had come to Absalom, that Hushai said to Absalom,
"Long live the king! Long live the king!"
{16:17} Absalom said to Hushai, "Is this your kindness to your
friend? Why didn't you go with your friend?"
{16:18} Hushai said to Absalom, "No; but whomever the LORD, and this
people, and all the men of Israel have chosen, his will I be, and with
him I will stay. {16:19} 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 will I be in your presence."
{16:20} Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, "Give your counsel what we
shall do."
{16:21} 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."
{16:22} So they spread Absalom a tent on the top of the house; and
Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel.
{16:23} The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as
if a man inquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of
Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.
{17:1} Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Let me now choose
twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.
{17:2} I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will
make him afraid. All the people who are with him shall flee. I will
strike the king only; {17:3} 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."
{17:4} The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of
Israel. {17:5} Then Absalom said, "Now call Hushai the Archite also,
and let us hear likewise what he says."
{17:6} 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."
{17:7} Hushai said to Absalom, "The counsel that Ahithophel has
given this time is not good." {17:8} 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. {17:9}
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!' {17:10} 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. {17:11} 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. {17:12} So shall we come on him
in some place where he shall be found, and we will light on him as the
dew falls on the ground; and of him and of all the men who are with
him we will not leave so much as one. {17:13} Moreover, if he be gone
into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we
will draw it into the river, until there isn't one small stone found
there."
{17:14} Absalom and all the men of Israel said, "The counsel of
Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel." For the
LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the
intent that the LORD might bring evil on Absalom. {17:15} 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. {17:16} Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying,
'Don't lodge this night 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.'"
{17:17} 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. {17:18} 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. {17:19} The woman took and spread the
covering over the well's mouth, and spread out bruised grain on it;
and nothing was known. {17:20} 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. {17:21} It happened, after they had departed, that 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."
{17:22} 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. {17:23} When Ahithophel saw
that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and 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.
{17:24} Then David came to Mahanaim. Absalom passed over the Jordan,
he and all the men of Israel with him. {17:25} 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. {17:26} Israel and Absalom
encamped in the land of Gilead. {17:27} It happened, when David had
come to Mahanaim, that 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, {17:28} brought beds, basins,
earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans, lentils,
roasted grain, {17:29} 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, and weary, and thirsty, in the
wilderness."
{18:1} David numbered the people who were with him, and set captains
of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. {18:2} David sent
forth the people, 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 surely go forth with you myself also."
{18:3} But the people said, "You shall not go forth; 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."
{18:4} 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. {18:5} 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.
{18:6} So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the
battle was in the forest of Ephraim. {18:7} The people of Israel were
struck there before the servants of David, and there was a great
slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men. {18:8} 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. {18:9} Absalom
happened to meet the servants of David. 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. {18:10} A certain man
saw it, and told Joab, and said, "Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an
oak."
{18:11} 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."
{18:12} The man said to Joab, "Though I should receive a thousand
pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn't put forth my hand
against the king's son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and
Abishai and Ittai, saying, 'Beware that none touch the young man
Absalom.' {18:13} 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."
{18:14} 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 midst of the oak. {18:15} Ten
young men who bore Joab's armor surrounded and struck Absalom, and
killed him. {18:16} Joab blew the [1>]shofar[<1], and the people
returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab held back the people.
{18:17} They took Absalom, and cast him into the great pit in the
forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones. Then all
Israel fled everyone to his tent. {18:18} Now Absalom in his lifetime
had taken and reared up for himself the pillar, which is in the king's
dale; for he said, "I have no son to keep my name in memory." He
called the pillar after his own name; and it is called Absalom's
monument, to this day. {18:19} Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said,
"Let me now run, and bear the king news, how that the LORD has avenged
him of his enemies."
{18:20} Joab said to him, "You shall not be the bearer of news this
day, but you shall bear news another day. But today you shall bear no
news, because the king's son is dead."
{18:21} Then Joab said to the Cushite, "Go, tell the king what you
have seen!" The Cushite bowed himself to Joab, and ran.
{18:22} 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 that you will have
no reward for the news?"
{18:23} "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.
{18:24} 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. {18:25} 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.
{18:26} The watchman saw another man running; and the watchman
called to the porter, and said, "Behold, a man running alone!"
The king said, "He also brings news."
{18:27} 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."
{18:28} 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 the LORD your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted
up their hand against my lord the king!"
{18:29} 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."
{18:30} The king said, "Turn aside, and stand here." He turned
aside, and stood still.
{18:31} Behold, the Cushite came. The Cushite said, "News for my
lord the king; for the LORD has avenged you this day of all those who
rose up against you."
{18:32} 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."
{18:33} 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!"
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Footnotes:
[1] {18:16} or, trumpet
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