The Second Book of Shemu'el, starting at chapter 16
{16:1} When David was a little past the top [of the ascent], behold,
Tziva the servant of Mefivoshet 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 Tziva, What do you mean by these? Tziva
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? Tziva said to the king, Behold, he abides
at Yerushalayim; for he said, Today will the house of Yisra'el restore
me the kingdom of my father. {16:4} Then said the king to Tziva,
Behold, all that pertains to Mefivoshet is yours. Tziva said, I do
obeisance; let me find favor in your sight, my lord, O king. {16:5}
When king David came to Bachurim, behold, a man of the family of the
house of Sha'ul came out, whose name was Shim`i, 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} Thus said
Shim`i 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 Sha'ul, in whose place you have reigned; and the LORD has delivered
the kingdom into the hand of Avshalom your son; and, behold, you are
[taken] in your own mischief, because you are a man of blood. {16:9}
Then said Avishai the son of Tzeru'yah 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 Tzeru'yah? 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 Avishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, who came
forth from my bowels, seeks my life: how much more [may] this
Binyamini now [do it]? let 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 requite me good for [his]
cursing of me this day. {16:13} So David and his men went by the way;
and Shim`i went along on the hill-side over against him, and cursed as
he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust. {16:14} The king, and
all the people who were with him, came weary; and he refreshed himself
there. {16:15} Avshalom, and all the people, the men of Yisra'el, came
to Yerushalayim, and Achitofel with him. {16:16} It happened, when
Hushai the Arki, David's friend, was come to Avshalom, that Hushai
said to Avshalom, [Long] live the king, [Long] live the king. {16:17}
Avshalom said to Hushai, Is this your kindness to your friend? Why
didn't you go with your friend? {16:18} Hushai said to Avshalom, No;
but whom the LORD, and this people, and all the men of Yisra'el have
chosen, his will I be, and with him will I abide. {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 said Avshalom to Achitofel, Give your counsel what we
shall do. {16:21} Achitofel said to Avshalom, Go in to your father's
concubines, that he has left to keep the house; and all Yisra'el will
hear that you are abhorred of your father: then will the hands of all
who are with you be strong. {16:22} So they spread Avshalom a tent on
the top of the house; and Avshalom went in to his father's concubines
in the sight of all Yisra'el. {16:23} The counsel of Achitofel, which
he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the oracle of God:
so was all the counsel of Achitofel both with David and with Avshalom.
{17:1} Moreover Achitofel said to Avshalom, Let me now choose out
twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this
night: {17:2} and I will come on him while he is weary and
weak-handed, and will make him afraid; and all the people who are with
him shall flee; and 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: [so] all the people shall be in shalom. {17:4} The saying
pleased Avshalom well, and all the Zakenim of Yisra'el. {17:5} Then
said Avshalom, Call now Hushai the Arki also, and let us hear likewise
what he says. {17:6} When Hushai was come to Avshalom, Avshalom spoke
to him, saying, Achitofel has spoken after this manner: shall we do
[after] his saying? if not, speak up. {17:7} Hushai said to Avshalom,
The counsel that Achitofel 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, as a bear robbed of
her cubs in the field; and your father is a man of war, and will not
lodge with the people. {17:9} Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in
some [other] place: and it will happen, when some of them are fallen
at the first, that whoever hears it will say, There is a slaughter
among the people who follow Avshalom. {17:10} Even he who is valiant,
whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all
Yisra'el knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are
with him are valiant men. {17:11} But I counsel that all Yisra'el be
gathered together to you, from Dan even to Be'er-Sheva, 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 gotten into a city,
then shall all Yisra'el bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it
into the river, until there not be one small stone found there.
{17:14} Avshalom and all the men of Yisra'el said, The counsel of
Hushai the Arki is better than the counsel of Achitofel. For the LORD
had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Achitofel, to the intent
that the LORD might bring evil on Avshalom. {17:15} Then said Hushai
to Tzadok and to Avyatar the [1>]Kohanim[<1], Thus and thus did
Achitofel counsel Avshalom and the Zakenim of Yisra'el; and thus and
thus have I counseled. {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 Yonatan and Achima`atz were
staying by `En-Rogel; and a maid-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 Avshalom: and they went
both of them away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bachurim,
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 strewed
bruised grain thereon; and nothing was known. {17:20} Avshalom's
servants came to the woman to the house; and they said, Where are
Achima`atz and Yonatan? 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 Yerushalayim. {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 you, and pass quickly over the
water; for thus has Achitofel counseled against you. {17:22} Then
David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they passed
over the Yarden: by the morning light there lacked not one of them who
had not gone over the Yarden. {17:23} When Achitofel saw that his
counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and arose, and got
him 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 Machanayim. Avshalom passed over the Yarden, he and all
the men of Yisra'el with him. {17:25} Avshalom set `Amasa over the
host instead of Yo'av. Now `Amasa was the son of a man, whose name was
Yitra the Yisra'elite, who went in to Avigayil the daughter of
Nachash, sister to Tzeru'yah, Yo'av's mother. {17:26} Yisra'el and
Avshalom encamped in the land of Gil`ad. {17:27} It happened, when
David was come to Machanayim, that Shovi the son of Nachash of Rabbah
of the children of `Ammon, and Makhir the son of `Ammi'el of Lodebar,
and Barzillai the Gil`adite of Roglim, {17:28} brought beds, and
basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and meal, and
parched [grain], and beans, and lentils, and parched [pulse], {17:29}
and honey, and butter, and 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 Yo'av, and a third
part under the hand of Avishai the son of Tzeru'yah, Yo'av'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, What seems you best I will do. The king stood by the gate-side,
and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. {18:5} The
king commanded Yo'av and Avishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my
sake with the young man, even with Avshalom. All the people heard when
the king gave all the captains charge concerning Avshalom. {18:6} So
the people went out into the field against Yisra'el: and the battle
was in the forest of Efrayim. {18:7} The people of Yisra'el 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} Avshalom
happened to meet the servants of David. Avshalom 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
[1>]eretz[<1]; and the mule that was under him went on. {18:10} A
certain man saw it, and told Yo'av, and said, Behold, I saw Avshalom
hanging in an oak. {18:11} Yo'av said to the man who told him, Behold,
you saw it, and why didn't you strike him there to the ground? and I
would have given you ten [pieces of] silver, and a sash. {18:12} The
man said to Yo'av, 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 charged you and Avishai and
Ittai, saying, Beware that none touch the young man Avshalom. {18:13}
Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there is no
matter hid from the king), then you yourself would have set yourself
against [me]. {18:14} Then said Yo'av, I may not wait thus with you.
He took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of
Avshalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. {18:15} Ten
young men who bore Yo'av's armor compassed about and struck Avshalom,
and killed him. {18:16} Yo'av blew the [2>]shofar[<2], and the people
returned from pursuing after Yisra'el; for Yo'av held back the people.
{18:17} They took Avshalom, and cast him into the great pit in the
forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones: and all
Yisra'el fled everyone to his tent. {18:18} Now Avshalom 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:
and he called the pillar after his own name; and it is called
Avshalom's monument, to this day. {18:19} Then said Achima`atz the son
of Tzadok, Let me now run, and bear the king news, how that the LORD
has avenged him of his enemies. {18:20} Yo'av said to him, You shall
not be the bearer of news this day, but you shall bear news another
day; but this day you shall bear no news, because the king's son is
dead. {18:21} Then said Yo'av to the Kushite, Go, tell the king what
you have seen. The Kushite bowed himself to Yo'av, and ran. {18:22}
Then said Achima`atz the son of Tzadok yet again to Yo'av, But come
what may, Please let me also run after the Kushite. Yo'av said, Why
will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the
news? {18:23} But come what may, [said he], I will run. He said to
him, Run. Then Achima`atz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the
Kushite. {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 be alone,
there is news in his mouth. He came apace, and drew near. {18:26} The
watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the
porter, and said, Behold, [another] man running alone. The king said,
He also brings news. {18:27} The watchman said, I think the running of
the foremost is like the running of Achima`atz the son of Tzadok. The
king said, He is a good man, and comes with good news. {18:28}
Achima`atz called, and said to the king, All is well. He bowed himself
before the king with his face to the [3>]eretz[<3], and said, Blessed
be 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 Avshalom? Achima`atz answered, When Yo'av 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 Kushite
came; and the Kushite 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 Kushite, Is it well with the young man Avshalom?
The Kushite answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all who
rise up against you to do you hurt, be as that young man is. {18:33}
The king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and
wept: and as he went, thus he said, my son Avshalom, my son, my son
Avshalom! would I had died for you, Avshalom, my son, my son!
________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] {17:15} priests
[1] {18:9} earth
[2] {18:16} trumpet
[3] {18:28} earth
________________________________________________________________________
The Hebrew Names Version of the World English Bible is in the Public
Domain. Typo reports are welcome at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please see
http://eBible.org/bible/hnv for updates and editing status.
___
You are getting this message because you subscribed to this mailing
list at a web site or via Majordomo.
To unsubscribe, please go to http://ebible.org/subscribe.htm OR send
email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe hnv" in the
message body.
