The Second Book of Shemu'el, starting at chapter 19
{19:1} It was told Yo'av, Behold, the king weeps and mourns for
Avshalom. {19:2} The victory that day was turned into mourning to all
the people; for the people heard say that day, The king grieves for
his son. {19:3} The people got them by stealth that day into the city,
as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. {19:4}
The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, my
son Avshalom, Avshalom, my son, my son! {19:5} Yo'av came into the
house to the king, and said, You have shamed this day the faces of all
your servants, who this day 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; {19:6} in that you love those who hate you,
and hate those who love you. For you have declared this day, that
princes and servants are nothing to you: for this day I perceive that
if Avshalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it had
pleased you well. {19:7} Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak
comfortably to your servants; for I swear by the LORD, if you don't go
forth, there will not stay a man with you this night: and that will be
worse to you than all the evil that has happened to you from your
youth until now. {19:8} Then the king arose, and sat in the gate. They
told to all the people, saying, Behold, the king is sitting in the
gate: and all the people came before the king. Now Yisra'el had fled
every man to his tent. {19:9} All the people were at strife throughout
all the tribes of Yisra'el, saying, The king delivered us out of the
hand of our enemies, and he saved us out of the hand of the Pelishtim;
and now he is fled out of the land from Avshalom. {19:10} Avshalom,
whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why don't
you speak a word of bringing the king back? {19:11} King David sent to
Tzadok and to Avyatar the [1>]Kohanim[<1], saying, Speak to the
Zakenim of Yehudah, saying, Why are you the last to bring the king
back to his house? seeing the speech of all Yisra'el is come to the
king, [to bring him] to his house. {19:12} You are my brothers, you
are my bone and my flesh: why then are you the last to bring back the
king? {19:13} Say you 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 host before
me continually in the room of Yo'av. {19:14} He bowed the heart of all
the men of Yehudah, even as [the heart of] one man; so that they sent
to the king, [saying], Return you, and all your servants. {19:15} So
the king returned, and came to the Yarden. Yehudah came to Gilgal, to
go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Yarden. {19:16} Shim`i
the son of Gera, the Binyamini, who was of Bachurim, hurried and came
down with the men of Yehudah to meet king David. {19:17} There were a
thousand men of Binyamin with him, and Tziva the servant of the house
of Sha'ul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and
they went through the Yarden in the presence of the king. {19:18}
There went over a ferry-boat to bring over the king's household, and
to do what he thought good. Shim`i the son of Gera fell down before
the king, when he was come over the Yarden. {19:19} He said to the
king, Don't let my lord impute iniquity to me, neither do you remember
that which your servant did perversely the day that my lord the king
went out of Yerushalayim, that the king should take it to his heart.
{19:20} For your servant does know that I have sinned: therefore,
behold, I am come this day the first of all the house of Yosef to go
down to meet my lord the king. {19:21} But Avishai the son of
Tzeru'yah answered, Shall Shim`i not be put to death for this, because
he cursed the LORD's anointed? {19:22} David said, What have I to do
with you, you sons of Tzeru'yah, that you should this day be
adversaries to me? shall there any man be put to death this day in
Yisra'el? for don't I know that I am this day king over Yisra'el?
{19:23} The king said to Shim`i, You shall not die. The king swore to
him. {19:24} Mefivoshet the son of Sha'ul came down to meet the king;
and he had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed
his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home
in shalom. {19:25} It happened, when he was come to Yerushalayim to
meet the king, that the king said to him, Why didn't you go with me,
Mefivoshet? {19:26} He answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived
me: for your servant said, I will saddle me a donkey, that I may ride
thereon, and go with the king; because your servant is lame. {19:27}
He has slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the
king is as an angel of God: do therefore what is good in your eyes.
{19:28} 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? {19:29} The king said to him, Why speak you any more of your
matters? I say, You and Tziva divide the land. {19:30} Mefivoshet said
to the king, yes, let him take all, because my lord the king is come
in shalom to his own house. {19:31} Barzillai the Gil`adite came down
from Roglim; and he went over the Yarden with the king, to conduct him
over the Yarden. {19:32} Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even
eighty years old: and he had provided the king with sustenance while
he lay at Machanayim; for he was a very great man. {19:33} The king
said to Barzillai, Come you over with me, and I will sustain you with
me in Yerushalayim. {19:34} 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
Yerushalayim? {19:35} I am this day eighty years old: can I discern
between good and bad? can your servant taste what I eat or what I
drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women?
why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?
{19:36} Your servant would but just go over the Yarden with the king:
and why should the king recompense it me with such a reward? {19:37}
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 Kemoham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him
what shall seem good to you. {19:38} The king answered, Kemoham shall
go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to
you: and whatever you shall require of me, that will I do for you.
{19:39} All the people went over the Yarden, and the king went over:
and the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned to his
own place. {19:40} So the king went over to Gilgal, and Kemoham went
over with him: and all the people of Yehudah brought the king over,
and also half the people of Yisra'el. {19:41} Behold, all the men of
Yisra'el came to the king, and said to the king, Why have our brothers
the men of Yehudah stolen you away, and brought the king, and his
household, over the Yarden, and all David's men with him? {19:42} All
the men of Yehudah answered the men of Yisra'el, Because the king is a
close relative to us: why then are you angry for this matter? have we
eaten at all at the king's cost? or has he given us any gift? {19:43}
The men of Yisra'el answered the men of Yehudah, and said, We have ten
parts in the king, and we have also more [right] in 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 Yehudah were
fiercer than the words of the men of Yisra'el.
{20:1} There happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was
Sheva, the son of Bikhri, a Binyamini: and he blew the [1>]shofar[<1],
and said, We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in
the son of Yishai: every man to his tents, Yisra'el. {20:2} So all the
men of Yisra'el went up from following David, and followed Sheva the
son of Bikhri; but the men of Yehudah joined with their king, from the
Yarden even to Yerushalayim. {20:3} David came to his house at
Yerushalayim; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he
had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them
with sustenance, but didn't go in to them. So they were shut up to the
day of their death, living in widowhood. {20:4} Then said the king to
`Amasa, Call me the men of Yehudah together within three days, and be
here present. {20:5} So `Amasa went to call [the men of] Yehudah
together; but he stayed longer than the set time which he had
appointed him. {20:6} David said to Avishai, Now will Sheva the son of
Bikhri do us more harm than did Avshalom: take your lord's servants,
and pursue after him, lest he get him fortified cities, and escape out
of our sight. {20:7} There went out after him Yo'av's men, and the
Kereti and the Peleti, and all the mighty men; and they went out of
Yerushalayim, to pursue after Sheva the son of Bikhri. {20:8} When
they were at the great stone which is in Giv`on, `Amasa came to meet
them. Yo'av was girded with his apparel of war that he had put on, and
thereon was a sash with a sword fastened on his loins in the sheath of
it; and as he went forth it fell out. {20:9} Yo'av said to `Amasa, Is
it well with you, my brother? Yo'av took `Amasa by the beard with his
right hand to kiss him. {20:10} But `Amasa took no heed to the sword
that was in Yo'av's hand: so he struck him therewith in the body, and
shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn't strike him again; and he
died. Yo'av and Avishai his brother pursued after Sheva the son of
Bikhri. {20:11} There stood by him one of Yo'av's young men, and said,
He who favors Yo'av, and he who is for David, let him follow Yo'av.
{20:12} `Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway.
When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried `Amasa
out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him, when
he saw that everyone who came by him stood still. {20:13} When he was
removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Yo'av, to
pursue after Sheva the son of Bikhri. {20:14} He went through all the
tribes of Yisra'el to Hevel, and to Beit-Ma`akha, and all the Beri`i:
and they were gathered together, and went also after him. {20:15} They
came and besieged him in Hevel of Beit-Ma`akha, and they cast up a
mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the
people who were with Yo'av battered the wall, to throw it down.
{20:16} Then cried a wise woman out of the city, "Hear, hear! Please
say to Yo'av, 'Come near here, that I may speak with you.'" {20:17} He
came near to her; and the woman said, Are you Yo'av? He answered, I
am. Then she said to him, Hear the words of your handmaid. He
answered, I do hear. {20:18} Then she spoke, saying, They were wont to
speak in old time, saying, They shall surely ask [counsel] at Hevel:
and so they ended [the matter]. {20:19} I am of those who are
peaceable and faithful in Yisra'el: you seek to destroy a city and a
mother in Yisra'el: why will you swallow up the inheritance of the
LORD? {20:20} Yo'av answered, Far be it, far be it from me, that I
should swallow up or destroy. {20:21} The matter is not so: but a man
of the hill-country of Efrayim, Sheva the son of Bikhri by name, has
lifted up his hand against the king, even against David; deliver him
only, and I will depart from the city. The woman said to Yo'av,
Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall. {20:22} Then
the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. They cut off the head
of Sheva the son of Bikhri, and threw it out to Yo'av. He blew the
[2>]shofar[<2], and they were dispersed from the city, every man to
his tent. Yo'av returned to Yerushalayim to the king. {20:23} Now
Yo'av was over all the host of Yisra'el; and Benayah the son of
Yehoiada was over the Kereti and over the Peleti; {20:24} and Adoram
was over the men subject to forced labor; and Yehoshafat the son of
Achilud was the recorder; {20:25} and Sheva was [3>]Sofer[<3]; and
Tzadok and Avyatar were [4>]Kohanim[<4]; {20:26} and also `Ira the
Ya'irite was chief minister to David.
{21:1} There was a famine in the days of David three years, year
after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, It
is for Sha'ul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the
Giv`onim. {21:2} The king called the Giv`onim, and said to them (now
the Giv`onim were not of the children of Yisra'el, but of the remnant
of the Amori; and the children of Yisra'el had sworn to them: and
Sha'ul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Yisra'el
and Yehudah); {21:3} and David said to the Giv`onim, What shall I do
for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the
inheritance of the LORD? {21:4} The Giv`onim said to him, It is no
matter of silver or gold between us and Sha'ul, or his house; neither
is it for us to put any man to death in Yisra'el. He said, What you
shall say, that will I do for you. {21:5} They said to the king, The
man who consumed us, and who devised against us, [that] we should be
destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Yisra'el, {21:6} let
seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to
the LORD in Gevah of Sha'ul, the chosen of the LORD. The king said, I
will give them. {21:7} But the king spared Mefivoshet, the son of
Yonatan the son of Sha'ul, because of the LORD's oath that was between
them, between David and Yonatan the son of Sha'ul. {21:8} But the king
took the two sons of Ritzpah the daughter of Ayah, whom she bore to
Sha'ul, Armoni and Mefivoshet; and the five sons of Mikhal the
daughter of Sha'ul, whom she bore to `Adri'el the son of Barzillai the
Mecholati: {21:9} He delivered them into the hands of the Giv`onim,
and they hanged them in the mountain before the LORD, and they fell
[all] seven together. They were put to death in the days of harvest,
in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest. {21:10} Ritzpah
the daughter of Ayah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the
rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them
from the sky; and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on
them by day, nor the animals of the field by night. {21:11} It was
told David what Ritzpah the daughter of Ayah, the concubine of Sha'ul,
had done. {21:12} David went and took the bones of Sha'ul and the
bones of Yonatan his son from the men of Yavesh-Gil`ad, who had stolen
them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Pelishtim had hanged
them, in the day that the Pelishtim killed Sha'ul in Gilboa; {21:13}
and he brought up from there the bones of Sha'ul and the bones of
Yonatan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.
{21:14} They buried the bones of Sha'ul and Yonatan his son in the
country of Binyamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they
performed all that the king commanded. After that God was entreated
for the land. {21:15} The Pelishtim had war again with Yisra'el; and
David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the
Pelishtim. David grew faint; {21:16} and Yishbi-Benov, who was of the
sons of the Rafa, the weight of whose spear was three hundred
[shekels] of brass in weight, he being girded with a new [sword],
thought to have slain David. {21:17} But Avishai the son of Tzeru'yah
helped him, and struck the Pelishti, and killed him. Then the men of
David swore to him, saying, You shall go no more out with us to
battle, that you don't quench the lamp of Yisra'el. {21:18} It came to
pass after this, that there was again war with the Pelishtim at Gov:
then Sibbekhai the Hushatite killed Saf, who was of the sons of the
Rafa. {21:19} There was again war with the Pelishtim at Gov; and
Elchanan the son of Ya`are-Oregim the Beit-Hallachmite killed Golyat
the Gittite's brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's
beam. {21:20} There was again war at Gat, where was a man of great
stature, who had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six
toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the Rafa.
{21:21} When he defied Yisra'el, Yonatan the son of Shim`i, David's
brother, killed him. {21:22} These four were born to the Rafa in Gat;
and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
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Footnotes:
[1] {19:11} priests
[1] {20:1} trumpet
[2] {20:22} trumpet
[3] {20:25} scribe
[4] {20:25} priests
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