And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt: for all Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they who are with him are valiant men.

So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falleth on the ground: and of him and of all the men that are with him there shall not be left so much as one.

[Even] if he withdraws to a city, all Israel will bring up ropes to that city, and they will drag him away to the valley until there [is] not even a pebble to be found."

Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him.

And a boy will see them and be will announce to Absalom; and they two will go quickly and will come to the house of a man in Bahurim, and to him a well In his enclosure; and they will go down there,

After they had gone, Ahimaaz and Jonathan climbed out of the well and went and informed King David. They told him, “Get up and immediately ford the river, for Ahithophel has given this advice against you.”

Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over Jordan: by the morning light there lacked not one of them that had not gone over Jordan.

And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.

Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.

Absalom and the Israelis with him camped in the territory of Gilead.

brought bedding, basins, and pottery utensils. They also brought food for David and all who were with him, including wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils,

And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of cows, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.

And David numbered the people that were with him, and set over them captains of thousands and captains of hundreds.

And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was suspended between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.

One of the men saw him and informed Joab. He said, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!”

And Joab said to the man that told him, And behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a girdle.

And if I had falsely put him to death (and nothing may be kept secret from the king), you would have had nothing to do with me.

And ten young men that bore Joab's armor compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him.

And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him: and all Israel fled every one to his tent.

And Absalom took and set up for him in his living, a pillar in the valley of the king; for he said, Not to me a son to call my name to mind: and he will call the pillar by his name, and he will call it The Hand of Absalom, even to this day.

Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear the king tidings, how that the LORD hath avenged him of his enemies.

And Joab said to him, Thou shalt not bear tidings this day, but thou shalt bear tidings another day: but this day thou shalt bear no tidings, because the king's son is dead.

"Please," Zadok's son Ahimaaz continued, "No matter what happens, let me follow the Ethiopian!" Joab asked him, "Why this request to run, my son? There's no reward in it for you."

But however, said he, let me run. And he said to him, Run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and outran Cushi.

And the king said to him, Turn aside, and stand here. And he turned aside, and stood still.

And king David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak unto the elders of Judah, saying, Why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house? seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the king, to bring him to his house.

And, unto Amasa, shall ye say, Art not, thou, my bone and my flesh? So, let God do to me, and, so, let him add, if thou become not, prince of the army, before me continually, instead of Joab.

By doing things like this, he persuaded all the men of Judah to unite in support of him. They sent the king this message: "Come on back, you and all of your army!"

So the king returned and came to the Jordan River. Now the people of Judah had come to Gilgal to meet the king and to help him cross the Jordan.

The men of Judah went out as far as Gilgal to greet the king and escort him across the Jordan River while Gera's son Shimei, a descendant of Benjamin from Bahurim, accompanied them to meet King David.

And there were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went over Jordan before the king.

And there went over a boat to carry over the king's household and to do him pleasure. And Shimei the son of Gera fell before the king, as he was come over Jordan,

and said to him, “My lord, don’t hold me guilty, and don’t remember your servant’s wrongdoing on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart.

Therefore the king said to Shimei, Thou shalt not die. And the king swore to him.

And it came to pass, when he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said to him, Why didst thou not go with me, Mephibosheth?

And he said in answer, Because of the deceit of my servant, my lord king: for I, your servant, said to him, You are to make ready an ass and on it I will go with the king, for your servant has not the use of his feet.

And the king said to him, Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land.

And Mephibosheth said to the king, Yes, let him take all, forasmuch as my lord the king hath come again in peace to his own house.

And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim, and went over Jordan with the king, to conduct him over Jordan.

Let thy servant, I pray thee, return again, that I may die in my own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and of my mother. But behold thy servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to thee.

And the king answered, Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to thee: and whatever thou shalt require of me, that will I do for thee.

And all the people went over Jordan. And when the king had come over, the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned to his own place.

Then the king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him: and all the people of Judah conducted the king, and also half the people of Israel.

And behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to him, Why have our brethren the men of Judah stolen thee away, and have brought the king, and his household, and all David's men with him, over Jordan?

So all the men of Israel, turning away from David, went after Sheba, the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah were true to their king, going with him from Jordan as far as Jerusalem.

And when David was come to his house to Jerusalem, he took the ten wives his concubines that he had left behind him to keep the house, and put them in ward and ministered all things unto them: but lay no more with them. And so they were enclosed unto the day of the death of them, and lived a widow's life.

So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah: but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him.

And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom: take thou thy lord's servants, and pursue him, lest he get for himself fortified cities, and escape us.

And there went out after him Joab's men, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men: and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.

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 a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins in its sheath; and as he went forth it fell out.

And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him.

But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand: so he smote him in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died. So Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.

And one of Joab's men stood by him, and said, He that favoreth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab.

And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by him stood still.

When he had removed him out of the highway, every man passed on, after Joab, to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.

And he went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and to Beth-maachah, and all the Berites: and they were assembled, and went also after him.

And they came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maachah, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench: and all the people that were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down.

a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen! Listen! Please tell Joab to come here and let me speak with him.”

And when he was come near to her, the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he answered, I am he. Then she said to him, Hear the words of thy handmaid. And he answered, I do hear.

The matter is not so: but a man of mount Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, hath lifted up his hand against the king, even against David: deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said to Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall.

And the Gibeonites said to him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.

And they said unto the king, "The man that consumed and imagined to bring us to nought, him we ought to destroy, that nought of him continue in any of the coasts of Israel.

Moreover, the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David became faint.

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succored him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, Thou shalt go out no more with us to battle, that thou mayest not extinguish the light of Israel.

And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah the brother of David slew him.

And David spoke to the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul:

The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my preserver; thou savest me from violence.

As I am praising him, I will call out to the LORD, and I will be saved from my enemies.

And the earth will shake and tremble, The foundation of the heavens will be disturbed, And they will shake, for it kindled to him.

Smoke went up from his nostrils and fire from his mouth. Burning coals devoured, they burned from him.

And he made darkness pavilions around him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.

Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled.

“The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands He has rewarded me.

I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from my iniquity.

On him who has mercy you will have mercy; to the upright you will be upright;

As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

“God is my strong fortress;
He sets the blameless in His way.

Thou wilt fasten me together with strength for the war, Thou wilt subdue under me him rising up against me.

These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Joseb-Bassebeth, Tachkemonite the chief of the captains: he was Adino the Eznite; he fought against eight hundred, slain by him at one time.

And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there assembled to battle, and the men of Israel had gone away:

He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand adhered to the sword: and the LORD wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to plunder.

And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were collected into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentils: and the people fled from the Philistines.

stood in the midst of the said ground, and defended it and slew the Philistines. And the LORD gave him a great victory.

And Abishai Joab's brother, son of Zeruiah, he the head of the three. And he raised up his spear against three hundred wounded, and to him a name among the three.

And he slew an Egyptian, a goodly man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and slew him with his own spear.

These did Benaiah son of Jehoida, and to him a name among the three mighty.

He was more honorable than the thirty, but he attained not to the first three. And David set him over his guard.

Later, God's anger blazed forth against Israel, so he incited David to move against them by telling him, "Go take a census of Israel and Judah."

For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.

And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, I have sinned greatly in what I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come upon thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thy enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? Now consider, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.

And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.

And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, rear an altar to the LORD in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

So David went up as Gad instructed him to do, according to the Lord's instructions.

And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming towards him: And Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.

and asked him, "Why has your majesty the king come to his servant?" David replied, "To purchase your threshing floor and to build an altar to the LORD, so the pestilence can be averted from the people."

And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good to him: behold, here are oxen for burnt-sacrifice, and threshing-instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood.