The next day, a man escaped from Saul's camp! With torn clothes and dirty hair, he approached David, fell to the ground, and bowed down to him.

So Joab approached the king and asked him, "What have you done? Look, Abner came to you! What's this? You sent him away? He's long gone now!

You know Ner's son Abner came to mislead you, to learn your troop movements, and to learn everything you're doing!"

When David returned to bless his household, Saul's daughter Michal came out to meet him and called out, "How the king of Israel honored himself today by undressing himself right in front of his women staff members, just like any pervert would dare to expose himself!"

But later that same night, this message came to Nathan from the LORD:

When Arameans came from Damascus to help King Hadadezer of Zobah, David killed 22,000 of them.

When the men of the city came out to fight Joab, some of David's army staff members fell, and Uriah the Hittite died, too.

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to visit him, Amnon asked the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make some of her bread especially for me, so she can feed it to me personally."

While they were still on the road, this rumor came to David: "Absalom has struck down all of the king's sons and none of them has survived."

So when Joab approached the king and told him what Absalom had said, he summoned Absalom, who then came to the king and fell to the ground on his face in front of him. Then the king kissed Absalom.

By doing all of this to anyone who came to the king for a hearing, Absalom stole the loyalty of the men of Israel.

Look! I'll camp at the wilderness fords until you send word to inform me."

When they arrived at the great stone that is in Gibeon, Amasa came out to meet them. Joab was dressed in a soldier's uniform, over which was a belt that fastened a sword sheath to his thigh. As he walked forward, the sword was exposed.

Joab came over and the woman asked him, "Are you Joab?" "I am," he answered. So she told him, "Listen to what your servant has to say!" "I'm listening," he replied.

But Zeruiah's son Abishai came to David's aid, attacked the Philistine, and killed him. After this, David's army told him, "You're not going out anymore with us to battle, so Israel's beacon won't be extinguished!"

Foreigners came cringing to me; they obeyed as soon as they heard me.

Before David arose the next morning, this message from the LORD came to Gad, David's seer: