Now after the death of Saul, when David, having come back from the destruction of the Amalekites, had been in Ziklag for two days;

And David said to him, Where have you come from? And he said, I have come in flight from the tents of Israel.

Then he said to me, Come here to my side, and put me to death, for the pain of death has me in its grip but my life is still strong in me.

And till evening they gave themselves to sorrow and weeping, and took no food, weeping for Saul and for Jonathan, his son, and for the people of the Lord and for the men of Israel; because they had come to their end by the sword.

And David said to the young man who had given him the news, Where do you come from? And he said, I am the son of a man from a strange land; I am an Amalekite.

From the blood of the dead, from the fat of the strong, the bow of Jonathan was not turned back, the sword of Saul did not come back unused.

And he said, It is well; I will make an agreement with you, but on one condition, which is, that when you come before me, Saul's daughter Michal is to come with you; till she comes you will not see my face.

And Abner said to David, Now I will go, and make all Israel come to my lord the king, so that they may make an agreement with you, and your kingdom may be as wide as your heart's desire. Then David sent Abner away and he went in peace.

When Joab and his men came, news was given them that Abner, the son of Ner, had come to the king, who had let him go away again in peace.

And when Joab had come out from David, he sent men after Abner, and they overtook him at the water-spring of Sirah, and made him come back with them: but David had no knowledge of it.

May it come on the head of Joab and all his father's family: among the men of Joab's family may there ever be some who are diseased or lepers, or who do the work of women, or are put to the sword, or are wasted from need of food!

And the king said to his servants, Do you not see that a chief and a great man has come to his end today in Israel?

And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the people of the land: and they said to David, You will not come in here, but the blind and the feeble-footed will keep you out; for they said, David will not be able to come in here.

And that day David said, Whoever makes an attack on the Jebusites, let him go up by the water-pipe, and put to death all the blind and feeble-footed who are hated by David. And this is why they say, The blind and feeble-footed may not come into the house.

And David took more women and wives in Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron: and he had more sons and daughters.

And when David went for directions to the Lord, he said, You are not to go up against them in front; but make a circle round them from the back and come on them opposite the spice-trees.

And such was David's fear of the Lord that day, that he said, How may I let the ark of God come to me?

So David did not let the ark of the Lord come back to him to the town of David: but had it turned away and put into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

And when the time comes for you to go to rest with your fathers, I will put in your place your seed after you, the offspring of your body, and I will make his kingdom strong.

Truly you are great, O Lord God: there is no one like you and no other God but you, as is clear from everything which has come to our ears.

For you, O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, have clearly said to your servant, I will make you the head of a family of kings: and so it has come into your servant's heart to make this prayer to you.

When David had news of it, he sent men out with the purpose of meeting them on their way, for the men were greatly shamed: and the king said, Go to Jericho till your hair is long again, and then come back.

And he said, If the Aramaeans are stronger and get the better of me, then you are to come to my help; but if the children of Ammon get the better of you, I will come to your help.

And when word was given to David that Uriah had not gone down to his house, David said to Uriah, Have you not come from a journey? why did you not go down to your house?

Then David said to the man, Go and say to Joab, Do not let this be a grief to you; for one man may come to his death by the sword like another: put up an even stronger fight against the town, and take it: and do you put heart into him.

Now a traveller came to the house of the man of wealth, but he would not take anything from his flock or his herd to make a meal for the traveller who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and made it ready for the man who had come.

And David said to Nathan, Great is my sin against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord has put away your sin; death will not come on you.

But still, because you have had no respect for the Lord, death will certainly overtake the child who has newly come to birth.

But now that the child is dead there is no reason for me to go without food; am I able to make him come back to life? I will go to him, but he will never come back to me.

Then Jonadab said to him, Go to your bed, and let it seem that you are ill: and when your father comes to see you, say to him, Let my sister Tamar come and give me bread, and get the food ready before my eyes, so that I may see it and take it from her hand.

So Amnon went to bed and made himself seem ill: and when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, Please let my sister Tamar come and make me one or two cakes before my eyes, so that I may take food from her hand.

Then Amnon said to Tamar, Take the food and come into my bedroom, so that I may take it from your hand. So Tamar took the cakes she had made and went with them into her brother Amnon's bedroom.

And when she took them to give them to him, he put his arms round her and said, Come to bed, my sister.

Now after two full years, Absalom had men cutting the wool of his sheep in Baal-hazor, which is near Ephraim: and he sent for all the king's sons to come to his feast.

And Absalom came to the king and said, See now, your servant is cutting the wool of his sheep; will the king and his servants be pleased to come?

And come to the king and say these words to him. So Joab gave her words to say.

And I had two sons, and the two of them had a fight in the field, and there was no one to come between them, and one with a blow put the other to death.

And the king said, If anyone says anything to you, make him come to me, and he will do you no more damage.

Then she said, Let the king keep in mind the Lord your God, so that he who gives punishment for blood may be kept back from further destruction and that no one may send death on my son. And he said, By the living Lord, not a hair of your son's head will come to the earth.

For death comes to us all, and we are like water drained out on the earth, which it is not possible to take up again; and God will not take away the life of the man whose purpose is that he who has been sent away may not be completely cut off from him.

And now it is my fear of the people which has made me come to say these words to my lord the king: and your servant said, I will put my cause before the king, and it may be that he will give effect to my request.

And the king said to Joab, See now, I will do this thing: go then and Come back with the young man Absalom.

Then Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but he would not come to him: and he sent again a second time, but he would not come.

And Absalom's answer was, See, I sent to you saying, Come here, so that I may send you to the king to say, Why have I come back from Geshur? it would be better for me to be there still: let me now see the king's face, and if there is any sin in me, let him put me to death.

And Absalom got up early, morning after morning, and took his place at the side of the public meeting-place: and when any man had a cause which had to come to the king to be judged, then Absalom, crying out to him, said, What is your town? and he would say, Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.

And more than this, Absalom said, If only I was made judge in the land, so that every man who has any cause or question might come to me, and I would give a right decision for him!

For while I was living in Geshur in Aram, your servant made an oath, saying, If ever the Lord lets me come back to Jerusalem, I will give him worship in Hebron.

And David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, Come, let us go in flight, or not one of us will be safe from Absalom: let us go without loss of time, or he will overtake us quickly and send evil on us, and put the town to the sword.

And the king said to Zadok, Take the ark of God back into the town: if I have grace in the eyes of the Lord, he will let me come back and see it and his House again:

Now when David had come to the top of the slope, where they gave worship to God, Hushai the Archite came to him in great grief with dust on his head:

And have you not there Zadok and Abiathar the priests? so whatever comes to your ears from the king's house, give word of it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

See, they have with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, the son of Abiathar; by them you may send word to me of everything which comes to your ears.

And I will come up with him when he is tired and feeble, and make him full of fear: and all the people with him will go in flight; and I will make an attack on the king only:

And I will make all the people come back to you as a bride comes back to her husband: it is the life of only one man you are going after; so all the people will be at peace.

But my suggestion is that all Israel, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, comes together to you, a great army like the sands of the sea in number; and that you yourself go out among them.

Then we will come on him in some place, wherever he may be, falling on him as the dew comes on the earth: and of him and all the men who are with him not one will get away with his life.

So now send the news quickly to David, and say, Do not take your night's rest by the way across the river to the waste land, but be certain to go over; or the king and all the people with him will come to destruction.

Now when David had come to Mahanaim, Shobi, the son of Nahash of Rabbah, the Ammonite, and Machir, the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,

But the people said, It is better for you not to go out: for if we are put to flight, they will not give a thought to us, and if death overtakes half of us, it will be nothing to them: but you are of more value than ten thousand of us: so it is better for you to be ready to come to our help from this town.

Then Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, said to Joab again, Whatever may come of it, let me go after the Cushite. And Joab said, Why have you a desire to go, my son, seeing that you will get no reward for your news?

Whatever may come of it, he said, I will go. Then he said to him, Go. So Ahimaaz went running by the lowland road and overtook the Cushite.

Then the watchman saw another man running: and crying out in the direction of the door he said, Here is another man running by himself. And the king said, He, like the other, comes with news.

And the hearts of the men of Judah were moved like one man; so that they sent to the king, saying, Come back, with all your servants.

For your servant is conscious of his sin: and so, as you see, I have come today, the first of all the sons of Joseph, for the purpose of meeting my lord the king.

Now when he had come from Jerusalem to see the king, the king said to him, Why did you not come with me, Mephibosheth?

And Mephibosheth said, Let him take it all, now that my lord the king has come back to his house in peace!

And the king said to Barzillai, Come over with me, and I will take care of you in Jerusalem.

Let your servant now go back again, so that when death comes to me, it may be in my town and by the resting-place of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham: let him go with my lord the king, and do for him what seems good to you.

Then the men of Israel came to the king and said, Why have our countrymen of Judah taken you away in secret and come over Jordan with the king and all his family, because all his people are David's men?

Then a wise woman got up on the wall, and crying out from the town, said, Give ear, give ear; say now to Joab, Come near, so that I may have talk with you.

Then she said, In the old days, there was a saying, Let them put the question in Abel and in Dan, saying, Has what was ordered by men of good faith in Israel ever come to an end?

And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took haircloth, placing it on the rock as a bed for herself, from the start of the grain-cutting till rain came down on them from heaven; and she did not let the birds of the air come near them by day, or the beasts of the field by night.

The heavens were bent, so that he might come down; and it was dark under his feet.

They were crying out, but there was no one to come to their help: even to the Lord, but he gave them no answer.

Men of other countries will, with false hearts, put themselves under my authority: from the time when my name comes to their ears, they will be ruled by me.

They will be wasted away, they will come out of their secret places shaking with fear.

He makes me free from my haters: I am lifted up over those who come up against me: you have made me free from the violent man.

It is as the light of the morning, when the sun comes up, a morning without clouds; making young grass come to life from the earth

And David got up in the morning; now the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to make: let us come into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men.

And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To give you a price for your grain-floor, so that I may put up an altar to the Lord, and the disease may be stopped among the people.