The word of Abner {came to} the elders of Israel, saying, "{For quite some time} you were seeking David as king over you.

{For some time}, when Saul was king over us, {you were leading Israel in and out}. Yahweh had said to you, 'You shall be the shepherd of my people Israel, and you will be the leader over Israel.'"

{It came about in the spring}, at the time {kings} go out, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel. They ravaged all of the {Ammonites} and besieged Rabbah, but David [was] remaining in Jerusalem.

So Joab sent to Tekoa and took from there a wise woman, and he said to her, "Please pretend to mourn and put on garments of mourning. You should not anoint yourself [with] oil, and you must act like this woman who has been mourning over the dead for {a long time}.

So Absalom sent for Joab, [in order that he] send him to the king, but he was not willing to go to him. He sent again a second [time], but he [was] not willing to go.

Then Hushai said to Absalom, "The counsel that Ahithophel gave [is] not good {at this time}."

Now he has hidden himself in one of the caves or in one of the places. At the moment he falls on them the first time, {whoever hears} the report will say, 'There has been a defeat among the people who follow after Absalom.'

So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he tarried more than the appointed time which he had set for him.

Then three of the thirty leaders went down and came to David {at the time of the harvest} to the cave of Adullam, while a group of [the] Philistines [were] camping in the valley of [the] Rephaim.

Now at that time, David [was] in the stronghold, and a garrison of [the] Philistines [was] in Bethlehem at that [same] time

Then Yahweh sent a plague into Israel from the morning {until the agreed time}, and from the people from Dan to Beersheba, seventy thousand men died.