David said to him, "Where did you come from?" He said to him, "I have escaped from the camp of Israel."

Then David said to him, "{How did things go}? Please tell me." He answered, "{When} the army fled from the battle, and many of the people fell; also, Saul and Jonathan his son died."

David grabbed [at] his clothes and tore them, [as did] all of the men who [were] with him.

From the blood of [the] slain, from the fat of [the] mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return {without effect}.

So David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-Gilead and said to them, "May you be blessed by Yahweh because you did this loyal love with your lord, with Saul, and you buried him.

So Asahel pursued Abner, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left from going after Abner.

Then Joab blew on the trumpet and all the people stopped, and they no longer pursued after Israel, and they did not fight with them again.

Saul had had a concubine, and her name [was] Rizpah the daughter of Aiah. Then [Ish-Bosheth] said to Abner, "Why {did you have sex with} my father's concubine?"

Then Joab went out from David, and he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from Bor Hasirah, but David did not know [it].

All the people noticed, and it [was] good in their eyes, as everything that the king did [was] good in the eyes of all the people.

Then the king said to his servants, "Did you not realize that a prince and a great man has fallen today in Israel?

So David did thus, just as Yahweh had commanded him, and he struck down [the] Philistines from Geba {all the way} to Gezer.

In all of my going about among all the {Israelites}, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, 'Why did you not build me a cedar house?'" '

So Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David. And he fell on his face and did obeisance. David said, "Mephibosheth," and he said, "{I am ready to serve you}."

Then he did obeisance and said, "What [is] your servant that you have paid attention to the dead dog like me?"

But Uriah slept [at] the entrance of the king's house with all the servants of his master and did not go down to his house.

They told David, "Uriah did not go down to his house." David said to Uriah, "[Are] you not coming from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?"

David invited him, and he ate and drank in his presence {so that he became drunk}, and he went out in the evening to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

if the anger of the king rises and he says to you, 'Why did you go near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from [atop] the wall?

Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerub-bosheth, if not a woman who threw an upper millstone on him from [atop] the wall and he died at Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?' Then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.'"

Though you did this in secret, I will do this thing before all of Israel {in broad daylight}!'"

The elders of his household stood over him to lift him up from the ground, but he [was] not willing, and he did not eat [any] food with them.

Absalom did not speak with Amnon {either bad or good}, for Absalom hated Amnon {over the matter when} he raped Tamar his sister.

So Absalom's servants did to Amnon just as Absalom commanded, and all the sons of the king got up, and each mounted his mule and fled.

So the Tekoite woman spoke to the king, and she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance. She said, "Help me, O king!"

In order {to change the situation}, your servant Joab did this thing. But my lord [has] wisdom, as the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all that [is] on the earth."

Joab fell with his face to the ground and did obeisance. And he blessed the king, and he said, "Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, [in] that the king has granted the request of his servant."

The king said, "Let him go over to his house, and he may not see my face." So Absalom went over to his house, and did not see the face of the king.

When he shaved his head, it would happen {every year}, which he did because [it was] heavy on him, he would shave it off and weigh the hair of his head: two hundred shekels {by the king's weight}.

Absalom lived in Jerusalem {two full years}, but he did not see the face of the king.

Absalom did like this to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment; so Absalom stole the hearts of the people of Israel.

Two hundred men from Jerusalem went with Absalom as invited guests, going in their innocence as they did not know anything.

Absalom said to Hushai, "This [is] your loyal love with your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?"

The battle there was spreading over the surface of all the land, and {the forest devoured more among the army than} the sword [did] on that day.

Then Joab said to the man who [was] telling him, "Look, [if] you saw, why did you not strike him down to the ground there? {I would have gladly given you} ten pieces of silver and a leather belt."

and he said to the king, "May not my lord hold me guilty, and may you not remember how your servant did wrong on the day that my lord the king went out from Jerusalem, by taking it to heart!

It happened that when he came to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, "Why did you not come with me, Mephibosheth?"

Then all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, "Because the king [is] my close relative! Why [are] you this angry over this matter? {Have we by any means eaten [anything] from the king? Did we take by any means anything that was not ours}?"

Then the people of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, "I have {ten times as much} in the king, moreover in David I have more than you. Why did you treat me with contempt {by not giving me first chance} to bring back my king?" But the words of the men of Judah [were] fiercer than the word of the men of Israel.

David went up to his house in Jerusalem, then the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to look after the house, and he put them {under confinement}. However, he provided for them, but {he did not sleep with them}. So they were confined until the day of their death, like a lifetime of widowhood.

Now Amasa was not on his guard against the sword that [was] in Joab's hand, and he struck him with it into the stomach, and his entrails poured out to the ground. He did not strike him again, and he died. Then Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bicri.

Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took the sackcloth, and she spread it for herself on the rock at the beginning of the harvest until water gushed forth on them from heaven, but she did not allow the birds of heaven to rest on them by day nor the animals of the field by night.

And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin at Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. They did all that the king had commanded, and afterward God was entreated for the land.

For all of his ordinances [were] before me, and I did not turn aside from his statutes.

I pursued those who hate me, and I destroyed them. I did not turn back until finishing them.

I wiped them out and I smashed them; they did not get up; they fell under my feet.

They looked out, but there was no deliverer, [even] to Yahweh, but he did not answer them.

He said, "Far be it from me before Yahweh that I should do this. [Is this not] the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?" So he [was] not willing to drink it. These things the three mighty warriors did.

Among the thirty, is it not that he [was] honored and became a commander for them? But he did not come up to the three

These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did and gained a name for himself among the three mighty warriors.

He [was] honored more than the thirty, but he did not come up to the three. David appointed him in charge of his bodyguard.

David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel destroying among the people, and he said, "Look, I have sinned and I have done wrong, but these sheep, what did they do? Please let your hand be against me and against the house of my father."