David continued questioning him, "How did things go? Please tell me!" He replied, "The army has fled the battlefield, many of the army are wounded or have died, and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead."

So I stood next to him and killed him, because I knew that he wouldn't live after he had fallen. I took the crown that had been on his head, along with the bracelet that had been on his arm, and I have brought them to your majesty."

David told him, "Your blood is on your own head, because your own words testified against you! After all, you said, "I myself have killed the LORD's anointed!'"

"Your beauty, Israel, lies slain on your high places! O, how the valiant have fallen!

How have the valiant fallen in the tumult of battle! Jonathan lies slain on your high places.

I am in distress for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been most kind to me. Your love for me was extraordinary beyond love from women.

How the valiant have fallen! How the weapons of war are destroyed!"

Abner told Joab, "Let's have the young men get up and fight in our presence." Joab replied, "Let them come."

Joab answered, "As God lives, if you hadn't spoken up, by morning my army would have broken off their pursuit of their own relatives."

Meanwhile, Saul had a mistress named Rizpah, who was the daughter of Aiah. Ish-bosheth asked Abner, "Why did you have sex with my father's mistress?"

What Ish-bosheth said made Abner furious, so he replied, "A dog's head for Judah is that what I am? Up until today I've kept on showing loyalty to your father Saul's dynasty, to his relatives and friends, and I haven't turned you over to David, but you're charging me today with moral guilt regarding this woman!

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!

Your hands were not bound, nor were your feet in irons. As one falls before the wicked, you have fallen."

Then all the people cried again because of him. Everyone tried to persuade David to have a meal while there was still daylight, but David took an oath by saying, "May God to do like this to me and more, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets!"

At that time, David had said, "Whoever intends to attack the Jebusites will have to climb up the water shaft to attack the lame and blind, who hate David."

When you hear the sound of marching coming from the tops of the balsam trees, then be sure to act quickly, since the LORD will have gone out ahead of you to cut down the Philistine army."

I'm going to act more shamelessly than this, even to humbling myself in my own eyes. Now as to the women staff members about whom you have spoken, they are to hold me in honor!"

Nathan replied to the king, "Go do everything you have in mind, because the LORD is with you."

"""Are you going to build a house for me to inhabit? After all, I haven't lived in a house since the day I brought up the Israelis from Egypt until now. Instead, I've moved around in a tent that served as my dwelling place.

Wherever I moved among the Israelis, did I ever ask even one tribal leader of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, "Why haven't you built me a cedar house?'

"""Furthermore, I have remained with you everywhere you have gone, annihilating all your enemies right in front of you. I will make a great reputation for you, like the reputation of great ones who have lived on earth.

"Who am I, Lord GOD, and what is my family, that you have brought me to this? And this is still a small thing to you, Lord GOD you also have spoken about the future of your servant's house, and this is the charter for mankind, O Lord GOD!

For the sake of your word and consistent with your desire, you have done all of these great things, informing your servant.

You have prepared your people Israel to be your very own people for ever, and you, LORD, have become their God!

"And now, LORD God, let what you have spoken concerning your servant and his household be done and let it be done just as you've promised.

For you, LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, have revealed this to your servant, telling him, "I will build a dynasty for you,' so that your servant has found fortitude to pray this prayer to you.

"Now therefore, Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true, and you have spoken to your servant these good things.

So may it please you to bless the household of your servant, so that it might remain forever in your presence, because you, Lord GOD, have spoken, and from your blessing may the household of your servant be blessed forever."

"Don't be afraid," David reassured him, "because I'm going to show gracious love to you in memory of your father Jonathan. I'm going to restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you'll always have a place at my table!"

You and your servants are to farm the land on his behalf and bring in the crops in order to provide for your master's grandson. Meanwhile, Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, will always have a place at my table." (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and 20 servants.)

When David had been informed about the incident, he sent word to them, since the men had been deeply humiliated. The king told them, "Stay at Jericho until your beards have grown back, and then return."

Uriah replied, "The ark, along with Israel and Judah, are encamped in tents, while my commanding officer Joab and my master's staff members are camping out in the open fields. Should I go home, eat, drink, and have sex with my wife? Not on your life! I won't do something like this, will I?"

He instructed the courier, "When you have finished conveying all the news about the battle to the king,

""I gave you your former master's household. ""I placed your former master's wives right in your arms. ""I gave you Israel and Judah. ""And if this had been too little, I would have added much more than that to you!

""Therefore the sword will never leave your household, because you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'

"This is what the LORD says: ""Listen very carefully! ""I'm raising up evil against you right out of your own household. ""I'm going to take your wives away from you right before your eyes. ""Then I'll give them to your neighbor. ""And then he's going to have sex with your wives in broad daylight!

At this point, David told Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD."

Nathan responded to David, "There's one other thing: the LORD has forgiven your sin. You won't die. Nevertheless, because you have despised the LORD's enemies with utter contempt, the son born to you will most certainly die."

But as soon as she brought them near him to eat, he overpowered her and told her, "Come here and have sex with me, my sister!"

Then Absalom instructed his young men, "Please keep watching Amnon until he's drunk. Then I'll tell you, "Attack Amnon!' As soon as I do, kill him and don't be afraid! You have your orders, so be strong and brave!"

Now your majesty, don't be concerned about this rumor that all the king's sons have died, because only Amnon is dead."

Meanwhile, Absalom had run away. While the young man standing watch was looking around, all of a sudden he observed many people coming down the road behind and to the west of the mountain! So the watchman left his post and reported, "I have seen men coming from the direction of Horonaim."

"I've been a widowed woman ever since my husband died," she answered. "Your humble servant used to have two sons, but they got into a fight out in the field. Because there was no one to keep them apart, one of them attacked the other and killed him.

"Now as to why I've come to speak with your majesty the king, it's because the people have made me afraid, so your humble servant told herself, "I'll go speak to the king, so perhaps the king will do what his humble servant has requested.

In answer to Joab, Absalom replied, "Look, I sent for you, telling you "Come here so I can send you to the king to ask him "What's the point in moving here from Geshur? I would have been better off to have remained there!"' So let me see the king's face, and if I'm guilty of anything, let him execute me!"

Then a messenger arrived to inform David, "The loyalties of the men of Israel have shifted to Absalom."

Then the king suggested to Ittai the Gittite, "Why should you have to go with us? Return and stay with the new king, since you're a foreigner and exile. Stay where you want to stay.

Now just as David happened to have passed the summit of the Mount of Olives, suddenly Mephibosheth's servant Ziba met him, accompanied by a couple of saddled donkeys loaded with 200 loaves of bread, 100 clusters of raisins, 100 pieces of summer fruit, and a skin of wine!

At this point, Zeruiah's son Abishai asked the king, "Why should this dead dog be cursing your majesty the king? May I have permission to go over and cut off his head?"

But the king responded, "What do I have in common with you sons of Zeruiah? If he continues to curse and if the LORD has told him, "Curse David!' then who are you to be demanding to know "Why have you done this?'"

Ahithophel responded, "Go inside and have sex with your father's mistresses, whom he left to keep the palace in order. Then everyone in Israel will hear how your father has come to hate you and everyone who has joined you will be emboldened to act."

So here's my advice: Muster everybody from one end of the country to the other! You'll have an army in number like the sand on the seashore! Then you'll go into battle!

"No way!" his army responded. "If we have to retreat from the battle, Absalom's men won't care about us. Even if half of us die, they won't care about us. But you are worth 10,000 of us. The best thing you can do for us is to remain in the city."

But the soldier replied to Joab, "I wouldn't have touched the king's son even if you dropped 1,000 pieces of silver right into my hands, because we heard the king command you, Abishai, and Ittai, "Watch how you treat the young man Absalom!'

If I had taken his life, the king would have uncovered everything about it, and you would never have protected me!"

While Absalom had been living, he had erected a pillar as a monument to himself in King's Valley because he had been telling himself, "I don't have a son to carry on my family name." So he named the pillar after himself it's called Absalom's Monument even today.

You love those who hate you and hate those who love you! You've made it abundantly clear today that your officers and the men under them mean nothing to you! I've learned today that you would rather have Absalom alive today and all the rest of us dead!

Now get up and restore the morale of your army. I swear by the LORD that if you don't get out there, you won't have a single man left in your army by nightfall! You'll be in more trouble today than all the disasters you've been through from your boyhood until now!"

because your servant knows that I have sinned, but today I have come here as the first one from the entire house of Joseph to meet your majesty the king."

David replied, "What do you sons of Zeruiah have in common with me? You've become my enemies today! Should anyone be executed in Israel today? Don't you know that I've been reinstated as king over Israel today?"

He replied, "Well, your majesty, since your servant is lame, I told myself, "I'll have my donkey saddled and I'll ride on it so I can leave with the king.' But my servant Ziba deceived me

Everyone from my grandfather's household deserved nothing but death from your majesty the king, but you provided a place for your servant among those who have been eating from your table. So what right do I have to ask for anything more from the king?"

"How many more years do I have to live," Barzillai replied to the king, "that I should move to Jerusalem with the king?

Everybody from Judah shouted to the men from Israel, "We did this because the king is closely related to us. So why are you angry about this? Have we lived off the king's expense? Have we appropriated anything for ourselves?"

But the men from Israel answered the men from Judah: "We represent ten of the tribes of Israel! So we have more right to David than you do! Why haven't you taken us seriously? Weren't we the first to talk about bringing back our king?" But what the people of Judah had to say was harsher than what the people of Israel were saying.

is to have seven of his sons turned over to us. We will hang them in the presence of the LORD at Gibeah, which belonged to Saul, whom the LORD chose."

because I have kept the LORD's way I haven't willfully abandoned my God

and because all of his decrees remain in my thoughts, I have not turned aside from his statutes,

I have been innocent before him, and I've kept myself from incurring guilt.

Later, David's conscience bothered him after he had numbered the army, so David told the LORD, "I have sinned greatly by what I did. But now I am asking you, please remove the guilt of your servant, since I have acted very foolishly."