it happened on the third day, that behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul, with his clothes torn, and earth on his head: and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and did obeisance.

David said to the young man who told him, "How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?"

The young man who told him said, "As I happened by chance on Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul was leaning on his spear; and behold, the chariots and the horsemen followed hard after him.

Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them; and likewise all the men who were with him.

David said to the young man who told him, "Where are you from?" He answered, "I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite."

David called one of the young men, and said, "Go near, and fall on him." He struck him, so that he died.

David brought up his men who were with him, every man with his household. They lived in the cities of Hebron.

The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, saying, "The men of Jabesh Gilead were those who buried Saul."

David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead, and said to them, "Blessed are you by Yahweh, that you have shown this kindness to your lord, even to Saul, and have buried him.

Abner said to Joab, "Please let the young men arise and play before us!" Joab said, "Let them arise!"

The battle was very severe that day: and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David.

Abner said to him, "Turn aside to your right hand or to your left, and grab one of the young men, and take his armor." But Asahel would not turn aside from following him.

Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah; and they passed over the Jordan, and went through all Bithron, and came to Mahanaim.

Joab returned from following Abner: and when he had gathered all the people together, there lacked of David's servants nineteen men and Asahel.

But the servants of David had struck of Benjamin, and of Abner's men, [so that] three hundred sixty men died.

They took up Asahel, and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was in Bethlehem. Joab and his men went all night, and the day broke on them at Hebron.

So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast.

Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put into fetters. As a man falls before the children of iniquity, so you fell." All the people wept again over him.

The king said to his servants, "Don't you know that there a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?

I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. May Yahweh reward the evildoer according to his wickedness."

[Ishbosheth], Saul's son, [had] two men who were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin (for Beeroth also is reckoned to Benjamin:

How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?"

David commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.

The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, "Unless you take away the blind and the lame, you shall not come in here;" thinking, "David can't come in here."

They left their images there; and David and his men took them away.

David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.

He dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, both to men and women, to everyone a cake of bread, and a portion [of flesh], and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed everyone to his house.

I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;

This was yet a small thing in your eyes, Lord Yahweh; but you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come; and this after the way of men, Lord Yahweh!

When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men.

David earned a reputation when he returned from smiting the Syrians in the Valley of Salt, even eighteen thousand men.

When they told it to David, he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, "Wait at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return."

When the children of Ammon saw that they were become odious to David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with one thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men.

When David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the army of the mighty men.

The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate: and the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field.

Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians:

The Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed of the Syrians [the men of] seven hundred chariots, and forty thousand horsemen, and struck Shobach the captain of their army, so that he died there.

It happened, when Joab kept watch on the city, that he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were.

The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also.

The messenger said to David, "The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate.

Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, "There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.

The rich man had very many flocks and herds,

but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him like a daughter.

A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man who had come to him."

David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this is worthy to die!

Nathan said to David, "You are the man. This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.

But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother; and Jonadab was a very subtle man.

She took the pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. Amnon said, "Have all men leave me." Every man went out from him.

The servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons arose, and every man got up on his mule, and fled.

Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother, answered, "Don't let my lord suppose that they have killed all the young men the king's sons; for Amnon only is dead; for by the appointment of Absalom this has been determined from the day that he forced his sister Tamar.

But Absalom fled. The young man who kept the watch lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, many people were coming by way of the hillside behind him.

For the king will hear, to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.

The king said to Joab, "Behold now, I have done this thing. Go therefore, bring the young man Absalom back."

Therefore he said to his servants, "Behold, Joab's field is near mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire." Absalom's servants set the field on fire.

It happened after this, that Absalom prepared him a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him.

Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. It was so, that when any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, "What city are you from?" He said, "Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel."

Absalom said to him, "Behold, your matters are good and right; but there is no man deputized by the king to hear you."

Absalom said moreover, "Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!"

It was so, that when any man came near to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him.

Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

Two hundred men went with Absalom out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they didn't know anything.

A messenger came to David, saying, "The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom."

All his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.

David said to Ittai, "Go and pass over." Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones who were with him.

David went up by the ascent of the [Mount of] Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.

The king said to Ziba, What do you mean by these? Ziba said, The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that such as are faint in the wilderness may drink.

When king David came to Bahurim, behold, a man of the family of the house of Saul came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came out, and cursed still as he came.

He cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

Shimei said when he cursed, "Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and base fellow!

Yahweh has returned on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned! Yahweh has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son! Behold, you are caught by your own mischief, because you are a man of blood!"

So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him, and cursed as he went, threw stones at him, and threw dust.

Absalom, and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him.

Hushai said to Absalom, "No; but whoever Yahweh, and this people, and all the men of Israel have chosen, his will I be, and with him I will stay.

The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.

Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.

and I will bring back all the people to you. The man whom you seek is as if all returned. All the people shall be in peace."

Hushai said moreover, "You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.

Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.

So shall we come on him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light on him as the dew falls on the ground; and of him and of all the men who are with him we will not leave so much as one.

Absalom and all the men of Israel said, "The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel." For Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil on Absalom.

But a boy saw them, and told Absalom. Then they both went away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his court; and they went down there.

Then David came to Mahanaim. Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.

Absalom set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man, whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab's mother.

The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

The people of Israel were struck there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men.

A certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, "Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak."

Joab said to the man who told him, "Behold, you saw it, and why didn't you strike him there to the ground? I would have given you ten pieces of silver, and a sash."

The man said to Joab, "Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn't put forth my hand against the king's son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, 'Beware that none touch the young man Absalom.'

Ten young men who bore Joab's armor surrounded and struck Absalom, and killed him.

Now David was sitting between the two gates: and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate to the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, a man running alone.

The watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the porter, and said, "Behold, a man running alone!" The king said, "He also brings news."

The watchman said, "I think the running of the first one is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok." The king said, "He is a good man, and comes with good news."

Ahimaaz called, and said to the king, "All is well." He bowed himself before the king with his face to the earth, and said, "Blessed is Yahweh your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted up their hand against my lord the king!"

The king said, "Is it well with the young man Absalom?" Ahimaaz answered, "When Joab sent the king's servant, even me your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I don't know what it was."

The king said to the Cushite, "Is it well with the young man Absalom?" The Cushite answered, "May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you to do you harm, be as that young man is."

Now therefore arise, go out, and speak to comfort your servants; for I swear by Yahweh, if you don't go out, not a man will stay with you this night. That would be worse to you than all the evil that has happened to you from your youth until now."

Then the king arose, and sat in the gate. They told to all the people, saying, "Behold, the king is sitting in the gate." All the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled every man to his tent.

He bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as [the heart of] one man; so that they sent to the king, saying, "Return, you and all your servants."

Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, who was of Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet king David.

There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went through the Jordan in the presence of the king.