David inquired of the young man who had brought him the report, “Where are you from?”

“I’m the son of a foreigner,” he said. “I’m an Amalekite.”

Then David summoned one of his servants and said, “Come here and kill him!” The servant struck him, and he died.

For David had said to the Amalekite, “Your blood is on your own head because your own mouth testified against you by saying, ‘I killed the Lord’s anointed.’”

David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, “The Lord bless you, because you have shown this kindness to Saul your lord when you buried him.

Then Abner said to Joab, “Let’s have the young men get up and compete in front of us.”

“Let them get up,” Joab replied.

Abner glanced back and said, “Is that you, Asahel?”

“Yes it is,” Asahel replied.

Abner said to him, “Turn to your right or left, seize one of the young soldiers, and take whatever you can get from him.” But Asahel would not stop chasing him.

Her husband followed her, weeping all the way to Bahurim. Abner said to him, “Go back.” So he went back.

Abner said to David, “Let me now go and I will gather all Israel to my lord the king. They will make a covenant with you, and you will rule over all you desire.” So David dismissed Abner, and he went in peace.

Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Look here, Abner came to you. Why did you dismiss him? Now he’s getting away.

David heard about it later and said: “I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the Lord concerning the blood of Abner son of Ner.

Then the king said to his soldiers, “You must know that a great leader has fallen in Israel today.

They brought Ish-bosheth’s head to David at Hebron and said to the king, “Here’s the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who intended to take your life. Today the Lord has granted vengeance to my lord the king against Saul and his offspring.”

All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Here we are, your own flesh and blood.

Even while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led us out to battle and brought us back. The Lord also said to you, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel and be ruler over Israel.’”

The king and his men marched to Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the land. The Jebusites had said to David: “You will never get in here. Even the blind and lame can repel you”; thinking, “David can’t get in here.”

He said that day, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites must go through the water shaft to reach the lame and the blind who are despised by David.” For this reason it is said, “The blind and the lame will never enter the house.”

So David went to Baal-perazim and defeated them there and said, “Like a bursting flood, the Lord has burst out against my enemies before me.” Therefore, he named that place the Lord Bursts Out.

David feared the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?”

When David returned home to bless his household, Saul’s daughter Michal came out to meet him. “How the king of Israel honored himself today!” she said. “He exposed himself today in the sight of the slave girls of his subjects like a vulgar person would expose himself.”

the king said to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I am living in a cedar house while the ark of God sits inside tent curtains.”

Then King David went in, sat in the Lord’s presence, and said,

Who am I, Lord God, and what is my house that You have brought me this far?

so that Your name will be exalted forever, when it is said, “The Lord of Hosts is God over Israel.” The house of Your servant David will be established before You

since You, Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, have revealed this to Your servant when You said, “I will build a house for you.” Therefore, Your servant has found the courage to pray this prayer to You.

There was a servant of Saul’s family named Ziba. They summoned him to David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?”

“I am your servant,” he replied.

So the king asked, “Is there anyone left of Saul’s family that I can show the kindness of God to?”

Ziba said to the king, “There is still Jonathan’s son who was injured in both feet.”

Mephibosheth son of Jonathan son of Saul came to David, bowed down to the ground and paid homage. David said, “Mephibosheth!”

“I am your servant,” he replied.

“Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “since I intend to show you kindness because of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all your grandfather Saul’s fields, and you will always eat meals at my table.”

Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant that you take an interest in a dead dog like me?”

Then the king summoned Saul’s attendant Ziba and said to him, “I have given to your master’s grandson all that belonged to Saul and his family.

Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do all my lord the king commands.”

So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table just like one of the king’s sons.

Then David said, “I’ll show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.”

So David sent his emissaries to console Hanun concerning his father. However, when they arrived in the land of the Ammonites,

the Ammonite leaders said to Hanun their lord, “Just because David has sent men with condolences for you, do you really believe he’s showing respect for your father? Instead, hasn’t David sent his emissaries in order to scout out the city, spy on it, and demolish it?”

When this was reported to David, he sent someone to meet them, since they were deeply humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards grow back; then return.”

“If the Arameans are too strong for me,” Joab said, “then you will be my help. However, if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I’ll come to help you.

Then he said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him.

“Stay here today also,” David said to Uriah, “and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.

So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him:

There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan: “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die!

On the seventh day the baby died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him the baby was dead. They said, “Look, while the baby was alive, we spoke to him, and he wouldn’t listen to us. So how can we tell him the baby is dead? He may do something desperate.”

Jonadab said to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend you’re sick. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare food in my presence so I can watch and eat from her hand.’”

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to him, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my presence so I can eat from her hand.”

She brought the pan and set it down in front of him, but he refused to eat. Amnon said, “Everyone leave me!” And everyone left him.

When she brought them to him to eat, he grabbed her and said, “Come sleep with me, my sister!”

After this, Amnon hated Tamar with such intensity that the hatred he hated her with was greater than the love he had loved her with. “Get out of here!” he said.

Her brother Absalom said to her: “Has your brother Amnon been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister. He is your brother. Don’t take this thing to heart.” So Tamar lived as a desolate woman in the house of her brother Absalom.

Then he went to the king and said, “Your servant has just hired sheepshearers. Will the king and his servants please come with your servant?”

“If not,” Absalom said, “please let my brother Amnon go with us.”

The king asked him, “Why should he go with you?”

Jonadab said to the king, “Look, the king’s sons have come! It’s exactly like your servant said.”

When the woman from Tekoa came to the king, she fell with her face to the ground in homage and said, “Help me, my king!”

“What’s the matter?” the king asked her.

“To tell the truth, I am a widow; my husband died,” she said.

Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant and said, ‘Hand over the one who killed his brother so we may put him to death for the life of the brother he murdered. We will destroy the heir!’ They would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on earth.”

Then the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord the king, may any blame be on me and my father’s house, and may the king and his throne be innocent.”

“Whoever speaks to you,” the king said, “bring him to me. He will not trouble you again!”

Then the woman said, “Please, may your servant speak a word to my lord the king?”

“Speak,” he replied.

Then the king said to Joab, “I hereby grant this request. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.”

Joab fell with his face to the ground in homage and praised the king. “Today,” Joab said, “your servant knows I have found favor with you, my lord the king, because the king has granted the request of your servant.”

Then Absalom said to his servants, “See, Joab has a field right next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set fire to it!” So Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.

“Look,” Absalom explained to Joab, “I sent for you and said, ‘Come here. I want to send you to the king to ask: Why have I come back from Geshur? I’d be better off if I were still there.’ So now, let me see the king. If I am guilty, let him kill me.”

Absalom said to him, “Look, your claims are good and right, but the king does not have anyone to listen to you.”

When four years had passed, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go to Hebron to fulfill a vow I made to the Lord.

“Go in peace,” the king said to him. So he went to Hebron.

David said to all the servants with him in Jerusalem, “Get up. We have to flee, or we will not escape from Absalom! Leave quickly, or he will soon overtake us, heap disaster on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

The king’s servants said to him, “Whatever my lord the king decides, we are your servants.”

The king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why are you also going with us? Go back and stay with the new king since you’re both a foreigner and an exile from your homeland.

The king also said to Zadok the priest, “Look, return to the city in peace and your two sons with you: your son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan.

David said to him, “If you go away with me, you’ll be a burden to me,

The king said to Ziba, “Why do you have these?”

Ziba answered, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride, the bread and summer fruit are for the young men to eat, and the wine is for those to drink who become exhausted in the desert.”

“Where is your master’s grandson?” the king asked.

“Why, he’s staying in Jerusalem,” Ziba replied to the king, “for he said, ‘Today, the house of Israel will restore my grandfather’s kingdom to me.’”

The king said to Ziba, “All that belongs to Mephibosheth is now yours!”

“I bow before you,” Ziba said. “May you look favorably on me, my lord the king!”

Shimei said as he cursed: “Get out, get out, you worthless murderer!

Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut his head off!”

Then David said to Abishai and all his servants, “Look, my own son, my own flesh and blood, intends to take my life—how much more now this Benjaminite! Leave him alone and let him curse me; the Lord has told him to.

When David’s friend Hushai the Archite came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give me your advice. What should we do?”

Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose 12,000 men, and I will set out in pursuit of David tonight.

Then Absalom said, “Summon Hushai the Archite also. Let’s hear what he has to say as well.”

Since the Lord had decreed that Ahithophel’s good advice be undermined in order to bring about Absalom’s ruin, Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than Ahithophel’s advice.”

He then sent out the troops, a third under Joab, a third under Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the troops, “I will also march out with you.”

One of the men saw him and informed Joab. He said, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!”

Joab said, “I’m not going to waste time with you!” He then took three spears in his hand and thrust them into Absalom’s heart while he was still alive in the oak tree,

When he was alive, Absalom had set up a pillar for himself in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the pillar his name. It is still called Absalom’s Monument today.

Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, “Please let me run and tell the king the good news that the Lord has delivered him from his enemies.”

Joab then said to the Cushite, “Go tell the king what you have seen.” The Cushite bowed to Joab and took off running.

However, Ahimaaz son of Zadok persisted and said to Joab, “No matter what, please let me also run behind the Cushite!”

Joab replied, “My son, why do you want to run since you won’t get a reward?”

“No matter what, I want to run!”

“Then run!” Joab said to him. So Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and outran the Cushite.

He called out and told the king.

The king said, “If he’s alone, he bears good news.”

As the first runner came closer,

the watchman saw another man running. He called out to the gatekeeper, “Look! Another man is running alone!”

“This one is also bringing good news,” said the king.

The watchman said, “The way the first man runs looks to me like the way Ahimaaz son of Zadok runs.”

“This is a good man; he comes with good news,” the king commented.

The king said, “Move aside and stand here.” So he stood to one side.

Just then the Cushite came and said, “May my lord the king hear the good news: today the Lord has delivered you from all those rising up against you!”

Then Joab went into the house to the king and said, “Today you have shamed all your soldiers—those who rescued your life and the lives of your sons and daughters, your wives, and your concubines.

and said to him, “My lord, don’t hold me guilty, and don’t remember your servant’s wrongdoing on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart.

So the king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” Then the king gave him his oath.

“My lord the king,” he replied, “my servant Ziba betrayed me. Actually your servant said: ‘I’ll saddle the donkey for myself so that I may ride it and go with the king’—for your servant is lame.

The king said to him, “Why keep on speaking about these matters of yours? I hereby declare: you and Ziba are to divide the land.”

Mephibosheth said to the king, “Instead, since my lord the king has come to his palace safely, let Ziba take it all!”

The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me, and I’ll provide for you at my side in Jerusalem.”

The king said to Amasa, “Summon the men of Judah to me within three days and be here yourself.”

So David said to Abishai, “Sheba son of Bichri will do more harm to us than Absalom. Take your lord’s soldiers and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and elude us.”