Then Joab came to the king, and said, "What have you done? Behold, Abner came to you. Why is it that you have sent him away, so that he is gone?

Then David the king went in, and sat before the LORD; and he said, "Who am I, Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?

What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Lord GOD.

What one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for himself as a people, and to make himself a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for your land, before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself out of Egypt, from the nations and their gods?

He bowed down, and said, "What is your servant, that you should look on such a dead dog as I am?"

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

"This is what the LORD says: 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.

Then his servants said to him, "What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child was dead, you rose up and ate bread."

The king said to her, "What ails you?" She answered, "Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead.

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."

Ittai answered the king, and said, "As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king shall is, whether for death or for life, even there also will your servant be."

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."

The king said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because the LORD has said to him, 'Curse David;' who then shall say, 'Why have you done so?'"

Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, "Give your counsel what we shall do."

Then Absalom said, "Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he says."

When Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, "Ahithophel has spoken like this. Shall we do what he says? If not, speak up."

The king said to them, "I will do what seems best to you." The king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.

Then Joab said to the Cushite, "Go, tell the king what you have seen." The Cushite bowed himself to Joab, and ran.

Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said yet again to Joab, "But come what may, please let me also run after the Cushite." Joab said, "Why do you want to run, my son, since that you will have no reward for the news?"

"But come what may," he said, "I will run." He said to him, "Run." Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite.

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 do not know what it was."

A ferry boat went to bring over the king's household, and to do what he thought good. Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, when he had come over the Jordan.

David said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be adversaries to me? Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? For do not I know that I am this day king over Israel?"

He has slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God. Do therefore what is good in your eyes.

For all my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right therefore have I yet that I should cry any more to the king?"

I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?

Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold, your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to you."

and David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?"

It was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, "Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me."

David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, "Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father's house."

Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood: