Once again, Abner warned Asahel, “Stop chasing me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How could I ever look your brother Joab in the face?”

Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah daughter of Aiah, and Ish-bosheth questioned Abner, “Why did you sleep with my father’s concubine?”

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.

In all My journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever asked anyone among the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel: Why haven’t you built Me a house of cedar?’

This is why You are great, Lord God. There is no one like You, and there is no God besides You, as all we have heard confirms.

When it was reported to David, “Uriah didn’t go home,” David questioned Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a journey? Why didn’t you go home?”

if the king’s anger gets stirred up and he asks you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you realize they would shoot from the top of the wall?

At Thebez, who struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the top of the wall so that he died? Why did you get so close to the wall?’—then say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”

Why then have you despised the command of the Lord by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword.

But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I’ll go to him, but he will never return to me.”

and he asked Amnon, “Why are you, the king’s son, so miserable every morning? Won’t you tell me?”

Amnon replied, “I’m in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

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

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

The woman asked, “Why have you devised something similar against the people of God? When the king spoke as he did about this matter, he has pronounced his own guilt. The king has not brought back his own banished one.

Then Joab came to Absalom’s house and demanded, “Why did your servants set my 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.”

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 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.’”

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!”

The king replied, “Sons of Zeruiah, do we agree on anything? He curses me this way because the Lord told him, ‘Curse David!’ Therefore, who can say, ‘Why did you do that?’”

“Is this your loyalty to your friend?” Absalom asked Hushai. “Why didn’t you go with your friend?”

“You just saw him!” Joab exclaimed. “Why didn’t you strike him to the ground right there? I would have given you 10 silver pieces and a belt!”

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?”

But Absalom, the man we anointed over us, has died in battle. So why do you say nothing about restoring the king?”

King David sent word to the priests, Zadok and Abiathar: “Say to the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be the last to restore the king to his palace? The talk of all Israel has reached the king at his house.

You are my brothers, my flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king?’

When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Mephibosheth, why didn’t you come with me?”

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.”

I’m now 80 years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of male and female singers? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?

Since your servant is only going with the king a little way across the Jordan, why should the king repay me with such a reward?

Suddenly, all the men of Israel came to the king. They asked him, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and transport the king and his household across the Jordan, along with all of David’s men?”

All the men of Judah responded to the men of Israel, “Because the king is our relative. Why does this make you angry? Have we ever eaten anything of the king’s or been honored at all?”

The men of Israel answered the men of Judah: “We have 10 shares in the king, so we have a greater claim to David than you. Why then do you despise us? Weren’t we the first to speak of restoring our king?” But the words of the men of Judah were harsher than those of the men of Israel.

I am a peaceful person, one of the faithful in Israel, but you’re trying to destroy a city that is like a mother in Israel. Why would you devour the Lord’s inheritance?”

Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops 100 times more than they are—while my lord the king looks on! But why does my lord the king want to do this?”

Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

David replied, “To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord, so the plague on the people may be halted.”