A traveler arrived to visit the rich man. Because he was unwilling to take an animal from one of his own flocks or herds to prepare for the guest who had come to visit him, he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to visit him."

Then even men who would otherwise be as brave as lions will be scared, because every Israeli knows your father is a mighty man, and they know his men are valiant!

The king responded, "If he's alone, he's bringing some news to report." As the man continued to draw near and approach the palace, the watchman observed another man running. So he called out to the gatekeeper, "There's another man running by himself!" The king replied, "He's also bringing some news to report!"

Meanwhile, David asked the young man who had told him the story, "Where are you from?" He answered, "I'm an Amalekite, the son of a foreign man."

How much worse will it be, then, when evil men kill an innocent man on his own bed in his own house! Shouldn't I avenge his blood which you are responsible for shedding by removing you from the earth?"

After this, David gathered together again 30,000 men from all of the choicest men of Israel.

When the Ammonites realized that they had created quite a stink with David, they hired 20,000 Aramean mercenaries from Beth-rehob and Zobah, along with the king of Maacah and 1,000 men, and 12,000 men from Tob.

Nathan approached David and said, "There are two men in the city. One is rich and one is poor. The rich man has many flocks and herds,

David flew into a rage at the man and told Nathan, "As the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!

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."

We'll go find David wherever he's hiding. We'll fall on him like dew on the ground! We'll kill him and all of his men, and we won't leave even one man alive!

But a young man observed Jonathan and Ahimaaz and informed Absalom, so they left in a hurry, arrived at the home of a man who lived at Bahurim, and hid inside a well that was in his courtyard.

The king asked the Ethiopian, "Is the young man safe?" The Ethiopian answered, "May the enemies of your majesty the king including everyone who rebels and tries to harm you become like that young man"."

So men snuck into the city that day like men do who are ashamed after they've run away from a battle.

Now Barzillai was a very old man at the age of 80 years. A very wealthy man, Barzillai had provided for king David during his sojourn in Mahanaim.

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.

Right about then, Bichri's son Sheba, an ungodly man from the tribe of Benjamin, sounded a battle trumpet and announced: We've never been a part of David! We'll never gain anything from Jesse's son! It's every man to his tent, Israel!

Jehoiada's son Benaiah, who was a valiant man, accomplished great things. He was from Kabzeel. He killed two men named Ariel from Moab and then he also went down into a pit and struck down a lion during a snow storm one day.

Joab reported the total number of men to the king. In Israel there were 800,000 men trained for war. In Judah there were 500,000.