Then your handmaid said, 'Please let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. May Yahweh, your God, be with you.'"

Now in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.

Absalom answered Joab, "Behold, I sent to you, saying, 'Come here, that I may send you to the king, to say, "Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still. Now therefore let me see the king's face; and if there is iniquity in me, let him kill me."'"

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

It happened at the end of forty years, that Absalom said to the king, "Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to Yahweh, in Hebron.

Whereas you came but yesterday, should I this day make you go up and down with us, since I go where I may? Return, and take back your brothers. Mercy and truth be with you."

Ittai answered the king, and said, "As Yahweh 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."

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.

David said to him, "If you pass on with me, then you will be a burden to me;

but if you return to the city, and tell Absalom, 'I will be your servant, O king. As I have been your father's servant in time past, so will I now be your servant; then will you defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.'

Don't you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? Therefore it shall be, that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king's house, you shall tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son; and by them you shall send to me everything that you shall hear."

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.

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!"

It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today."

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.

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.

Again, whom should I serve? Shouldn't I serve in the presence of his son? As I have served in your father's presence, so will I be in your presence."

Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Go in to your father's concubines, that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong."

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."

But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person.

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.

Moreover, if he be gone into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there isn't one small stone found there."

Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, 'Don't lodge this night at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him.'"

Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying by En Rogel; and a female servant used to go and tell them; and they went and told king David. For they might not be seen to come into the city.

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 arose, and all the people who were with him, and they passed over the Jordan. By the morning light there lacked not one of them who had not gone over the Jordan.

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.

Joab said to him, "You shall not be the bearer of news this day, but you shall bear news another day. But today you shall bear no news, because the king's son is dead."

"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 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."

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, "Shall Shimei not be put to death for this, because he cursed Yahweh's anointed?"

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 don't I know that I am this day king over Israel?"

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."

The men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, "We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more claim to David than you. Why then did you despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king?" The words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.

There happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew the trumpet, and said, "We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel!"

Then the king said to Amasa, "Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be here present."

Joab said to Amasa, "Is it well with you, my brother?" Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.

There stood by him one of Joab's young men, and said, "He who favors Joab, and he who is for David, let him follow Joab!"

Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.

Joab answered, "Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.

The matter is not so. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, even against David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city." The woman said to Joab, "Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall."

They said to the king, "The man who consumed us, and who devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel,

let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh." The king said, "I will give them."

Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.

These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

I will call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from my enemies.

Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it.

Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

For by you, I run against a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall.

He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of brass.

You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me to be the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known will serve me.

Yahweh lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,

"The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.

shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through clear shining after rain.'

But all of the ungodly shall be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can't be taken with the hand,

But the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear. They shall be utterly burned with fire in their place."

David longed, and said, "Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!"

The three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh.

He said, "Be it far from me, Yahweh, that I should do this! Isn't it the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?" Therefore he would not drink it. The three mighty men did these things.

Joab said to the king, "Now may Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?"

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, "Shall seven 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."

When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, "It is enough. Now stay your hand." The angel of Yahweh was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

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

Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" David said, "To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people."

The king said to Araunah, "No; but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

Therefore his servants said to him, "Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and cherish him; and let her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may keep warm."

Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, "I will be king." Then he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.

Adonijah killed sheep and cattle and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which is beside En Rogel; and he called all his brothers, the king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants:

She said to him, "My lord, you swore by Yahweh your God to your handmaid, 'Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.'

Otherwise it will happen, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders."

Is this thing done by my lord the king, and you haven't shown to your servants who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?"

most certainly as I swore to you by Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, 'Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place;' most certainly so will I do this day."

Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne; for he shall be king in my place. I have appointed him to be prince over Israel and over Judah."

As Yahweh has been with my lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord king David."

Also thus said the king, 'Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne this day, my eyes even seeing it.'"

Solomon said, "If he shows himself a worthy man, not a hair of him shall fall to the earth; but if wickedness be found in him, he shall die."

"I am going the way of all the earth. You be strong therefore, and show yourself a man;

But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those who eat at your table; for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.

"Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by Yahweh, saying, 'I will not put you to death with the sword.'

Bathsheba therefore went to king Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand.

She said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife."

Then king Solomon swore by Yahweh, saying, "God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life.

Now therefore as Yahweh lives, who has established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house, as he promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death this day."

King Solomon sent by Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell on him, so that he died.

It was told king Solomon, "Joab has fled to the Tent of Yahweh, and behold, he is by the altar." Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, "Go, fall on him."

So shall their blood return on the head of Joab, and on the head of his seed forever. But to David, and to his seed, and to his house, and to his throne, there shall be peace forever from Yahweh."

For on the day you go out, and pass over the brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall surely die: your blood shall be on your own head."

The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, "Didn't I adjure you by Yahweh, and warn you, saying, 'Know for certain, that on the day you go out, and walk abroad any where, you shall surely die?' You said to me, 'The saying that I have heard is good.'

But king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before Yahweh forever."

In Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I shall give you."

Your servant is in the midst of your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can't be numbered nor counted for multitude.

I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like you, all your days.

Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it!" But the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide it."

Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.

Those officers provided food for king Solomon, and for all who came to king Solomon's table, every man in his month; they let nothing be lacking.

Now therefore command that they cut me cedar trees out of Lebanon. My servants shall be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you shall say. For you know that there is not among us any who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians."