David said, "Is there yet any who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?"

David said to him, "Don't be afraid of him; for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father's sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your father. You shall eat bread at my table continually."

You shall till the land for him, you, and your sons, and your servants; and you shall bring in [the fruits], that your master's son may have bread to eat: but Mephibosheth your master's son shall eat bread always at my table." Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem; for he ate continually at the king's table. He was lame in both his feet.

When they told it to David, he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, "Wait at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return."

He said, "If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come and help you.

Be courageous, and let us be strong for our people, and for the cities of our God; and Yahweh do that which seems good to him."

David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house.

So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for.

Then David said to the messenger, "Thus you shall tell Joab, 'Don't let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle stronger against the city, and overthrow it.' Encourage him."

When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband.

A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man who had come to him."

For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.'"

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the earth.

It happened on the seventh day, that the child died. The servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, "Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he didn't listen to our voice. How will he then harm himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?"

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."

He said, "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows whether Yahweh will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?'

and he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he named him Jedidiah, for Yahweh's sake.

Amnon was so troubled that he fell sick because of his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her.

Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, "Go now to your brother Amnon's house, and prepare food for him."

She answered him, "No, my brother, do not force me! For no such thing ought to be done in Israel. Don't you do this folly.

I, where would I carry my shame? And as for you, you will be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, please speak to the king; for he will not withhold me from you."

Then Amnon hated her with exceeding great hatred; for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. Amnon said to her, "Arise, be gone!"

She had a garment of various colors on her; for with such robes were the king's daughters who were virgins dressed. Then his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her.

Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad; for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.

Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother, answered, "Don't let my lord suppose that they have killed all the young men the king's sons; for Amnon only is dead; for by the appointment of Absalom this has been determined from the day that he forced his sister Tamar.

Now therefore don't let my lord the king take the thing to his heart, to think that all the king's sons are dead; for Amnon only is dead."

But Absalom fled, and went to Talmai the son of Ammihur, king of Geshur. David mourned for his son every day.

[the soul of] king David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.

Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, and said to her, "Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and don't anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead.

Behold, the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, 'Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the heir also.' Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth."

The woman said, "Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring home again his banished one.

For we must die, and are as water split on the ground, which can't be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him.

For the king will hear, to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.

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.'"

The king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?" The woman answered, "As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Joab, he urged me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid;

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.

Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king; but he would not come to him: and he sent again a second time, but he would not come.

Therefore he said to his servants, "Behold, Joab's field is near mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire." Absalom's servants set the field on fire.

Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom to his house, and said to him, "Why have your servants set my field on fire?"

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."'"

So Joab came to the king, and told him; and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Absalom.

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."

Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

For your servant vowed a vow while I stayed at Geshur in Syria, saying, 'If Yahweh shall indeed bring me again to Jerusalem, then I will serve Yahweh.'"

Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.

David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, "Arise, and let us flee; for else none of us shall escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest he overtake us quickly, and bring down evil on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword."

Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why do you also go with us? Return, and stay with the king; for you are a foreigner, and also an exile. Return to your own place.

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."

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.'

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, "Where is your master's son?" Ziba said to the king, "Behold, he is staying in Jerusalem; for he said, 'Today the house of Israel will restore me the kingdom of my father.'"

David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, "Behold, my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for Yahweh has invited him.

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."

Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.

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.

Absalom and all the men of Israel said, "The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel." For Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil on Absalom.

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.

It happened, after they had departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David; and they said to David, "Arise and pass quickly over the water; for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you."

and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people who were with him, to eat: for they said, "The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness."

But the people said, "You shall not go forth; for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. Therefore now it is better that you are ready to help us out of the city."

The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom." All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Absalom.

For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

The man said to Joab, "Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn't put forth my hand against the king's son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, 'Beware that none touch the young man Absalom.'

Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab held back the people.

Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar, which is in the king's dale; for he said, "I have no son to keep my name in memory." He called the pillar after his own name; and it is called Absalom's monument, to this day.

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?"

Behold, the Cushite came. The Cushite said, "News for my lord the king; for Yahweh has avenged you this day of all those who rose up against you."

The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, "My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son!"

It was told Joab, "Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Absalom."

The victory that day was turned into mourning to all the people; for the people heard it said that day, "The king grieves for his son."

in that you love those who hate you, and hate those who love you. For you have declared this day, that princes and servants are nothing to you. For today I perceive that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it would have pleased you well.

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."

For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore, behold, I have come this day the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king."

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?"

He answered, "My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, I will saddle me a donkey, that I may ride thereon, and go with the king; because your servant is lame.

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?"

Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old: and he had provided the king with sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man.

The king answered, "Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to you. Whatever you require of me, that I will do for you."

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!"

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

There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites."

The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them: and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah);

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 Yahweh?"

The Gibeonites said to him, "It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel." He said, "Whatever you say, that will I do for you."

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.

They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that God was entreated for the land.

There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.

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

For the waves of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

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

At the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled.

He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

For all his ordinances were before me. As for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

For you are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh will light up my darkness.

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

As for God, his way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.

For who is God, besides Yahweh? Who is a rock, besides our God?