Then Hanun took the servants of David, and he shaved off half of their beards and cut their garments off in the middle up to their buttocks, then sent them away.

When they told David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, "Remain in Jericho until your beards have grown, and then you can return."

When the {Ammonites} saw that they had become odious to David, the {Ammonites} sent [word] and hired Aram Beth-Rehob and Aram-Zobah, twenty thousand infantry; and [they also hired] the king of Maacah, a thousand men, and the men of Tob, twelve thousand men.

When Joab saw that {the battle was to be fought on two fronts}, he chose from all [the] members of the elite troops of Israel and {lined them up for battle} to meet Aram.

The rest of the army he placed into the hand of his brother Abishai, who {arranged them in battle lines} to meet the {Ammonites}.

Then he said, "If Aram [is] stronger than I [am], you must become my deliverer; but if the {Ammonites} [are] too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you.

Be strong, and let us strengthen ourselves for the sake of the people and for the sake of the cities of our God. May Yahweh do [what is] good in his eyes.

When the {Ammonites} saw that Aram had fled, they fled from before Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab returned from [fighting] against the {Ammonites} and came to Jerusalem.

Then Hadadezer sent and brought out the Arameans who [were] beyond the Euphrates, and they came to Helam. Now Shobach, the commander of the army of Hadadezer, {was at their head}.

David [was] told, so he gathered all Israel and crossed over the Jordan and came to Helam. Aram {arranged themselves in battle lines} to meet David, and they fought with him.

When all the kings, the servants of Hadadezer, saw that he had been defeated before Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them, and Aram [was] afraid to help the {Ammonites} any longer.

Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house.

So David sent to Joab, "Send Uriah the Hittite to me." So Joab sent Uriah to David.

Uriah came to him, and David asked {how Joab and the army fared and how the war was going}.

David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet." So Uriah went out from the king's house, and a gift from the king went out after him.

But Uriah slept [at] the entrance of the king's house with all the servants of his master and did not go down to his house.

They told David, "Uriah did not go down to his house." David said to Uriah, "[Are] you not coming from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?"

Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah [are] living in the booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord [are] camping on the surface of the open field; and I, shall I go to my house to eat and to drink and to sleep with my wife? [By] your life and the life of your soul, I surely will not do this thing."

David said to Uriah, "Remain here {today}, and tomorrow I will send you away." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem on that day and the next.

David invited him, and he ate and drank in his presence {so that he became drunk}, and he went out in the evening to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

And it happened in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand of Uriah.

He had written in the letter, "Put Uriah in the front, in the face of the fiercest fighting, then draw back from behind him so that he may be struck down and die."

He instructed the messenger, saying, "As you are finishing to speak all the news of the battle to the king,

if the anger of the king rises and he says to you, 'Why did you go near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from [atop] the wall?

Then the messenger left, and he came and told David all that Joab had sent him [to say].

The messenger said to David, "Because {the men overpowered us}, the men came out to us [in] the field, but {we forced them back} to the entrance of the gate.

Then David said to the messenger, "Thus you shall say to Joab, '{Do not feel badly about this matter}; {now one and then another} the sword will devour. Intensify your attack on the city and overthrow it.'" And he encouraged him.

When the mourning [was] over, David sent and brought her to his household, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing which David had done [was] evil in the eyes of Yahweh.

So Yahweh sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said, "Two men were in a certain city; one [was] rich and the other [was] poor.

but the poor [man] had nothing except for one small ewe lamb which he had bought. He had nurtured her, and she grew up with him and with his children together. She used to eat from his morsel and drink from his cup, and she used to lie in his lap and became like a daughter for him.

And a visitor came to the rich man, but he {was reluctant} to take from his flocks or from his herds to prepare a meal for the traveler when he came to him. So he took the ewe lamb of the poor man and prepared it for the man who had come to him."

Then {the anger of David was kindled} against the man, and he said to Nathan, "{As Yahweh lives}, the man who has done this {deserves to die}!

Then Nathan said to him, "You [are] the man! Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: 'I anointed you as king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

I gave you the household of your master and the women of your master into your lap. I also gave you the house of Israel and Judah; if [that had been too] little, I would have added to you {much more}.

Why have you despised the word of Yahweh by doing evil in his eyes? Uriah the Hittite you have struck down with the sword, and his wife you have taken to yourself as wife! You have killed him with the sword of the {Ammonites}!

So then, a sword will not turn away from your house forever, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife!'

Thus says Yahweh, 'Look, I [am] going to raise up evil against you from [within] your house, and I will take your women before your eyes, and I will give them to your neighbor, and he shall sleep with your wives {in broad daylight}.

Though you did this in secret, I will do this thing before all of Israel {in broad daylight}!'"

Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against Yahweh!" Nathan said to David, "Yahweh has also forgiven your sin; you shall not die.

But because you have {utterly scorned} Yahweh in this matter, the son born for you {will certainly die}."

Then Nathan went to his house, and Yahweh struck the child that the wife of Uriah bore for David, and he became ill.

David pleaded [with] God on behalf of the boy and David fasted. He went to spend the night and lay upon the ground.

The elders of his household stood over him to lift him up from the ground, but he [was] not willing, and he did not eat [any] food with them.

It happened on the seventh day that the child died, and the servants of David [were] afraid to tell him that the child [was] dead, for they said, "Look, when the child [was] alive, we spoke to him, but he would not listen to our voice. How can we tell him, 'The child [is] dead'? He may do [something] evil."

When David saw that his servants [were] whispering together, he realized that the child [was] dead. Then David said to his servants, "[Is] the child dead?" And they said, "He [is] dead."

David stood up from the ground and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothing. Then he went [to] the house of Yahweh and worshiped, and he went to his [own] house. He asked, so they served him food, and he ate.

Then his servants said to him, "What [is] this thing that you have done? While the child [was] alive, you fasted and wept; [now] that the child has died, you get up and eat food!"

But now he [is] dead. Why [should I be] fasting? [Am] I able to return him again? I [am] going to him, but he cannot return to me."

David consoled Bathsheba his wife, and he went to her and slept with her. She bore a son, and he called him Solomon, and Yahweh loved him.

Then Joab sent messengers to David and said, "We have fought against Rabbah, and we captured the city of the waters.

So David gathered all of the army, and he went to Rabbah and fought against it and captured it.

He also brought out the people who [were] in it and put them to the saws and to the iron picks and to the iron axes, and he sent them to the place of the brickmakers. Thus he used to do to all the cities of the {Ammonites}, and he and all of the army returned to Jerusalem.

And Amnon {was so frustrated that he felt ill} because of Tamar his sister, because she [was] a virgin, and it [was] too difficult in Amnon's eyes to do anything with her.

And he said to him, "Why [are] you so sullen {every morning}, O son of the king? Will you not tell me?" And Amnon said to him, "I [am] in love with Tamar, the sister of my brother Absalom."

Then Jonadab said to him, "Lie down on your bed and appear ill. If your father comes to see you, you shall say to him, 'Please let Tamar my sister come and give me food to eat, and let her prepare the food before my eyes, in order that I may see it and eat from her hand.'"

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill, and the king came to see him. Amnon said to the king, "Please let Tamar my sister come, and let her bake two cakes before my eyes that I may eat from her hand."

So David sent to the house for Tamar, saying, "Please go to the house of Amnon your brother and prepare food for him."

Tamar went to the house of Amnon her brother. Now he [was] lying down, and she took the dough and kneaded [it] and made cakes before his eyes, and she baked the cakes.

Then she took the pan and poured it out before him, but he refused to eat. Then Amnon said, "Let all [the] men go out from me." So all [the] men went out from him.

Then Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring the food [to] the private room that I may eat from your hand." So Tamar took the cakes which she had made and brought them to Amnon her brother in the private room.

When she brought them near to him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, "Come, lie with me, my sister!"

Then Tamar said to him, "No, my brother! Do not force me, for such a thing has not been done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing!

As for me, where should I take my disgrace? You will be as one of the fools in Israel. So please, speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you."

But he [was] not willing to listen to her voice. He [was] stronger than she, and he forced her and lay with her.

Then Amnon hated her {very deeply}, for the hatred with which he hated her [was] greater than [the] love with which he had loved her. So Amnon said to her, "Get up [and] go."

She said to him, "No, because this evil in sending me away [is] greater than the other you have done to me." But he [was] not willing to listen to her.

Then he called his young man who [was] serving him and said, "Please send this woman from me to the outside, and bolt the door behind her!"

Absalom her brother said to her, "[Was] Amnon your brother with you? But now, my sister, be quiet; he [is] your brother. {Do not take this matter to heart}." So Tamar remained a desolate woman in the house of Absalom her brother.

{About two full years later}, Absalom's shearers were in Baal Hazor, which [is] near Ephraim, and Absalom summoned all the sons of the king.

Then Absalom went to the king and said, "Look, here [are] your servant's shearers; please let the king and his servants go with your servant.

The king said to Absalom, "No my son, not all of us shall go, so that we not be a burden to you." And he urged him, but he [was] not willing to go, but he blessed him.

So Absalom said, "But [will you] not let Amnon my brother go with us?" And the king said to him, "Why should he go with you?"

Absalom commanded his servants, saying, "Please watch. At the moment the heart of Amnon [is] {tipsy} with wine, then I shall say to you, 'Strike Amnon down,' and you shall kill him! Don't be afraid. [Is] it not I myself who has commanded you? Be courageous and be {valiant!}

So Absalom's servants did to Amnon just as Absalom commanded, and all the sons of the king got up, and each mounted his mule and fled.

{While they were on the way}, the message came to David, "Absalom has killed all the sons of the king, and not one of them [was] left."

Then Jonadab the son of Shimeah, the brother of David, responded and said, "My lord should not think that all the young men, the sons of the king, [are] dead, because only Amnon [is] dead. {Absalom was talking about it}, as it was being determined from the day he raped Tamar his sister.

Jonadab said to the king, "Look, the sons of the king have come. According to the word of your servant, so it has come about."

Absalom fled and went to Talmai the son of Ammihur, the king of Geshur. [David] mourned over his son {day after day}.

But Absalom had fled and went [to] Geshur, and he [was] there three years.

King David longed to go out to Absalom, for he was consoled that Amnon had died.

So Joab sent to Tekoa and took from there a wise woman, and he said to her, "Please pretend to mourn and put on garments of mourning. You should not anoint yourself [with] oil, and you must act like this woman who has been mourning over the dead for {a long time}.

Then you must go to the king and speak to him according to this word." [Thus] Joab put the words in her mouth.

So the Tekoite woman spoke to the king, and she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance. She said, "Help me, O king!"

Then the king asked her, "{What do you want}?" And she said, "Truly I [am] a widow, and my husband [is] dead.

Your servant had two sons, and they both fought in the open field, and there [was] no one {to part them}. One struck the other and killed him.

Then the king said to the woman, "Go to your house, and I myself will give the command concerning you."

The Tekoite woman said to the king, "On me, my lord the king, [is] the guilt, and on the house of my father, but the king on his throne [is] innocent."

The king said, "[Whoever] has spoken to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you again."

Then she said, "Please may the king remember Yahweh your God, {to prevent the increase of blood avengers who kill}, [so that they] not wipe out my son." He said, "{As Yahweh lives}, surely not one hair shall fall from your son to the ground."

The woman said, "Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king." And he said, "Speak."

The woman said, "But why have you plotted like this against the people of God? By speaking this word, he is guilty not to bring back his banished one.

For {we must certainly die}, and [we are] as the waters spilled to the ground which cannot be gathered. God will not take a life but devises plans for a banished person not to be cast out from him.

Now I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, because the people made me afraid, and your servant thought, 'I will speak to the king, perhaps the king will grant the request of his servant.

For the king will listen, to deliver his servant from the hand of the man [who seeks] to destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God.'

Your servant also thought, 'May the word of my lord the king {bring rest}, for as an angel of God, so [is] my lord the king, {to sense what is good and what is bad}.' May Yahweh your God be with you."

The king answered and said to the woman, "Please do not withhold from me a thing which I [am] about to ask you." The woman said, "Please let my lord the king speak."

The king asked, "[Was] the hand of Joab with you in all of this?" The woman answered and said, "{As your soul lives}, my lord the king, surely [one cannot] go to the right or to the left from all that my lord the king has spoken. Yes, your servant Joab himself commanded me, and he put all of these words in the mouth of your servant.

In order {to change the situation}, your servant Joab did this thing. But my lord [has] wisdom, as the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all that [is] on the earth."

Then the king said to Joab, "Look, please, I will grant this thing. Go and bring back the young man Absalom."

Joab fell with his face to the ground and did obeisance. And he blessed the king, and he said, "Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, [in] that the king has granted the request of his servant."