9Absalom encountered some of David’s followers. Absalom was riding on a mule, and as the mule passed under the tangled branches of a great terebinth, his hair got caught in the terebinth; he e-was held-e between heaven and earth as the mule under him kept going. 10One of the men saw it and told Joab, “I have just seen Absalom hanging from a terebinth.” 11Joab said to the man who told him, “You saw it! Why didn’t you kill him f-then and there?-f I would have owed you teng shekels of silver and a belt.” 12But the man answered Joab, “Even if I had a thousand shekels of silver in my hands, I would not raise a hand against the king’s son. For the king charged you and Abishai and Ittai in our hearing, ‘Watch over my boy Absalom, h-for my sake.’-h 13If I betrayed myselfi—and nothing is hidden from the king—you would have stood aloof.” 14Joab replied, j-“Then I will not wait for you.”-j He took three darts in his hand and drove them into Absalom’s chest. [Absalom] was still alive in the thick growth of the terebinth, 15when ten of Joab’s young arms-bearers closed in and struck at Absalom until he died. 16Then Joab sounded the horn, and the troops gave up their pursuit of the Israelites; for Joab held the troops in check. 17They took Absalom and flung him into a large pit in the forest, and they piled up a very great heap of stones over it. Then all the Israelites fled to their homes.—18Now Absalom, in his lifetime, had taken the pillar which is in the Valley of the King and set it up for himself; for he said, “I have no son to keep my name alive.” He had named the pillar after himself, and it has been called Absalom’s Monument to this day.
19Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, “Let me run and report to the king that the LORD has vindicated him against his enemies.” 20But Joab said to him, “You shall not be the one to bring tidings today. You may bring tidings some other day, but you’ll not bring any today; for the king’s son is dead!” 21And Joab said to a Cushite, “Go tell the king what you have seen.” The Cushite bowed to Joab and ran off. 22But Ahimaaz son of Zadok again said to Joab, “No matter what, let me run, too, behind the Cushite.” Joab asked, “Why should you run, my boy, when you have no news k-worth telling?”-k 23“I am going to run anyway.” “Then run,” he said. So Ahimaaz ran by way of the Plain, and he passed the Cushite.
24David was sitting between the two gates.l The watchman on the roof of the gate walked over to the city wall. He looked up and saw a man running alone. 25The watchman called down and told the king; and the king said, “If he is alone, he has news to report.” As he was coming nearer, 26the watchman saw another man running; and he called out to the gatekeeper, “There is another man running alone.” And the king said, “That one, too, brings news.” 27The watchman said, “I can see that the first one runs like Ahimaaz son of Zadok”; to which the king replied, “He is a good man, and he comes with good news.” 28Ahimaaz called out and said to the king, “All is well!” He bowed low with his face to the ground and said, “Praised be the LORD your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king.” 29The king asked, “Is my boy Absalom safe?” And Ahimaaz answered, “I saw k-a large crowd when Your Majesty’s servant Joab was sending your servant off,-k but I don’t know what it was about.” 30The king said, “Step aside and stand over there”; he stepped aside and waited.
31Just then the Cushite came up; and the Cushite said, “Let my lord the king be informed that the LORD has vindicated you today against all who rebelled against you!” 32The king asked the Cushite, “Is my boy Absalom safe?” And the Cushite replied, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rose against you to do you harm fare like 19 that young man!” 1aThe king was shaken. He went up to the upper chamber of the gateway and wept, moaning these words as he went,b “My son Absalom! O my son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son!”
192Joab was told that the king was weeping and mourning over Absalom. 3And the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the troops, for that day the troops heard that the king was grieving over his son. 4The troops stole into town that day like troops ashamed after running away in battle. 5The king covered his face and the king kept crying aloud, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!”
6Joab came to the king in his quarters and said, “Today you have humiliated all your followers, who this day saved your life, and the lives of your sons and daughters, and the lives of your wives and concubines, 7by showing love for those who hate you and hate for those who love you. For you have made clear today that the officers and men mean nothing to you. I am sure that if Absalom were alive today and the rest of us dead, you would have preferred it. 8Now arise, come out and placate your followers! For I swear by the LORD that ifc you do not come out, not a single man will remain with you overnight; and that would be a greater disaster for you than any disaster that has befallen you from your youth until now.” 9So the king arose and sat down in the gateway; and when all the troops were told that the king was sitting in the gateway, all the troops presented themselves to the king.
Now the Israelites had fled to their homes. 10All the people throughout the tribes of Israel were arguing: Some said, “The king saved us from the hands of our enemies, and he delivered us from the hands of the Philistines; and just now he had to flee the country because of Absalom. 11But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle; why then do you sit idle instead of escorting the king back?” 12The talk of all Israel reached the king in his quarters. So King David sent this message to the priests Zadok and Abiathar: “Speak to the elders of Judah and say, ‘Why should you be the last to bring the king back to his palace? 13You are my kinsmen, my own flesh and blood! Why should you be the last to escort the king back?’ 14And to Amasa say this, ‘You are my own flesh and blood. May God do thus and more to me if you do not become my army commander permanently in place of Joab!”’ 15So [Amasa] swayed the hearts of all the Judites as one man; and they sent a message to the king: “Come back with all your followers.”
16The king started back and arrived at the Jordan; and the Judites went to Gilgal to meet the king and to conduct the king across the Jordan. 17Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, hurried down with the Judites to meet King David, 18accompanied by a thousand Benjaminites. dAnd Ziba, the servant of the House of Saul, together with his fifteen sons and twenty slaves, rushed down to the Jordan ahead of the king 19while the crossing was being made, to escort the king’s family over, and to do whatever he wished. Shimei son of Gera flung himself before the king as he was about to cross the Jordan. 20He said to the king, “Let not my lord hold me guilty, and do not remember the wrong your servant committed on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem; let Your Majesty give it no thought. 21For your servant knows that he has sinned; so here I have come down today, the first of all the House of Joseph, to meet my lord the king.” 22Thereupon Abishai son of Zeruiah spoke up, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for that—insulting the Lord’s anointed?” 23But David said, e-“What has this to do with you,-e you sons of Zeruiah, that you should cross me today? Should a single Israelite be put to death today? Don’t If know that today I am again king over Israel?” 24Then the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die”; and the king gave him his oath.
25Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul, also came down to meet the king. He had not pared his toenails, or trimmed his mustache, or washed his clothes from the day that the king left until the day he returned safe. 26When he g-came [from]-g Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why didn’t you come with me, Mephibosheth?” 27He replied, “My lord the king, my own servanth deceived me. i-Your servant planned to saddle his ass and ride-i on it and go with Your Majesty—for your servant is lame. 28[Ziba] has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord
