2 Samuel 19
Joab was told, The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom. 2So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people; for the people heard say that day, The king grieves for his son. 3The people stole into the city that day as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. 4The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son! 5Joab came into the house to the king, and said, Today you have humiliated all your servants, who this day have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and daughters, and the lives of your wives and concubines; 6You 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 this day I see that if Absalom had lived, and all of us had died, then it would have pleased you well. 7Now therefore arise, go out, and encourage your servants; for I swear by Allah, if you don't go out, there will not stay a man with you this night: and that will be worse to you than all the evil that has happened to you from your youth until now. 8Then the king arose, and sat in the gate. They told all the people, saying, Look, the king is sitting in the gate: and all the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled, every man to his tent. 9All the people were in a dispute throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king delivered us out of the hand of our enemies, and he saved us out of the hand of the Philistines; and now he has fled from the land because of Absalom. 10Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why do you not speak a word about bringing the king back? 11King Dawud sent to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, saying, Ask the elders of Judah, Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house, since the words of all Israel have come to the king, to his very house. 12You are my brothers, you are my bone and my flesh: why then are you the last to bring back the king? 13Say to Amasa, Aren't you my bone and my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if you aren't captain of the army before me continually in place of Joab. 14Dawud won over the hearts of all the men of Judah, as the heart of one man; so that they sent to the king, saying, Return, you and all your servants. 15So the king returned, and came to the Jordan. Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Jordan. 16Shimei Ibn Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet king Dawud. 17There were a thousand men of Binyamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Talut, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went over the Jordan before the king. 18Then a ferry-boat went across to bring the king's household, and to do what he thought good. Shimei Ibn Gera fell down before the king, when he had come over the Jordan. 19He said to the king, Do not let my lord impute iniquity to me, neither remember that which your servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart. 20For I, your servant, know that I have sinned: therefore, behold, I have come this day the first of all the house of Yusuf to go down to meet my lord the king. 21But Abishai Ibn Zeruiah answered, Shall Shimei not be put to death for this, because he cursed Allah's anointed? 22Dawud said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be adversaries to me? Shall any man be put to death this day in Israel? Do I not know that today I am king over Israel? 23The king said to Shimei, You shall not die. The king swore to him. 24Mephibosheth Ibn Talut came down to meet the king; and he had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace. 25It happened, when he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said to him, Why didn't you go with me, Mephibosheth? 26He answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me: for your servant said, I will saddle a donkey, that I may ride thereon, and go with the king; because your servant is lame. 27He has slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God: do therefore what is good in your eyes. 28For 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 still to cry out any more to the king? 29The king said to him, Why speak any more of your matters? I say, You and Ziba divide the land. 30Mephibosheth said to the king, Rather, let him take it all, because my lord the king has come back in peace to his own house. 31Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim; and he went over the Jordan with the king, to escort him over the Jordan. 32Now Barzillai was a very old man, even eighty years of age: and he had provided for the king while he stayed at Mahanaim; for he was a very rich man. 33The king said to Barzillai, Come over with me, and I will sustain you with me in Jerusalem. 34Barzillai said to the king, How many more years shall I live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? 35I am today 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 a burden to my lord the king? 36Your servant would but just go over the Jordan with the king: and why should the king repay me with such a reward? 37Please let your servant return 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. 38The king answered, Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to you: and whatever you shall ask of me, that will I do for you. 39All the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over: and the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and Barzillai returned to his own place. 40So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went over with him: and all the people of Judah brought the king over, and also half the people of Israel. 41Then all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king, and his household, over the Jordan, and all Dawud's men with him? 42All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Because the king is a close relative to us: why then are you angry over this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king's cost? Or has he given us any gift? 43The men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more right in Dawud than you: why then did you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king? Yet the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.