June
25
2
Samuel 16-18
2Sa
16:1 When David was a little past the top of
the ascent, behold, Ziba the servant of
Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, and on them
two hundred loaves of bread, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and
one hundred summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
2Sa
16:2 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.
2Sa
16:3 The king said, Where is your master's son? Ziba said to the
king, Behold, he abides at Jerusalem; for he said, Today will the
house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father.
2Sa
16:4 Then said the king to Ziba, Behold, all that pertains to
Mephibosheth is yours. Ziba said, I do obeisance; let me find favor
in your sight, my lord, O king.
2Sa
16:5 When king David came to Bahurim, behold, a man of the family of
the house of Saul came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera.
He came out, and cursed still as he came.
2Sa
16:6 He cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David:
and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and
on his left.
2Sa
16:7 Thus said Shimei when he cursed, Be gone, be gone, you man of
blood, and base fellow:
2Sa
16:8 Yahweh has returned on you all the blood of the house of Saul,
in whose place you have reigned; and Yahweh has delivered the kingdom
into the hand of Absalom your son; and behold, you are caught by your
own mischief, because you are a man of blood.
2Sa
16:9 Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah to the king, "Why
should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over
and take off his head."
2Sa
16:10 The king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of
Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, Curse
David; who then shall say, Why have you done so?
2Sa
16:11 David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my
son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life: how much more may
this Benjamite now do it?
let him alone, and let him curse; for Yahweh has invited him.
2Sa
16:12 It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and
that Yahweh will requite me good for his
cursing of me this day.
2Sa
16:13 So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on
the hillside over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw
stones at him, and cast dust.
2Sa
16:14 The king, and all the people who were with him, came weary;
and he refreshed himself there.
2Sa
16:15 Absalom, and all the people, the men of Israel, came to
Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him.
2Sa
16:16 It happened, when Hushai the Archite, David's friend, was come
to Absalom, that Hushai said to Absalom, Long
live the king, Long
live the king.
2Sa
16:17 Absalom said to Hushai, Is this your kindness to your friend?
Why didn't you go with your friend?
2Sa
16:18 Hushai said to Absalom, No; but whom Yahweh, and this people,
and all the men of Israel have chosen, his will I be, and with him
will I abide.
2Sa
16:19 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.
2Sa
16:20 Then said Absalom to Ahithophel, Give your counsel what we
shall do.
2Sa
16:21 Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go in to your father's concubines,
that he has left to keep the house; and all Israel will hear that you
are abhorred by your father: then the hands of all who are with you
will be strong.
2Sa
16:22 So they spread Absalom a tent on the top of the house; and
Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all
Israel.
2Sa
16:23 The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as
if a man inquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of
Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.
2Sa
17:1 Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose out
twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this
night:
2Sa
17:2 and I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and
will make him afraid; and all the people who are with him shall flee;
and I will strike the king only;
2Sa
17:3 and I will bring back all the people to you: the man whom you
seek is as if all returned: so
all the people shall be in peace.
2Sa
17:4 The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
2Sa
17:5 Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us
hear likewise what he says.
2Sa
17:6 When Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying,
Ahithophel has spoken after this manner: shall we do after
his saying? if not, speak up.
2Sa
17:7 Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given
this time is not good.
2Sa
17:8 Hushai said moreover, You know your father and his men, that
they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, as a bear
robbed of her cubs in the field; and your father is a man of war, and
will not lodge with the people.
2Sa
17:9 Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other
place: and it will happen, when some of them are fallen at the first,
that whoever hears it will say, There is a slaughter among the people
who follow Absalom.
2Sa
17:10 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.
2Sa
17:11 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.
2Sa
17:12 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.
2Sa
17:13 Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel
bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until
there not be one small stone found there.
2Sa
17:14 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.
2Sa
17:15 Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests,
Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel that way; and I
have counseled this way.
2Sa
17:16 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.
2Sa
17:17 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.
2Sa
17:18 But a boy saw them, and told Absalom: and they went both of
them away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had
a well in his court; and they went down there.
2Sa
17:19 The woman took and spread the covering over the well's mouth,
and strewed bruised grain thereon; and nothing was known.
2Sa
17:20 Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house; and they
said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? The woman said to them, They
have gone over the brook of water. When they had sought and could not
find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
2Sa
17:21 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.
2Sa
17:22 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.
2Sa
17:23 When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he
saddled his donkey, and arose, and got him home, to his city, and set
his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried
in the tomb of his father.
2Sa
17:24 Then David came to Mahanaim. Absalom passed over the Jordan,
he and all the men of Israel with him.
2Sa
17:25 Absalom set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. Now Amasa was
the son of a man, whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who went in to
Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab's mother.
2Sa
17:26 Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.
2Sa
17:27 It happened, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the
son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son
of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,
2Sa
17:28 brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and
barley, and meal, and parched grain,
and beans, and lentils, and parched pulse,
2Sa
17:29 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.
2Sa
18:1 David numbered the people who were with him, and set captains
of thousands and captains of hundreds over them.
2Sa
18:2 David sent forth the people, a third part under the hand of
Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah,
Joab's brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite.
The king said to the people, I will surely go forth with you myself
also.
2Sa
18:3 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.
2Sa
18:4 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.
2Sa
18:5 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.
2Sa
18:6 So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the
battle was in the forest of Ephraim.
2Sa
18:7 The people of Israel were struck there before the servants of
David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty
thousand men.
2Sa
18:8 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.
2Sa
18:9 Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was
riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a
great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up
between the sky and earth; and the mule that was under him went on.
2Sa
18:10 A certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw
Absalom hanging in an oak.
2Sa
18:11 Joab said to the man who told him, Behold, you saw it, and why
didn't you strike him there to the ground? and I would have given you
ten pieces of
silver, and a sash.
2Sa
18:12 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.
2Sa
18:13 Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there
is no matter hid from the king), then you yourself would have set
yourself against me.
2Sa
18:14 Then said Joab, I may not wait thus with you. He took three
darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom,
while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.
2Sa
18:15 Ten young men who bore Joab's armor surrounded and struck
Absalom, and killed him.
2Sa
18:16 Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing
after Israel; for Joab held back the people.
2Sa
18:17 They took Absalom, and cast him into the great pit in the
forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones: and all
Israel fled everyone to his tent.
2Sa
18:18 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: and he called the pillar after his
own name; and it is called Absalom's monument, to this day.
2Sa
18:19 Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear
the king news, how that Yahweh has avenged him of his enemies.
2Sa
18:20 Joab said to him, You shall not be the bearer of news this
day, but you shall bear news another day; but this day you shall bear
no news, because the king's son is dead.
2Sa
18:21 Then said Joab to the Cushite, Go, tell the king what you have
seen. The Cushite bowed himself to Joab, and ran.
2Sa
18:22 Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab, But come
what may, Please let me also run after the Cushite. Joab said, Why
will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the
news?
2Sa
18:23 But come what may, said he,
I will run. He said to him, Run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the
Plain, and outran the Cushite.
2Sa
18:24 Now David was sitting between the two gates: and the watchman
went up to the roof of the gate to the wall, and lifted up his eyes,
and looked, and, behold, a man running alone.
2Sa
18:25 The watchman cried, and told the king. The king said, If he be
alone, there is news in his mouth. He came apace, and drew near.
2Sa
18:26 The watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called
to the porter, and said, Behold, another
man running alone. The king said, He also brings news.
2Sa
18:27 The watchman said, I think the running of the foremost is like
the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok. The king said, He is a good
man, and comes with good news.
2Sa
18:28 Ahimaaz called, and said to the king, All is well. He bowed
himself before the king with his face to the earth, and said, Blessed
be Yahweh your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted up their
hand against my lord the king.
2Sa
18:29 The king said, Is it well with the young man Absalom? Ahimaaz
answered, When Joab sent the king's servant, even me your servant, I
saw a great tumult, but I don't know what it was.
2Sa
18:30 The king said, Turn aside, and stand here. He turned aside,
and stood still.
2Sa
18:31 Behold, the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, News for my
lord the king; for Yahweh has avenged you this day of all those who
rose up against you.
2Sa
18:32 The king said to the Cushite, Is it well with the young man
Absalom? The Cushite answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and
all who rise up against you to do you hurt, be as that young man is.
2Sa
18:33 The king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the
gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, my son Absalom, my son,
my son Absalom! would I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son!