2 Samuel 19

David mourns for Absalom

¹The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gate and wept, and as he went, these were his words: “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I could have died in your place, Absalom, my son, my son!”^{a 2}Joab was told, “The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.”^{b 3}So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the troops, because the troops heard it said that day, “The king is grieving over his son.” ⁴That day the troops slipped quietly into the city, the way troops creep in when they are ashamed because they have fled from battle. ⁵The king covered his face and cried out in a loud voice, “My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”

⁶Then Joab went in to the king in the house and said, “You have today disgraced all your servants, who this day saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters, your wives and your concubines, ⁷because you show love to those who hate you and hatred to those who love you. Today you have shown that your commanders and servants count for nothing with you. I know now that if all of us had died today and Absalom were alive, you would think it right. ⁸So now get up, go out and speak to the hearts of your servants. By the LORD I swear: unless you go out, not a single man will spend this night with you. That would be a worse disaster for you than any that has come on you since you were young.”

⁹So the king got up and took his seat in the gate. All the troops were told, “The king is sitting in the gate,” and they all came into his presence. As for Israel, they had fled, each man to his home.

David returns to Jerusalem

¹⁰Throughout all the tribes of Israel the people were arguing with one another. “The king rescued us from the power of our enemies,” they said. “He saved us from the power of the Philistines. Yet now he has fled out of the land because of Absalom. ¹¹And Absalom, whom we anointed to rule over us, has died in battle. So now, why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?”

¹²King David sent this message to the priests Zadok and Abiathar: “Ask the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be last of all in bringing the king back to his palace? What all Israel is saying has reached the king in his house.^{c 13}You are my brothers; you are my own bone and flesh. Why then should you be last of all in bringing the king back?’ ¹⁴And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my own bone and flesh? May God deal with me ever so severely if you do not become commander of my army from now on in place of Joab.’” ¹⁵So he won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as if they were one man, and they sent word to the king: “Come back, you and all your officials.” ¹⁶So the king started back and came as far as the Jordan. Judah had come to Gilgal to meet the king and to bring him across the Jordan. ¹⁷Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, came down in haste with the men of Judah to meet King David. ¹⁸With him were a thousand men from Benjamin, and Ziba the attendant of Saul’s household, with his fifteen sons and his twenty servants. They rushed down to the Jordan ahead of the king. ¹⁹They kept crossing back and forth at the ford to bring the king’s household over and to do whatever he wished. As the king was about to cross the Jordan, Shimei son of Gera fell down before him.^{d 20}He said to the king, “May my lord not hold me guilty. Do not remember the wrong your servant did on the day my lord the king went out from Jerusalem. Let the king put it out of his mind. ²¹Your servant knows that I have sinned. But see, today I have come, the first of all the house of Joseph, to come down and meet my lord the king.”

²²Abishai son of Zeruiah spoke up and said, “Should not Shimei be put to death for this? He cursed the LORD’s anointed!”

²³David said, “Sons of Zeruiah, what business is this of yours? Why should you set yourselves against me today? Is anyone in Israel to be put to death on this day? Do I not know that today I am king over Israel?” ²⁴So the king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” And the king gave him his oath.

²⁵Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, also came down to meet the king. From the day the king left until the day he returned safely, he had not tended his feet, trimmed his mustache or washed his clothes. ²⁶When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?”^{e 27}He answered, “My lord the king, my servant deceived me. Your servant said, ‘I will have the donkey saddled for myself so that I can ride it and go with the king,’ since your servant is lame.^{f 28}He has told my lord the king lies about your servant. Yet my lord the king is like an angel of God, so do whatever seems good to you. ²⁹My father’s whole house deserved nothing but death from my lord the king, yet you gave your servant a place among those who eat at your table. So what right do I have to make any more appeals to the king?”

³⁰The king said to him, “Why say any more about your affairs? I have decided: you and Ziba are to divide the land.” ³¹Mephibosheth said to the king, “Let him take it all, now that my lord the king has come home safely.”

David and Barzillai

³²Barzillai the Gileadite had also come down from Rogelim, and he crossed the Jordan with the king to see him on his way across the river. ³³Barzillai was very old, eighty years of age. He had supplied the king’s needs while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man. ³⁴The king said to Barzillai, “Come across with me, and I will provide for you in Jerusalem, at my side.” ³⁵But Barzillai answered the king, “How many years do I have left to live, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king? ³⁶I am eighty years old today. Can I still tell what is pleasant from what is not? Can your servant taste what I eat and drink? Do I still hear the voices of men and women singing? Why should your servant be one more burden to my lord the king? ³⁷Your servant will go only a short way across the Jordan with the king. Why should the king give me a reward like this? ³⁸Please let your servant go back, so that I may die in my own town near the grave of my father and my mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him cross the river with my lord the king, and treat him in whatever way seems good to you.”

³⁹The king answered, “Chimham will cross with me, and I myself will do for him whatever you think good. And anything you ask of me, I will do for you.” ⁴⁰So all the people crossed the Jordan, and the king crossed too. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai went back to his home.

Israel and Judah quarrel

⁴¹The king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went with him. All the people of Judah had brought the king across, and half the people of Israel as well. ⁴²Just then the men of Israel all came to the king and said to him, “Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away? Why did they take the king and his household over the Jordan, along with all David’s men?”

⁴³All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, “We did it because the king is our close relative. Why are you so angry about this? Have we eaten anything at the king’s expense? Have we been given any gift?”

⁴⁴The men of Israel replied to the men of Judah, “Ten shares in the king are ours, and in David too our share is larger than yours. So why do you treat us as if we did not matter? Was it not we who first said that our king should be brought back?” But the men of Judah answered more fiercely than the men of Israel.^g