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was told, “The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.” 2 So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the troops, because on that day the troops heard it said, “The king is grieving for his son.” 3 So the troops stole back quietly into the city that day, as troops steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle. 4 The king covered his face and the king kept crying out loudly, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!”
5 Then Joab went into the house to the king and said, “Today you have covered all the faces of your men with shame, who this day have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and your daughters, and the lives of your wives and concubines. 6 You love your enemies and hate those who love you. Today you have made it clear that the commanders and men mean nothing to you. I see today that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead. 7 Now get up! Go out and encourage your men! For I swear by the Lord that if you do not go out, not a man will remain with you by nightfall. Then this will be worse disaster for you than any of the other calamities that have come upon you from your youth until now.”
8 So the king got up and took his seat in the gateway. When the men were told, “Look, the king is sitting in the gateway,” they all came and congregated before the king.
Meanwhile, all the Israelites had fled to their homes. 9 Throughout the tribes of Israel all the people were arguing with each other, saying, “The king saved us from the hand of our enemies, and he delivered us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled the land because of Absalom. 10 But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle. So why do you say nothing about restoring the king?”
11 King David sent word to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests: “Say to the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be the last to bring the king back to his palace? By now the talk of all Israel has reached the king at his palace. 12 You are my brothers, you are my own flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to bring back the king?’ ” 13 And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my own flesh and blood? May God deal severely with me, and more also, if from now on you are not the commander of my army permanently in place of Joab’.”
14 So he won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man, and they sent word to the king, “Come back, you and all your servants.” 15 Then the king returned and went as far as the Jordan.
The people of Judah went to Gilgal to meet the king and escort him across the Jordan. 16 Shimei son of Gera, a Benjaminite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David. 17 With him were a thousand men of Benjamin, along with Ziba, a servant from the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed to the Jordan where the king was 18 and crossed at the ford to bring the king’s household across, and do whatever the king wished.
When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he threw himself down before the king 19 and said to him, “May my lord not hold me guilty, and do not remember the wrongdoing your servant did on the day when my lord left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart. 20 For your servant knows that I have sinned, but today I am the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet the king.”
21 But Abishai son of Zeruiah asked, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord’s anointed?”
22 David answered, “What is it to you, you sons of Zeruiah. Have you become my adversaries today? Should any man be put to death in Israel this day? Do I not know that I am king over Israel today?” 23 So the king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” And the king gave him his oath.
24 Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, also went down to meet the king. He had not taken care of his feet or trimmed his beard or washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he returned safely. 25 When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?”
26 He answered, “My lord the king, my own servant deceived me. Since your servant is lame, ‘I will have the donkey saddled so that I may ride on it and go with the king’, because your servant is lame. 27 And Ziba has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like an angel of God, so do whatever you think is best. 28 For all my grandfather’s family deserved nothing but death from my lord the king, yet you set your servant among those who eat at your own table. So what further right do I have me to make any more appeals to the king?”
29 The king said to him, “Why do you speak anymore of your own affairs? I have decided that you and Ziba will divide the land’.”
30 Mephibosheth said to the king, “Let him take it all, since my lord the king has come back to his palace safely.”
31 Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim and accompanied the king to the Jordan to see him off from there. 32 Now Barzillai was a very old man, eighty years of age. He had provided for the needs of the king while he stayed at Mahanaim, for Barzillai was a very wealthy man. 33 The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me, and I will provide for you at my side in Jerusalem.”
34 But Barzillai said to the king, “How many years are left to me that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? 35 I am eighty years of age this day. Can I discern between what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I still listen to the voices of men and women singing? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? 36 Your servant will go a little way past the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? 37 Please let your servant return, so that I may die in my own city near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever seems good to you.”
38 The king said, “Chimham will cross over with me, and I will do for him whatever pleases you. And anything you require of me, I will do for you.”
39 So all the people crossed the Jordan, and then the king crossed over. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai returned to his home.
40 The king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went with him. All the troops from Judah and half the troops of Israel accompanied the king.
41 Soon after, all the men of Israel were coming to the king and saying to him, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, steal you away, and escort the king and his household across the Jordan, along with all David’s men?”
42 And all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, “Because the king is closely related to us. Why then are you angry about this matter? Have we eaten at the king’s expense? Has he given us any gifts?”
43 But the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, “We have ten shares in the king, so we have a greater claim to David than you have. Why then do you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of restoring our king?”
But the words of the men of Judah were harsher than the words of the men of Israel.