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But the king said, "Is it well with the young man Absalom?" And Ahimaaz answered, "When Joab sent the king's servant, and your servant, I saw a great commotion, but I did not know what it was."

And all the people were quarreling throughout the tribes of Israel, saying, "The king rescued us from the hands of our enemies and saved us from the hands of the Philistines, but now he has fled out of the land from Absalom.

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah responded, "Should Shimei not be put to death for this, the fact that he cursed the LORD'S anointed?"

Then Mephibosheth the grandson of Saul came down to meet the king; but he had neither tended to his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes since the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.

"Furthermore, he has slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is like the angel of God, therefore do what is good in your sight.

But Barzillai said to the king, "How long do I still have to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?

But the men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, "We have ten parts in the king, therefore we also have more claim on David than you. Why then did you treat us with contempt? Was it not our advice first to bring back our king?" Yet the words of the men of Judah were harsher than the words of the men of Israel.

So all the men of Israel withdrew from following David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah remained loyal to their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem.

Then David came to his house in Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, the concubines whom he had left behind to take care of the house, and put them in custody and provided them with food, but did not have relations with them. So they were locked up until the day of their death, living as widows.

So Amasa went to summon the men of Judah, but he was delayed longer than the set time which he had designated for him.

But Amasa was not on guard against the sword which was in Joab's hand, so he struck him in the belly with it and spilled out his intestines on the ground, and did not strike him again, and he died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba the son of Bichri.

But Amasa was wallowing in his own blood in the middle of the road. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa from the road to the field and threw a garment over him when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.

"Such is not the case. But a man from the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has raised his hand against King David. Only turn him over, and I will depart from the city." And the woman said to Joab, "Behold, his head will be thrown to you over the wall."

So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the sons of Israel had made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah).

But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath of the LORD which was between them, between David and Saul's son Jonathan.

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then David's men swore to him, saying, "You shall not go out again with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish the lamp of Israel."

"They confronted me on the day of my disaster, But the LORD was my support.

With the one who is pure You show Yourself pure, But with the perverted You show Yourself astute.

"And You save an afflicted people; But Your eyes are on the haughty whom You humiliate.

"They looked, but there was no one to save them; Even to the LORD, but He did not answer them.