The Berean Pursuit
Then David reviewed his troops and appointed over them commanders of hundreds and of thousands. He sent out the troops, a third under Joab, a third under Joab's brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under Ittai the Gittite. And the king said to the troops, "I will surely march out with you as well."
But the people pleaded, "You must not go out! For if we have to flee, they will pay no attention to us. Even if half of us die, they will not care; but you are worth ten thousand of us. It is better for now if you support us from the city."
"I will do whatever seems best to you," the king replied. So he stood beside the gate, while all the troops marched out by hundreds and by thousands.
Now the king had commanded Joab, Abishai, and Ittai, "Treat the young man Absalom gently for my sake." And all the people heard the king's orders to each of the commanders regarding Absalom.
So David's army marched into the field to engage Israel in the battle, which took place in the forest of Ephraim. There the people of Israel were defeated by David's servants, and the slaughter was great that day-twenty thousand men. The battle spread over the whole countryside, and that day the forest devoured more people than the sword.
Now Absalom was riding on his mule when he met the servants of David, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom's head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so that he was suspended in midair. When one of the men saw this, he told Joab, "I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!"
"You just saw him!" Joab exclaimed. "Why did you not strike him to the ground right there? I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a warrior's belt!"
The man replied, "Even if a thousand shekels of silver were weighed out into my hands, I would not raise my hand against the son of the king. For we heard the king command you and Abishai and Ittai, 'Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.' If I had jeopardized my own life-and nothing is hidden from the king-you would have abandoned me."
But Joab declared, "I am not going to wait like this with you!" And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak tree. And ten young men who carried Joab's armor surrounded Absalom, struck him, and killed him.
Then Joab blew the ram's horn, and the troops broke off their pursuit of Israel because Joab had restrained them. They took Absalom, cast him into a large pit in the forest, and piled a huge mound of stones over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled, each to his home.
During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King's Valley, for he had said, "I have no son to preserve the memory of my name." So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom's Monument.
Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, "Please let me run and tell the king the good news that the LORD has avenged him of his enemies."
But Joab replied, "You are not the man to take good news today. You may do it another day, but you must not do so today, because the king's son is dead."
So Joab said to a Cushite, "Go, tell the king what you have seen." The Cushite bowed to Joab and took off running.
Ahimaaz son of Zadok, however, persisted and said to Joab, "Regardless of whatever may happen, please let me also run behind the Cushite!"
"My son," Joab replied, "why do you want to run, since you will not receive a reward?"
"No matter what, I want to run!" he replied.
"Then run!" Joab told him.
So Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and outran the Cushite.
Now David was sitting between the two gates when the watchman went up to the roof of the gateway by the wall, looked out, and saw a man running alone. So he called out and told the king.
"If he is alone," the king replied, "he bears good news."
As the first runner drew near, the watchman saw another man running, and he called out to the gatekeeper, "Look! Another man is running alone!"
"This one also brings good news," said the king.
The watchman said, "The first man appears to me to be running like Ahimaaz son of Zadok."
"This is a good man," said the king. "He comes with good news."
Then Ahimaaz called out to the king, "All is well!" And he bowed facedown before the king.
He continued, "Blessed be the LORD your God! He has delivered up the men who raised their hands against my lord the king."
The king asked, "Is the young man Absalom all right?"
And Ahimaaz replied, "When Joab sent the king's servant and your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I do not know what it was."
"Move aside," said the king, "and stand here."
So he stepped aside.
Just then the Cushite came and said, "May my lord the king hear the good news: Today the LORD has avenged you of all who rose up against you!"
The king asked the Cushite, "Is the young man Absalom all right?"
And the Cushite replied, "May what has become of the young man happen to the enemies of my lord the king and to all who rise up against you to harm you."
The king was shaken and went up to the gate chamber and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, "O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
Then it was reported to Joab, "The king is weeping and mourning over Absalom." And that day's victory was turned into mourning for all the people, because on that day they were told, "The king is grieving over his son."
So they returned to the city quietly that day, as people steal away in humiliation after fleeing a battle. But the king covered his face and cried out at the top of his voice, "O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!"
Then Joab went into the house and said to the king, "Today you have disgraced all your servants who have saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters, of your wives, and of your concubines. You love those who hate you and hate those who love you! For you have made it clear today that the commanders and soldiers mean nothing to you. I know today that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead, it would have pleased you!
Now therefore get up! Go out and speak comfort to your servants, for I swear by the LORD that if you do not go out, not a man will remain with you tonight. This will be worse for you than all the adversity that has befallen you from your youth until now!"
So the king got up and sat in the gate, and all the people were told: "Behold, the king is sitting in the gate." So they all came before the king.
Meanwhile, the Israelites had fled, each man to his home. And all the people throughout the tribes of Israel were arguing, "The king rescued us from the hand of our enemies and delivered us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled the land because of Absalom. But Absalom, the man we anointed over us, has died in battle. So why do you say nothing about restoring the king?"
Then King David sent this message to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests: "Say to the elders of Judah, 'Why should you be the last to restore the king to his palace, since the talk of all Israel has reached the king at his quarters? You are my brothers, my own flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king?' And say to Amasa, 'Aren't you my flesh and blood? May God punish me, and ever so severely, if from this time you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!'"
So he swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man, and they sent word to the king: "Return, you and all your servants."
So the king returned, and when he arrived at the Jordan, the men of Judah came to Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the Jordan.
Then Shimei son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David, along with a thousand men of Benjamin, as well as Ziba the steward of the house of Saul and his fifteen sons and twenty servants.
They rushed down to the Jordan before the king and crossed at the ford to carry over the king's household and to do what was good in his sight.
When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell down before the king and said, "My lord, do not hold me guilty, and do not remember your servant's wrongdoing on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart. For your servant knows that I have sinned, so here I am today as the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king."
But Abishai son of Zeruiah said, "Shouldn't Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD's anointed?"
And David replied, "Sons of Zeruiah, what have I to do with you, that you should be my adversaries today? Should any man be put to death in Israel today? Am I not indeed aware that today I am king over Israel?"
So the king said to Shimei, "You shall not die." And the king swore an oath to him.
Then Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson, went down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet or trimmed his mustache or washed his clothes from the day the king had left until the day he returned safely. And he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, who asked him, "Mephibosheth, why did you not go with me?"
"My lord the king," he replied, "because I am lame, I said, 'I will have my donkey saddled so that I may ride on it and go with the king.' But my servant Ziba deceived me, and he has slandered your servant to my lord the king.
Yet my lord the king is like the angel of God, so do what is good in your eyes. For all the house of my grandfather deserves death from my lord the king, yet you have set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right, then, do I have to keep appealing to the king?"
The king replied, "Why say any more? I hereby declare that you and Ziba are to divide the land."
And Mephibosheth said to the king, "Instead, since my lord the king has safely come to his own house, let Ziba take it all!"
Now Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim to cross the Jordan with the king and send him on his way from there. Barzillai was quite old, eighty years of age, and since he was a very wealthy man, he had provided for the king while he stayed in Mahanaim.
The king said to Barzillai, "Cross over with me, and I will provide for you at my side in Jerusalem."
But Barzillai replied, "How many years of my life remain, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king? I am now eighty years old. Can I discern what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of singing men and women? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?
Your servant could go with the king only a short distance past the Jordan; why should the king repay me with such a reward? Please let your servant return, 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, and do for him what is good in your sight."
The king replied, "Chimham will cross over with me, and I will do for him what seems good in your sight, and I will do for you whatever you desire of me."
So all the people crossed the Jordan, and then the king crossed over. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai returned home.
Then the king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham crossed over with him. All the troops of Judah and half the troops of Israel escorted the king.
Soon all the men of Israel came to the king and asked, "Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and bring the king and his household across the Jordan, together with all of David's men?"
And all the men of Judah replied to the men of Israel, "We did this because the king is our relative. Why does this anger you? Have we ever eaten at the king's expense or received anything for ourselves?"
"We have ten shares in the king," answered the men of Israel, "so we have more claim to David than you. Why then do you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of restoring our king?"
But the men of Judah pressed even harder than the men of Israel.
Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram's horn and shouted:
"We have no share in David,
no inheritance in Jesse's son.
Every man to his tent,
O Israel!"
So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba son of Bichri. But the men of Judah stayed by their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace, and he placed them in a house under guard. He provided for them, but he no longer slept with them. They were confined until the day of their death, living as widows.
Then the king said to Amasa, "Summon the men of Judah to come to me within three days, and be here yourself."
So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he took longer than the time allotted him.
And David said to Abishai, "Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord's servants and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and elude us."
So Joab's men, along with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the mighty men, marched out of Jerusalem in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri. And while they were at the great stone in Gibeon, Amasa joined them.
Now Joab was dressed in military attire, with a dagger strapped to his belt. And as he stepped forward, he slipped the dagger from its sheath. "Are you well, my brother?" Joab asked Amasa. And with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him.
Amasa was not on guard against the dagger in Joab's hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach and spilled out his intestines on the ground. And Joab did not need to strike him again, for Amasa was dead. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri.
One of Joab's young men stood near Amasa and said, "Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!" But Amasa wallowed in his blood in the middle of the road, and when the man saw that all the troops were stopping there, he dragged the body off the road into a field and threw a garment over it. As soon as Amasa's body was removed from the road, all the men went on with Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.
Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel-beth-maacah and through the entire region of the Berites, who gathered together and followed him.
And Joab's troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel-beth-maacah and built a siege ramp against the outer rampart of the city.
As all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to topple it, a wise woman called out from the city, "Listen! Listen! Please tell Joab to come here so that I may speak with him."
When he had come near to her, the woman asked, "Are you Joab?"
"I am," he replied.
"Listen to the words of your servant," she said.
"I am listening," he answered.
Then the woman said, "Long ago they used to say, 'Seek counsel at Abel,' and that is how disputes were settled. I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the LORD's inheritance?"
"Far be it!" Joab declared. "Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy! That is not the case. But a man named Sheba son of Bichri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him alone, and I will depart from the city."
"Look," the woman replied, "his head will be thrown to you over the wall."
Then the woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the ram's horn and his men dispersed from the city, each to his own home. And Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.
Now Joab was over the whole army of Israel; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and Pelethites; Adoram was in charge of the forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder; Sheva was the scribe; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; and Ira the Jairite was David's priest.
Of David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, so that the king drove him away.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise will always be on my lips.
My soul boasts in the LORD;
let the oppressed hear and rejoice.
Magnify the LORD with me;
let us exalt His name together.
I sought the LORD, and He answered me;
He delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to Him are radiant with joy;
their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man called out, and the LORD heard him;
He saved him from all his troubles.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him,
and he delivers them.
Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
Fear the LORD, you His saints,
for those who fear Him lack nothing.
Young lions go lacking and hungry,
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
Come, children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Who is the man who delights in life,
who desires to see good days?
Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from deceitful speech.
Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
and His ears are inclined to their cry.
But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to wipe out all memory of them from the earth.
The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears;
He delivers them from all their troubles.
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted;
He saves the contrite in spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him from them all.
He protects all his bones;
not one of them will be broken.
Evil will slay the wicked,
and the haters of the righteous will be condemned.
The LORD redeems His servants,
and none who take refuge in Him will be condemned.
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. And we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, O man, pass judgment on others, yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you to repentance?
But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. God "will repay each one according to his deeds." To those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.
There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, first for the Jew, then for the Greek. For God does not show favoritism.
All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.
Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. So they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or defending them on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Christ Jesus, as proclaimed by my gospel.
Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know His will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth- you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? The one who is physically uncircumcised yet keeps the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise does not come from men, but from God.