3 And the people withdrew by stealth that day into the city, as people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

4 But the king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son !

5 And Joab came into the house to the king, and said, thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, who this day have saved thy life, and the lives of thy sons and of thy daughters, and the lives of thy wives, and the lives of thy concubines;

thee well.

7 Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak 4 comfortably to thy servants: for I swear by the LORD, if thou shalt not go 5 forth, there will not tarry one with thee this night: and that will be worse to thee than all the evil that hath befallen thee from thy youth until now.

4 Heb. to the

servants.

Heb. are ye silent.

Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went over Jordan before the king.

18 And there went over a ferry-boat to carry over the king's household, and to do 6 what he thought good. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, as he came over Jordan;

19 And said to the king, Let not my lord impute iniquity to me, neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart.

20 For thy servant doth know that I have sinned: therefore behold, I have come the first this day of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.

21 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered and said, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD's anointed?

22 And David said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye should this day be adversaries to me? shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? for do not I know that I

11 ¶ And king David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, Why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house? seeing the speech of c. 16. 5. all Israel is come to the king, even to his house.

12 Ye are my brethren, ye are my bones and my flesh: why then are ye the last to bring back the king?

13 And say ye to Amasa, Art thou not of my bone, and of my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if thou be not captain of the host before me continually in the room of Joab.

14 And he bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as the heart of one man; so that they sent this word to the king, Return thou, and all thy servants.

15. So the king returned, and came to Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to conduct the king over Jordan.

d c. 16. 3.

Heb. men of death.

16 And Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjaminite, who was of Bahurim, hasted and came down with the men of Ju- c. 17. 27. dah to meet king David.

17 And there were a thousand men of

23 Therefore the king said to Shimei, Thou shalt not die. And the king swore to him.

24 And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace.

25 And it came to pass, when he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said to him, Why didst thou not go with me, Mephibosheth?

26 And he answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me: for thy servant said, I will saddle me an ass, that I may ride on it, and go to the king; because thy servant is lame.

27 And he hath slandered thy servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God: do therefore what is good in thy eyes.

28 For all of my father's house were but 7 dead men before my lord the king: yet didst thou set thy servant among them that ate at thy own table. What right therefore have I yet to cry any more to the king?

29 And the king said to him, Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land.

30 And Mephibosheth said to the king, Yes, let him take all, forasmuch as my lord the king hath come again in peace to his own house.

31 ¶ And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim, and went over Jordan with the king, to conduct him over Jordan.

32 Now Barzillai was a very aged Iman, even eighty years old: and he had

provided the king with sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim: for he was a very great man.

33 And the king said to Barzillai, Come thou over with me, and I will feed thee with me in Jerusalem..

34 And Barzillai said to the king, How long have I to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem ? 35 I am this day eighty years old: and can I discern between good and evil? can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing-men and singing-women? why then should thy servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?

36 Thy servant will go a little way over Jordan with the king: and why should the king recompense me with such a reward?

37 Let thy servant, I pray thee, return again, that I may die in my own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and of my mother. But behold thy servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to thee.

38 And the king answered, Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to thee: and whatever thou shalt 9 require of me, that will I do for thee.

39 And all the people went over Jordan. And when the king had come over, the king kissed Barzillai, and bless

Before CHRIST,

1023.

8 Heb. How

many days are the years of my life?

9 Heb. choose.

10 Heb. set us at light.

blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.

2 So every man of Israel, withdrawing from David, followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah adhered to their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem.

3¶ And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in 1 eustody, and fed them, but went not in to them. So they were 2 shut up to the day of their death, 3 living in widowhood.

4 Then said the king to Amasa, 4 Assemble to me the men of Judah within three days, and be thou here present. 5 So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah: but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him.

6 And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom: take thou thy lord's servants, and pursue him, lest he get for himself fortified cities, and 5 escape us.

And there went out after him Joab's men, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men: and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.

8 When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa went before them. And Joab's garment that he had put on was girded to him, and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins in its sheath; and as he went forth

ward.

bound.

CHAP. XX.

1 By occasion of the quarrel, Sheba maketh a party in Israel. 3 David's ten concubines are shut up in perpetual prison. 4 Amasa made captain over Judah, is slain by Joab. 14 Joab pursueth Sheba to Abel. 16 A wise woman saveth the city by Sheba's head. 23 David's officers.

AND there happened to be there a mon

3 Heb. in widowhood

of life.

4 Heb. Call.

Heb delir er himself from our eyes.

bc. 8. 18.

6 Heb.' doubled not his

stroke.

9 And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him.

10 But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand: so he smote him in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died. So Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.

11 And one of Joab's men stood by him, and said, He that favoreth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab.

12 And Amasa wallowed in blood in

the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by him stood still.

13 When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.

14 And he went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and to Beth7 or, it stood maachah, and all the Berites: and they

against

the outmost

were assembled, and went also after him. 15 And they came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maachah, and they cast up a bank against the city, and 7 it stood in

20 And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.

9

Before CHRIST, 1021.

8 Heb.
marred to
throw

down.
or, They
plainly
spoke in
the begin.
ning, say.

ing, Sure.
ly they will
ask of Abel,

and so
make an

end.
10 Heb. by
his name.
11 Heb. were

scattered.

cc. 8. 16.

12 or,

21 The matter is not so: but a man of remem. brancer. mount Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri 13 or, 10 by name, hath lifted up his hand against a prince. the king, even against David: deliver 1 Heb. him only, and I will depart from the city. sought the And the woman said to Joab, Behold, face, &c. his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall.

22 Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it out to Joab. And he blew a trumpet, and they u retired from the city, ev-2 ery man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.

c

23 ¶ Now Joab was over all the host of Israel: and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites:

24 And Adoram was over the tribute: and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was 12 recorder:

25 And Sheva was scribe: and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests:

26 And Ira also the Jairite was 13 a chief ruler about David.

CHAP. XXI.

a Josh. 9. 3. 16. 17.

or, It is not silver nor gold that we have to do with Saul or his house, neither per tains it to us to kill, &c.

3or, cut us off.

4 or, chosen of the LORD.

that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?

4 And the Gibeonites said to him, 2 We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.

5 And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that 3 devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining within the borders of Israel,

6 Let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD chose. And the king said, I will give them.

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

8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of 5 Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she 6 brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meĥolathite:

9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.

10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah the concubine of Saul had done.

12 ¶ And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa :

13 And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.

14 And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son they buried in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulcher of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land.

15 ¶ Moreover, the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David became faint.

16 And Ishbi-benob, who was of the sons of 7 the giant, the weight of whose 8 spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.

Before CHRIST,

1018.

17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succored him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, Thou shalt go out no more with us to battle, that thou mayest not extinguish the 9 light of Israel. 18 And it came to pass after this, that 9 Heb. can there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, who was of the sons of the 10 giant.

19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Beth-lehemite. slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

dle, or, lamp. 1 Chr. 20. 4. 10 or, Rapha. See 1 Chr.

20. 5. 11 or,

Rapha.

12 or,

20 And there was yet a battle in Gath, reproached. where was a man of great stature, that 1 Sam.16.9. had on every hand six fingers, and on ev-a Ps. 18. 2. ery foot six toes, four and twenty in num- &c. ber; and he also was born to 11 the giant. 1 or, pangs. 21 And when he 12 defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah the brother of 2 Heb. David slew him.

Belial.

22 These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, 3 or, cords. and by the hand of his servants.

CHAP. XXII.

A psalm of thanksgiving for God's powerful deliverance, and manifold blessings.

ND David spoke to the

5 Heb. by.

14 The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice.

15 And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited

them.

16 And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were laid open, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

17 He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters;

18 He delivered me from my strong enemy, from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

19 They fell upon me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my support.

20 He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

21 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

23 For all his judgments were before me: and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

24 I was also upright s before him, and have kept myself from my iniquity. 25 Therefore the LORD hath recompensed me to righteous

6

the LORD had delivered him from the ing of wahand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul:

ters.

7 or, great.

8 Heb. to him.

9 Heb. before his eyes.

5 When the waves of death compass- Ps. 18. 26. ed me, the floods of 2 ungodly-men made

me afraid;

6 The 3 sorrows of 4 hell encompassed 10 or, me; the snares of death seized me;

7 In my distress I called upon the

candle.

eye-sight.

26 With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt show thyself upright.

27 With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt contend.

28 And the afflicted people thou wilt save: but thy eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down.

29 For thou art my 10 lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.

30 For by thee I have 11 run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall.

31 As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is 12 tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

32 For who is God, save the LORD?

17 Heb.

13 Through the brightness before ankles. him were coals of fire kindled.

until I had consumed them.

39 And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise: yea, they have fallen under my feet.