The Living Bible (104 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
Word soon reached Joab that the king was weeping and mourning for Absalom.
2
As the people heard of the king’s deep grief for his son, the joy of that day’s wonderful victory was turned into deep sadness.
3
The entire army crept back into the city as though they were ashamed and had been beaten in battle.
4
The king covered his face with his hands and kept on weeping, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom my son, my son!”
5
Then Joab went to the king’s room and said to him, “We saved your life today and the lives of your sons, your daughters, your wives, and concubines; and yet you act like this, making us feel ashamed, as though we had done something wrong.
6
You seem to love those who hate you, and hate those who love you. Apparently we don’t mean anything to you; if Absalom had lived and all of us had died, you would be happy.
7
Now go out there and congratulate the troops, for I swear by Jehovah that if you don’t, not a single one of them will remain here during the night; then you will be worse off than you have ever been in your entire life.”
8-10
So the king went out and sat at the city gates, and as the news spread throughout the city that he was there, everyone went to him.
Meanwhile, there was much discussion and argument going on all across the nation: “Why aren’t we talking about bringing the king back?” was the great topic everywhere. “For he saved us from our enemies, the Philistines; and Absalom, whom we made our king instead, chased him out of the country, but now Absalom is dead. Let’s ask David to return and be our king again.”
11-12
Then David sent Zadok and Abiathar the priests to say to the elders of Judah, “Why are you the last ones to reinstate the king? For all Israel is ready, and only you are holding out. Yet you are my own brothers, my own tribe, my own flesh and blood!”
13
And he told them to tell Amasa, “Since you are my nephew, may God strike me dead if I do not appoint you as commander-in-chief of my army in place of Joab.”
14
Then Amasa convinced all the leaders of Judah, and they responded as one man. They sent word to the king, “Return to us and bring back all those who are with you.”
15
So the king started back to Jerusalem. And when he arrived at the Jordan River, it seemed as if everyone in Judah had come to Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the river!
16
Then Shimei (the son of Gera the Benjaminite), the man from Bahurim, hurried across with the men of Judah to welcome King David.
17
A thousand men from the tribe of Benjamin were with him, including Ziba, the servant of Saul, and Ziba’s fifteen sons and twenty servants; they rushed down to the Jordan to arrive ahead of the king.
18
They all worked hard ferrying the king’s household and troops across, and helped them in every way they could.
As the king was crossing, Shimei fell down before him,
19
and pleaded, “My lord the king, please forgive me and forget the terrible thing I did when you left Jerusalem;
20
for I know very well how much I sinned. That is why I have come here today, the very first person in all the tribe of Joseph to greet you.”
21
Abishai asked, “Shall not Shimei die, for he cursed the Lord’s chosen king!”
22
“Don’t talk to me like that!” David exclaimed. “This is not a day for execution but for celebration! I am once more king of Israel!”
23
Then, turning to Shimei, he vowed, “Your life is spared.”
24-25
Now Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, arrived from Jerusalem to meet the king. He had not washed his feet or clothes nor trimmed his beard since the day the king left Jerusalem.
“Why didn’t you come with me, Mephibosheth?” the king asked him.
26
And he replied, “My lord, O king, my servant Ziba deceived me. I told him, ‘Saddle my donkey so that I can go with the king.’ For as you know I am lame.
27
But Ziba has slandered me by saying that I refused to come.
*
But I know that you are as an angel of God, so do what you think best.
28
I and all my relatives could expect only death from you, but instead you have honored me among all those who eat at your own table! So how can I complain?”
29
“All right,” David replied. “My decision is that you and Ziba will divide the land equally between you.”
30
“Give him all of it,” Mephibosheth said. “I am content just to have you back again!”
31-32
Barzillai, who had fed the king and his army during their exile in Mahanaim, arrived from Rogelim to conduct the king across the river. He was very old now, about eighty, and very wealthy.
33
“Come across with me and live in Jerusalem,” the king said to Barzillai. “I will take care of you there.”
34
“No,” he replied, “I am far too old for that.
35
I am eighty years old today, and life has lost its excitement.
*
Food and wine are no longer tasty, and entertainment is not much fun; I would only be a burden to my lord the king.
36
Just to go across the river with you is all the honor I need!
37
Then let me return again to die in my own city, where my father and mother are buried. But here is Chimham.
*
Let him go with you and receive whatever good things you want to give him.”
38
“Good,” the king agreed. “Chimham shall go with me, and I will do for him whatever I would have done for you.”
39
So all the people crossed the Jordan with the king; and after David had kissed and blessed Barzillai, he returned home.
40
The king then went on to Gilgal, taking Chimham with him. And most of Judah and half of Israel were there to greet him.
41
But the men of Israel complained to the king because only men from Judah had ferried him and his household across the Jordan.
42
“Why not?” the men of Judah replied. “The king is one of our own tribe. Why should this make you angry? We have charged him nothing—he hasn’t fed us or given us gifts!”
43
“But there are ten tribes in Israel,” the others replied, “so we have ten times as much right in the king as you do; why didn’t you invite the rest of us? And, remember, we were the first to speak of bringing him back to be our king again.”
The argument continued back and forth, and the men of Judah were very rough in their replies.
Then a hothead whose name was Sheba (son of Bichri, a Benjaminite) blew a trumpet and yelled, “We want nothing to do with David. Come on, you men of Israel, let’s get out of here. He’s not our king!”
2
So all except Judah and Benjamin turned around and deserted David and followed Sheba! But the men of Judah stayed with their king, accompanying him from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
3
When he arrived at his palace in Jerusalem, the king instructed that his ten wives he had left to keep house should be placed in seclusion. Their needs were to be cared for, he said, but he would no longer sleep with them as his wives. So they remained in virtual widowhood until their deaths.
4
Then the king instructed Amasa to mobilize the army of Judah within three days and to report back at that time.
5
So Amasa went out to notify the troops, but it took him longer than the three days he had been given.
6
Then David said to Abishai, “That fellow Sheba is going to hurt us more than Absalom did. Quick, take my bodyguard and chase after him before he gets into a fortified city where we can’t reach him.”
7
So Abishai and Joab set out after Sheba with an elite guard from Joab’s army and the king’s own bodyguard.
8-10
As they arrived at the great stone in Gibeon, they came face-to-face with Amasa. Joab was wearing his uniform with a dagger strapped to his side. As he stepped forward to greet Amasa, he stealthily slipped the dagger from its sheath. “I’m glad to see you, my brother,” Joab said, and took him by the beard with his right hand as though to kiss him. Amasa didn’t notice the dagger in his left hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach with it, so that his bowels gushed out onto the ground. He did not need to strike again, and he died there. Joab and his brother, Abishai, left him lying there and continued after Sheba.
11
One of Joab’s young officers shouted to Amasa’s troops, “If you are for David, come and follow Joab.”
12
But Amasa lay in his blood in the middle of the road, and when Joab’s young officers saw that a crowd was gathering around to stare at him, they dragged him off the road into a field and threw a garment over him.
13
With the body out of the way, everyone went on with Joab to capture Sheba.
14
Meanwhile Sheba had traveled across Israel to mobilize his own clan of Bichri at the city of Abel in Beth-maacah.
15
When Joab’s forces arrived, they besieged Abel and built a mound to the top of the city wall and began battering it down.
16
But a wise woman in the city called out to Joab, “Listen to me, Joab. Come over here so I can talk to you.”
17
As he approached, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?”
And he replied, “I am.”
18
So she told him, “There used to be a saying, ‘If you want to settle an argument, ask advice at Abel.’ For we always give wise counsel.
19
You are destroying an ancient, peace-loving city, loyal to Israel. Should you destroy what is the Lord’s?”
20
And Joab replied, “That isn’t it at all.
21
All I want is a man named Sheba from the hill country of Ephraim, who has revolted against King David. If you will deliver him to me, we will leave the city in peace.”
“All right,” the woman replied, “we will throw his head over the wall to you.”
22
Then the woman went to the people with her wise advice, and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. And he blew the trumpet and called his troops back from the attack, and they returned to the king at Jerusalem.
23
Joab was commander-in-chief of the army, and Benaiah was in charge of the king’s bodyguard.
*
24
Adoram was in charge of the forced labor battalions, and Jehoshaphat was the historian who kept the records.
25
Sheva was the secretary, and Zadok and Abiathar were the chief priests.
26
Ira the Jairite was David’s personal chaplain.
