Study Desk

In that thou lovest thy enemies, and hatest thy friends. For thou hast declared this day, that thou regardest neither princes nor servants: for this day I perceive, that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it had pleased thee well.

Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak comfortably to thy servants: for I swear by the LORD, if thou shalt not go 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.

Then the king rose, and sat in the gate. And they told to all the people, saying, Behold, the king doth sit in the gate. And all the people came before the king: for Israel had fled every man to his tent.

And all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king saved us from the hand of our enemies, and he delivered us from the hand of the Philistines; and now he hath fled out of the land for Absalom.

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.

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?

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 [am] this day king over Israel?

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.

For all [of] my father's house were but 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?

Now Barzillai was a very aged man, [even] eighty years old: and he had provided the king with sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim: for he [was] a very great man.

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 require of me, [that] will I do for thee.

And all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Because the king [is] near of kin to us: why then are ye angry for this matter? have we eaten at all at the king's [cost]? or hath he given us any gift?

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 escape us.

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.

Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, [It is] for Saul, and for [his] bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

Wherefore David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and with what shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?

And the Gibeonites said to him, 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.

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 Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:

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.

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.