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Am I supposed to take my bread, my water and my meat that I slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men coming from who knows where?"

and continued, "Why is my lord chasing his servant? What have I done? What evil am I planning?

David answered Akhish, "I see that you already know what your servant will do." Akhish said to David, "For that answer, I am making you my personal bodyguard for life."

He looked behind him, saw me and called to me. I answered, ‘Here I am.'

These words of Ish-Boshet's enraged Avner. "What am I," he shouted, "[that you treat me with such contempt]? A dog's head in Y'hudah? Till this moment I have shown only kindness to the house of Sha'ul your father, and to his brothers and to his friends; and I haven't handed you over to David. Yet you choose today to pick a fight with me over this woman!

I have been with you wherever you went; I have destroyed all your enemies ahead of you; and I am making your reputation great, like the reputations of the greatest people on earth.

Then David went in, sat before Adonai and said, "Who am I, Adonai Elohim ; and what is my family, that has caused you to bring me this far?

David said to him, "Don't be afraid, for I am determined to be kind to you for the sake of Y'honatan your father. I will restore to you all the land of Sha'ul your [grand]father, and you will always eat at my table."

The woman conceived; and she sent a message to David, "I am pregnant."

The king said to Yo'av, "All right, I am granting this request. Go, and bring back young Avshalom."

But if he says, ‘I am displeased with you,' then — here I am; let him do to me whatever seems good to him."

For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore, look — I am the first one of all the house of Yosef to come today and go down to meet my lord the king."

But David said, "What do I have in common with you, you sons of Tz'ruyah? Why have you become my adversaries today? Should anyone in Isra'el be put to death today? Don't I know that today I am king over Isra'el?"

I am now eighty years old. Can I tell good from bad? Can your servant even taste what he eats or drinks? Can I hear the voice of men and women singing any more? Why should your servant burden my lord the king?

He approached her, and the woman asked, "Are you Yo'av?" He answered, "I am." She said to him, "Listen to what your servant has to say." He answered, "I'm listening."

I call on Adonai , who is worthy of praise; and I am saved from my enemies.

and said, " Adonai ! Heaven forbid that I should do such a thing! Am I to drink the blood of men who went and put their lives in jeopardy?"— and he would not consent to drink it. These are the things the three warrior-heroes did.

"Go and say to David that this is what Adonai says: ‘I am giving you a choice of three punishments. Choose one of them, and I will execute it against you."

"I am going the way of all the earth. Therefore, be strong; show yourself a man.

She said, "I am asking one small favor of you; don't deny me." The king said to her, "Ask, mother; I won't deny you."