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"Now then, gather the rest of the people and camp opposite the city and capture it, or I will capture the city myself and it will be named after me."

And he said to him, "Why are you, the king's son, so depressed morning after morning? Will you not tell me?" So Amnon said to him, "I am in love with Tamar, the sister of my brother Absalom."

Jonadab then said to him, "Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill; when your father comes to see you, say to him, 'Please have my sister Tamar come and give me food to eat, and have her prepare the food in my sight, so that I may see it and eat from her hand.'"

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill; when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, "Please have my sister Tamar come and make me a couple of pastries in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand."

Then she took the tray and served them to him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, "Have everyone leave me." So everyone left him.

When she brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, "Come, sleep with me, my sister."

But she said to him, "No, my brother, do not violate me, for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do this disgraceful sin!

"As for me, where could I get rid of my shame? And as for you, you will be like one of the fools in Israel. Now then, please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you."

But she said to him, "No, because this wrong in sending me away is greater than the other that you have done to me!" Yet he would not listen to her.

The woman of Tekoa said to the king, "My lord, the king, the guilt is on me and my father's house, but the king and his throne are guiltless."

So the king said, "Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you anymore."

"Now then, the reason I have come to speak this word to my lord the king is that the people have made me afraid; so your servant said, 'Let me now speak to the king, perhaps the king will perform the request of his slave.

'For the king will listen, to save his slave from the hand of the man who would eliminate both me and my son from the inheritance of God.'

Then the king answered and said to the woman, "Please do not hide anything from me that I am about to ask you." And the woman said, "Let my lord the king please speak."

So the king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?" And the woman replied, "As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. Indeed, it was your servant Joab who commanded me, and it was he who put all these words in the mouth of your servant.

Absalom answered Joab, "Behold, I sent for you, saying, 'Come here, so that I may send you to the king, to say, "Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me still to be there."' Now then, let me see the king's face, and if there is guilt in me, he can have me executed."

Moreover, Absalom would say, "Oh that someone would appoint me judge in the land, then every man who has a lawsuit or claim could come to me, and I would give him justice!"

Now it came about at the end of four years that Absalom said to the king, "Please let me go and pay my vow which I have made to the LORD, in Hebron.

"For your servant made a vow while I was living in Geshur in Aram, saying, 'If the LORD will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the LORD.'"

And the king said to Zadok, "Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the sight of the LORD, then He will bring me back and show me both it and His habitation.