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The king said to him, "Go in peace." So he set out and went to Hevron.

So the king set out, and all his household after him. The king left ten women who were concubines to care for the palace.

So Tzadok and Evyatar carried the ark of God back to Yerushalayim and stayed there.

But if you go back to the city and tell Avshalom, ‘King, I will be your servant; just as I was your father's servant in the past, so I will now be your servant' — then you will be able to frustrate Achitofel's advice for me.

You have Tzadok and Evyatar the cohanim there with you. So whatever you hear from the king's house, you tell to Tzadok and Evyatar the cohanim.

So Hushai David's friend came into the city when Avshalom was about to enter Yerushalayim.

David then said to Avishai and all his servants, "Look, my own son, who came from my own body, seeks my life. So how much more now this Binyamini! Let him alone; and let him curse, if Adonai told him to.

So David and his men went on their way, while on the opposite hillside Shim‘i kept pace with him, cursing, throwing stones and flinging dust as he went.

The king and all the people with him arrived exhausted, so he rested there.

Moreover, whom should I serve? Shouldn't I serve in the presence of his son? Just as I have served in your father's presence, so will I be in your presence."

So they set up a tent for Avshalom on the roof of the palace; and Avshalom went in to sleep with his father's concubines in the sight of all Isra'el.

right now he's hidden in a pit or somewhere. So what will happen is this: when they begin their attack, and whoever hears about it says, ‘A slaughter is taking place among Avshalom's followers,'

Avshalom and all the men of Isra'el said, "The advice of Hushai the Arki is better than the advice of Achitofel" — for Adonai had determined to frustrate the good advice of Achitofel, so that Adonai could bring disaster on Avshalom.

Then Hushai said to Tzadok and Evyatar the cohanim, "Achitofel gave such-and-such advice to Avshalom and the leaders of Isra'el, but I advised so and so.

But a boy saw them and told Avshalom; so both of them took off quickly and came to the house of a man in Bachurim who had a cistern in his courtyard; and they went down into it.

His wife spread a covering over the cistern's opening and scattered drying grain on it, so that nothing showed.

But the people replied, "Don't go out; because if we flee, they won't care about us. Even if half of us die, they won't care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us; so it is better now that you stay in the city and be ready if we need help."

The king answered them, "I will do whatever you think best." So the king stood at the side of the gate, while all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.

So the people went out into the field against Isra'el; the battle took place in the forest of Efrayim.

Avshalom happened to meet some of David's servants. Avshalom was riding his mule, and as the mule walked under the thick branches of a big terebinth tree, his head got caught in the terebinth, so that he was left hanging between earth and sky, as the mule went on from under him.