Zadok and Abiathar the priests will be there with you. Everything you hear in the king’s palace you must tell Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

Absalom said to Hushai, “Do you call this loyalty to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?”

Moreover, whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? Just as I served your father, so I will serve you.”

His wife then took the covering and spread it over the top of the well and scattered some grain over it. No one was aware of what she had done.

If I had acted at risk of my own life – and nothing is hidden from the king! – you would have abandoned me.”

Joab replied, “I will not wait around like this for you!” He took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the middle of Absalom while he was still alive in the middle of the oak tree.

Abishai son of Zeruiah replied, “For this should not Shimei be put to death? After all, he cursed the Lord’s anointed!”

When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?”

and said, “O Lord, I will not do this! It is equivalent to the blood of the men who risked their lives by going.” So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three elite warriors.

(Now his father had never corrected him by saying, “Why do you do such things?” He was also very handsome and had been born right after Absalom.)

But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David’s elite warriors did not ally themselves with Adonijah.

He has sacrificed many cattle, steers, and sheep and has invited all the king’s sons, Abiathar the priest, and Joab, the commander of the army, but he has not invited your servant Solomon.

Solomon said, “If he is a loyal subject, not a hair of his head will be harmed, but if he is found to be a traitor, he will die.”

He said, “Please ask King Solomon if he would give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife, for he won’t refuse you.”

Next the king summoned Shimei and told him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there – but you may not leave there to go anywhere!

Now the people were offering sacrifices at the high places, because in those days a temple had not yet been built to honor the Lord.

Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in my father David’s place, even though I am only a young man and am inexperienced.

I got up in the morning to nurse my son, and there he was, dead! But when I examined him carefully in the morning, I realized it was not my baby.”

The king said, “One says, ‘My son is alive; your son is dead,’ while the other says, ‘No, your son is dead; my son is alive.’”

The king responded, “Give the first woman the living child; don’t kill him. She is the mother.”