David and four hundred men continued the pursuit, but two hundred men who were too exhausted to cross the Wadi Besor stayed there.

Asahel chased Abner, without turning to the right or to the left as he followed Abner.

Then Joab blew the ram’s horn and all the people stopped in their tracks. They stopped chasing Israel and ceased fighting.

Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me pick out twelve thousand men. Then I will go and pursue David this very night.

Then Joab blew the trumpet and the army turned back from chasing Israel, for Joab had called for the army to halt.

So Joab’s men, accompanied by the Kerethites, the Pelethites, and all the warriors, left Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bicri.

Once he had removed Amasa from the path, everyone followed Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bicri.

Each one struck down an enemy soldier; the Syrians fled and Israel chased them. King Ben Hadad of Syria escaped on horseback with some horsemen.

So Gehazi ran after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him and asked, “Is everything all right?”

But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, and his entire army deserted him.

You split the sea before them, and they crossed through the sea on dry ground! But you threw their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into surging waters.

A musical composition by David, which he sang to the Lord concerning a Benjaminite named Cush. O Lord my God, in you I have taken shelter. Deliver me from all who chase me! Rescue me!

For he never bothered to show kindness; he harassed the oppressed and needy, and killed the disheartened.

All the relatives of a poor person hate him; how much more do his friends avoid him – he pursues them with words, but they do not respond.

Your officials are rebels, they associate with thieves. All of them love bribery, and look for payoffs. They do not take up the cause of the orphan, or defend the rights of the widow.

Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, when he shouts at them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills, or like dead thistles before a strong gale.

You say, ‘No, we will flee on horses,’ so you will indeed flee. You say, ‘We will ride on fast horses,’ so your pursuers will be fast.

“Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, who seek the Lord! Look at the rock from which you were chiseled, at the quarry from which you were dug!

I said, “Lord, you know how I suffer. Take thought of me and care for me. Pay back for me those who have been persecuting me. Do not be so patient with them that you allow them to kill me. Be mindful of how I have put up with their insults for your sake.

May those who persecute me be disgraced. Do not let me be disgraced. May they be dismayed. Do not let me be dismayed. Bring days of disaster on them. Bring on them the destruction they deserve.”