<p class="bodytext">&#8220;When a traveler arrived at the rich man&#8217;s home,<n id="1" /> he did not want to use one of his own sheep or cattle to feed<n id="2" /> the traveler who had come to visit him.<n id="3" /> Instead, he took the poor man&#8217;s lamb and cooked<n id="4" /> it for the man who had come to visit him.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Now Mephibosheth, Saul&#8217;s grandson,<n id="1" /> came down to meet the king. From the day the king had left until the day he safely<n id="2" /> returned, Mephibosheth<n id="3" /> had not cared for his feet<n id="4" /> nor trimmed<n id="5" /> his mustache nor washed his clothes.p>

When Abner, accompanied by twenty men, came to David in Hebron, David prepared a banquet for Abner and the men who were with him.

<p class="bodytext">So Joab went to the king and said, &#8220;What have you done? Abner<n id="1" /> has come to you! Why would you send him away? Now he&#8217;s gone on his way!<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">All the people noticed this and it pleased them.<n id="1" /> In fact, everything the king did pleased all the people.

Today I am weak, even though I am anointed as king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too much for me to bear!<n id="1" /> May the <sc>Lordsc> punish appropriately the one who has done this evil thing!&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

David did just as the <sc>Lordsc> commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines from Gibeon all the way to Gezer.<n id="1" />p>

I was with you wherever you went, and I defeated<n id="1" /> all your enemies before you. Now I will make you as famous as the great men of the earth.<n id="2" />

So now, O <sc>Lordsc> God, make this promise you have made about your servant and his family a permanent reality.<n id="1" /> Do as you promised,<n id="2" />

<t /><n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">Then David asked, &#8220;Is anyone still left from the family<n id="2" /> of Saul, so that I may extend kindness to him for the sake of Jonathan?&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Then David became very angry at this man. He said to Nathan, &#8220;As surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives, the man who did this deserves to die!<n id="1" />

Because he committed this cold-hearted crime, he must pay for the lamb four times over!&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

But Amnon became frustrated because he was so lovesick<n id="1" /> over his sister Tamar. For she was a virgin, and to Amnon it seemed out of the question to do anything to her.p>

<p class="bodytext">So David sent Tamar to the house saying, &#8220;Please go to the house of Amnon your brother and prepare some food for him.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">But she said to him, &#8220;No I won&#8217;t, for sending me away now would be worse than what you did to me earlier!&#8221;<n id="1" /> But he refused to listen to her.

So Absalom&#8217;s servants did to Amnon exactly what Absalom had instructed. Then all the king&#8217;s sons got up; each one rode away on his mule and fled.p>

<p class="bodytext">Then the king said to Joab, &#8220;All right! I<n id="1" /> will do this thing! Go and bring back the young man Absalom!

Absalom acted this way toward everyone in Israel who came to the king for justice. In this way Absalom won the loyalty<n id="1" /> of the citizens<n id="2" /> of Israel.p>

Then the king said to them, &#8220;I will do whatever seems best to you.&#8221;p> <p class="bodytext">So the king stayed beside the city gate, while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands.

If I had acted at risk of my own life<n id="1" /> &#8211; and nothing is hidden from the king! &#8211; you would have abandoned me.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>