From the descendants of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei.

Listen, O princess! ¹  Observe and pay attention! ²  Forget your homeland ³  and your family! ⁴ 

Shimei son of Gera the Benjaminite from Bahurim came down quickly with the men of Judah to meet King David.

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

Now there happened to be a Jewish man in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai. ¹  He was the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjaminite,

So now, listen to this, O one who lives so lavishly, ¹  who lives securely, who says to herself, ²  ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me! ³  I will never have to live as a widow; I will never lose my children.’ ⁴ 

Your destruction is like an incurable wound; ¹  your demise is like a fatal injury! ²  All who hear what has happened to you ³  will clap their hands for joy, ⁴  for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty! ⁵ 

Then King David reached ¹  Bahurim. There a man from Saul’s extended family named Shimei son of Gera came out, yelling curses as he approached. ² 

“Note well, you still have to contend with Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, ¹  who tried to call down upon me a horrible judgment when I went to Mahanaim. ²  He came down and met me at the Jordan, and I solemnly promised ³  him by the Lord, ‘I will not strike you down ⁴  with the sword.’

Then the king said to Shimei, “You are well aware of the way you mistreated my father David. ¹  The Lord will punish you for what you did. ² 

I will perform a mighty act among them ¹  and then send some of those who remain to the nations – to Tarshish, Pul, ²  Lud ³  (known for its archers ⁴ ), Tubal, Javan, ⁵  and to the distant coastlands ⁶  that have not heard about me or seen my splendor. They will tell the nations of my splendor.

Hear this, you peoples of the earth: ¹  ‘Take note! ²  I am about to bring disaster on these people. It will come as punishment for their scheming. ³  For they have paid no attention to what I have said, ⁴  and they have rejected my law.

You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. You have put to death people ¹  who should not die and kept alive those who should not live by your lies to my people, who listen to lies!