Surely when wicked men have killed an innocent man as he slept ¹  in his own house, should I not now require his blood from your hands and remove ²  you from the earth?”

Now David, wearing a linen ephod, was dancing with all his strength before the Lord. ¹ 

He will build a house for my name, and I will make his dynasty permanent. ¹ 

Then David summoned him. He ate and drank with him, and got him drunk. But in the evening he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord; he did not go down to his own house.

As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together. ¹  So that place is called the Field of Flints; ²  it is in Gibeon.

Now in all Israel everyone acknowledged that there was no man as handsome as Absalom. ¹  From the sole of his feet to the top of his head he was perfect in appearance. ² 

When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he ¹  realized that the child was dead. So David asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” They replied, “Yes, he’s dead.”

He put his brother Abishai in charge of the rest of the army ¹  and they were deployed ²  against the Ammonites.

He threw stones at David and all of King David’s servants, as well as all the people and the soldiers who were on his right and on his left.

On the third day a man arrived from the camp of Saul with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. ¹  When he approached David, the man ²  threw himself to the ground. ³ 

They took Asahel’s body and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem. ¹  Joab and his men then traveled all that night and reached Hebron by dawn.

When the time of mourning passed, David had her brought to his palace. ¹  She became his wife and she bore him a son. But what David had done upset the Lord. ² 

But the king said, “Let him go over ¹  to his own house. He may not see my face.” So Absalom went over ²  to his own house; he did not see the king’s face.

The king covered his face and cried out loudly, ¹  “My son, Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”

he stood his ground ¹  and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it ²  seemed stuck to his sword. The Lord gave a great victory on that day. When the army returned to him, the only thing left to do was to plunder the corpses.

David said, “I will express my loyalty ¹  to Hanun son of Nahash just as his father was loyal ²  to me.” So David sent his servants with a message expressing sympathy over his father’s death. ³  When David’s servants entered the land of the Ammonites,

When he would shave his head – at the end of every year he used to shave his head, for it grew too long ¹  and he would shave it – he used to weigh the hair of his head at three pounds ²  according to the king’s weight.

So Joab and his brother Abishai killed Abner, because he had killed their brother Asahel in Gibeon during the battle.

David defeated King Hadadezer son of Rehob of Zobah when he came to reestablish ¹  his authority ²  over the Euphrates ³  River.

These four were the descendants of Rapha who lived in Gath; they were killed ¹  by David and his soldiers. ²