So David asked the Lord, “Should I march up against the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?” The Lord said to David, “March up, for I will indeed ¹  hand the Philistines over to you.”

So David was no longer willing to bring the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. David left it in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.

So the victory of that day was turned to mourning as far as all the people were concerned. For the people heard on that day, “The king is grieved over his son.”

They ¹  entered the house under the pretense of getting wheat and mortally wounded him ²  in the stomach. Then Recab and his brother Baanah escaped.

Now David ¹  had been told, “Ahithophel has sided with the conspirators who are with Absalom. So David prayed, ²  “Make the advice of Ahithophel foolish, O Lord!”

They had entered ¹  the house while Ish-bosheth ²  was resting on his bed in his bedroom. They mortally wounded him ³  and then cut off his head. ⁴  Taking his head, ⁵  they traveled on the way of the Arabah all that night.

As the ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked out the window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him. ¹ 

Then the king said to Zadok, “Take the ark of God back to the city. If I find favor in the Lord’s sight he will bring me back and enable me to see both it and his dwelling place again.

But a young man saw them on one occasion and informed Absalom. So the two of them quickly departed and went to the house of a man in Bahurim. There was a well in his courtyard, and they got down in it.

He turned them over to the Gibeonites, and they executed them on a hill before the Lord. The seven of them ¹  died ²  together; they were put to death during harvest time – during the first days of the beginning ³  of the barley harvest.

David said on that day, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites must approach the ‘lame’ and the ‘blind’ who are David’s enemies ¹  by going through the water tunnel.” ²  For this reason it is said, “The blind and the lame cannot enter the palace.” ³ 

So David got up from the ground, bathed, put on oil, and changed his clothes. He went to the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then, when he entered his palace, he requested that food be brought to him, and he ate.

Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years without seeing the king’s face.

So Joab visited ¹  the king at his home. He said, “Today you have embarrassed all your servants who have saved your life this day, as well as the lives of your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your concubines.

Afterward David inquired of the Lord, “Should I go up to one of the cities of Judah?” The Lord told him, “Go up.” David asked, “Where should I go?” The Lord replied, ¹  “To Hebron.”

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.

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,

In my distress I called to the Lord; I called to my God. ¹  From his heavenly temple ²  he heard my voice; he listened to my cry for help. ³ 

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.

Next in command ¹  was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, ²  where there happened to be an area of a field that was full of lentils, the army retreated before the Philistines.