He took the crown of their king ¹  from his head – it was gold, weighed about seventy-five pounds, ²  and held a precious stone – and it was placed on David’s head. He also took from the city a great deal of plunder.

The Lord has punished you for ¹  all the spilled blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you rule. Now the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. Disaster has overtaken you, for you are a man of bloodshed!”

Then David went to his palace ¹  in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. ²  Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. ³  They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.

(19:1) ¹  The king then became very upset. He went up to the upper room over the gate and wept. As he went he said, “My son, Absalom! My son, my son, ²  Absalom! If only I could have died in your place! Absalom, my son, my son!” ³ 

Later the king of the Ammonites died and his son Hanun succeeded him. ¹ 

He gives me the agility of a deer; ¹  he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. ² 

We will come against him wherever he happens to be found. We will descend on him like the dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of the men who are with him will be spared alive – not one of them!

So all the people crossed the Jordan, as did the king. After the king had kissed him and blessed him, Barzillai returned to his home. ¹ 

Foreigners lose their courage; ¹  they shake with fear ²  as they leave ³  their strongholds. ⁴ 

They replied to the king, “As for this man who exterminated us and who schemed against us so that we were destroyed and left without status throughout all the borders of Israel –

I have not lived in a house from the time I brought the Israelites up from Egypt to the present day. Instead, I was traveling with them and living in a tent. ¹ 

The one who touches them must use an iron instrument or the wooden shaft of a spear. They are completely burned up right where they lie!” ¹ 

Wherever I moved among all the Israelites, I did not say ¹  to any of the leaders ²  whom I appointed to care for ³  my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?”’

Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you come with us? Go back and stay with the new ¹  king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own country. ² 

The king and all the people set out on foot, pausing ¹  at a spot ²  some distance away.

But Ittai replied to the king, “As surely as the Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king is, whether dead or alive, ¹  there I ²  will be as well!”

But David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the city of David).

Then Joab sent a full battle report to David. ¹ 

You widen my path; ¹  my feet ²  do not slip.

Now Absalom used to get up early and stand beside the road that led to the city gate. Whenever anyone came by who had a complaint to bring to the king for arbitration, Absalom would call out to him, “What city are you from?” The person would answer, “I, your servant, ¹  am from one of the tribes of Israel.”