You seem to love your enemies and hate your friends! For you have as much as declared today that leaders and servants don’t matter to you. I realize now ¹  that if ²  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ³  it would be all right with you.

In the meantime Absalom fled. When the servant who was the watchman looked up, he saw many people coming from the west ¹  on a road beside the hill.

Now may the Lord show you true kindness! ¹  I also will reward you, ²  because you have done this deed.

Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not realize that a great leader ¹  has fallen this day in Israel?

For the sake of your promise and according to your purpose ¹  you have done this great thing in order to reveal it to your servant. ² 

Then the king told the woman, “Go to your home. I will give instructions concerning your situation.” ¹ 

Then the king said to Joab, “All right! I ¹  will do this thing! Go and bring back the young man Absalom!

The king’s servants replied to the king, “We will do whatever our lord the king decides.” ¹ 

But Absalom said, “Call for ¹  Hushai the Arkite, and let’s hear what he has to say.” ² 

When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?”

You prove to be reliable ¹  to one who is blameless, but you prove to be deceptive ²  to one who is perverse. ³ 

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 said to Abishai and to all his servants, “My own son, my very own flesh and blood, ¹  is trying to take my life. So also now this Benjaminite! Leave him alone so that he can curse, for the Lord has spoken to him.

So Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Abner ¹  has come to you! Why would you send him away? Now he’s gone on his way! ² 

Then Joab left David and sent messengers after Abner. They brought him back from the well of Sirah. (But David was not aware of it.)

Then Absalom went to the king and said, “My shearers have begun their work. ¹  Let the king and his servants go with me.”

Absalom would then say, “If only they would make me ¹  a judge in the land! Then everyone who had a judicial complaint ²  could come to me and I would make sure he receives a just settlement.”

Furthermore, their two sons are there with them, Zadok’s son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan. You must send them to me with any information you hear.” ¹ 

When David’s friend Hushai the Arkite came to Absalom, Hushai said to him, ¹  “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, ¹  and Absalom had sex with ²  his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.