<p class="bodytext">Then the king said to Amasa, &#8220;Call the men of Judah together for me in three days,<n id="1" /> and you be present here with them too.&#8221;

So Joab&#8217;s men, accompanied by the Kerethites, the Pelethites, and all the warriors, left Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bicri.p>

<p class="bodytext">One of Joab&#8217;s soldiers who stood over Amasa said, &#8220;Whoever is for<n id="1" /> Joab and whoever is for David, follow Joab!&#8221;

Once he had removed Amasa<n id="1" /> from the path, everyone followed Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bicri.p>

They replied to the king, &#8220;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 &#8211;

let seven of his male descendants be turned over to us, and we will execute<n id="1" /> them before the <sc>Lordsc> in Gibeah of Saul, who was the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s chosen one.&#8221;<n id="2" /> The king replied, &#8220;I will turn them over.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">So the <sc>Lordsc> sent a plague through Israel from the morning until the completion of the appointed time. Seventy thousand men died from Dan to Beer Sheba.

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

So David sent messengers to the people of Jabesh Gilead and told them, &#8220;May you be blessed by the <sc>Lordsc> because you have shown this kindness<n id="1" /> to your lord Saul by burying him.

Now Saul&#8217;s son<n id="1" /> had two men who were in charge of raiding units; one was named Baanah and the other Recab. They were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, who was a Benjaminite. (Beeroth is regarded as belonging to Benjamin,

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then the king and his men advanced to Jerusalem<n id="1" /> against the Jebusites who lived in the land. The Jebusites<n id="2" /> said to David, &#8220;You cannot invade this place! Even the blind and the lame will turn you back, saying, &#8216;David cannot invade this place!&#8217;&#8221;p>

David seized from him 1,700 charioteers<n id="1" /> and 20,000 infantrymen. David cut the hamstrings of all but a hundred of the chariot horses.<n id="2" />

The king asked, &#8220;Is there not someone left from Saul&#8217;s family,<n id="1" /> that I may extend God&#8217;s kindness to him?&#8221; Ziba said to the king, &#8220;One of Jonathan&#8217;s sons is left; both of his feet are crippled.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Nathan said to David, &#8220;You are that man! This is what the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel says: &#8216;I chose<n id="1" /> you to be king over Israel and I rescued you from the hand of Saul.

All his servants were leaving with him,<n id="1" /> along with all the Kerethites, all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites &#8211; some six hundred men who had come on foot from Gath. They were leaving with<n id="2" /> the king.p>

<p class="bodytext">As David was going up the Mount of Olives, he was weeping as he went; his head was covered and his feet were bare. All the people who were with him also had their heads covered and were weeping as they went up.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then King David reached<n id="1" /> Bahurim. There a man from Saul&#8217;s extended family named Shimei son of Gera came out, yelling curses as he approached.<n id="2" />

The <sc>Lordsc> has punished you for<n id="1" /> all the spilled blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you rule. Now the <sc>Lordsc> has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. Disaster has overtaken you, for you are a man of bloodshed!&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, &#8220;The advice of Hushai the Arkite sounds better than the advice of Ahithophel.&#8221; Now the <sc>Lordsc> had decided<n id="1" /> to frustrate the sound advice of Ahithophel, so that the <sc>Lordsc> could bring disaster on Absalom.p>

Absalom had made Amasa general in command of the army in place of Joab. (Now Amasa was the son of an Israelite man named Jether, who had married<n id="1" /> Abigail the daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah, Joab&#8217;s mother.)