Look, I will be waiting at the fords of the desert until word from you ¹  reaches me.”

The king said, “Turn aside and take your place here.” So he turned aside and waited.

Joab replied, “I will not wait around like this for you!” He took three spears in his hand and thrust them into the middle of Absalom while he was still alive in the middle of the oak tree. ¹ 

Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying in En Rogel. A female servant would go and inform them, and they would then go and inform King David. It was not advisable for them to be seen going into the city.

Those who carried the ark of the Lord took six steps and then David ¹  sacrificed an ox and a fatling calf.

He called his personal attendant and said to him, “Take this woman out of my sight ¹  and lock the door behind her!”

So David said to Uriah, “Stay here another day. Tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem both that day and the following one. ¹ 

When David reached the summit, where he used to worship God, Hushai the Arkite met him with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.

Messengers ¹  told David what had happened, ²  so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho ³  until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”

All the land was weeping loudly ¹  as all these people were leaving. ²  As the king was crossing over the Kidron Valley, all the people were leaving ³  on the road that leads to the desert.

Absalom instructed his servants, “Look! When Amnon is drunk ¹  and I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon down,’ kill him then and there. Don’t fear! Is it not I who have given you these instructions? Be strong and courageous!” ² 

When David had gone a short way beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth was there to meet him. He had a couple of donkeys that were saddled, and on them were two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred raisin cakes, a hundred baskets of summer fruit, ¹  and a container of wine.