When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me. I answered, ‘Here I am!’

Then David called one of the soldiers ¹  and said, “Come here and strike him down!” So he struck him down, and he died.

and sent word through Nathan the prophet that he should be named Jedidiah ¹  for the Lord’s sake.

Prior to this ¹  Absalom had set up a monument ²  and dedicated it to himself in the King’s Valley, reasoning “I have no son who will carry on my name.” He named the monument after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom’s Memorial.

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.

So David lived in the fortress and called it the City of David. David built all around it, from the terrace inwards.

David was angry because the Lord attacked ¹  Uzzah; so he called that place Perez Uzzah, ²  which remains its name to this very day.

Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s attendant, and said to him, “Everything that belonged to Saul and to his entire house I hereby give to your master’s grandson.

Then David summoned him. He ate and drank with him, and got him drunk. But in the evening he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord; he did not go down to his own house.

So David comforted his wife Bathsheba. He went to her and had marital relations with her. ¹  She gave birth to a son, and David ²  named him Solomon. Now the Lord loved the child ³ 

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

Two years later Absalom’s sheepshearers were in Baal Hazor, ¹  near Ephraim. Absalom invited all the king’s sons.

So the watchman called out and informed the king. The king said, “If he is by himself, he brings good news.” ¹  The runner ²  came ever closer.

Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?”

So Joab went to the king and informed him. The king ¹  summoned Absalom, and he came to the king. Absalom ²  bowed down before the king with his face toward the ground and the king kissed him. ³ 

Then Absalom happened to come across David’s men. Now as Absalom was riding on his ¹  mule, it ²  went under the branches of a large oak tree. His head got caught in the oak and he was suspended in midair, ³  while the mule he had been riding kept going.

Then the watchman saw another man running. The watchman called out to the gatekeeper, “There is another man running by himself.” The king said, “This one also is bringing good news.”

Then Ahimaaz called out and said to the king, “Greetings!” ¹  He bowed down before the king with his face toward the ground and said, “May the Lord your God be praised because he has defeated ²  the men who opposed ³  my lord the king!”

So the king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke with them. (Now the Gibeonites were not descendants of Israel; they were a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had made a promise to ¹  them, but Saul tried to kill them because of his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.)

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.”