II Samuel on Rebellion and Treachery in the House of David

Ungratefulness:

Rebellion And Treachery

When you belittle someone’s goodness and kindness to you, you repay it with wickedness and evilness.

Learn in this chapter what you must not do at certain point in your life. Be that person err against you along the way or in the end. Still you need to be grateful in return.

1 And it came to pass after this, that Absalom made for himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men were running before him.
2 And Absalom would rise up, and stand beside the path of the gate; and it was [when] any man that would have a suit [due] to come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him and he said: “From what city are you?” and he said: “Of one of the tribes of Israel is your servant.
3 And Absalom said to him: “See your words are good and right; but there is none of the king’s [judges] to hear you.”
4 And Absalom said, “Oh, who will appoint me judge in the land, and every man who has a quarrel or suit, will come to me, then I will [surely] do him justice.”
5 And it would be, when a man came near to prostrate himself before him, that he put forth his hand and took hold of him, and kissed him.
6 And Absalom did likewise to all the Israelites that came to the king for judgment. And Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
7 And it came to pass at the end of forty years; and Absalom said to the king; “Allow me to go, I beg you, and pay my vow which I have vowed to the Lord in Hebron.
8 For your servant vowed a vow during my stay in Geshur in Aram, saying: ‘If the Lord shall bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord’.”
9 And the king said to him: “Go in peace.” And he arose and went to Hebron.
10 And Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the shofar, then you shall say: ‘Absalom is king in Hebron’.”
11 And with Absalom went two hundred men [that were] invited; and went in their innocence; and did not know of anything.
12 And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counsellor, from his city, from Giloh, as he offered the sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong, and the people with Absalom were steadily increasing.
13 And the messenger came to David saying, “The hearts of the people of Israel are after Absalom.”
14 And David said to all his servants that were with him in Jerusalem: “Arise and let us flee, for there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go quickly lest he hurry and overtake us, and bring upon us evil, and smite the city with the edge of the sword.”
15 And the king’s servants said to the king, “Whatever my lord the king shall choose, behold your servants [are ready to do].”
16 And the king went forth, and all his household were right behind him. And the king led the ten women (who were) concubines to keep the house.
17 And the king went forth, and all the people were right behind him: and they remained standing at the farthest house.
18 And all his servants passed on beside him, and all the archers and all the slingers, and all the Gittites, six hundred men that came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.
19 And the king said to Ittai the Gittite; ‘Why do you also go with us? return, and abide with the king; for you are a foreigner, and if you are wont to wander, [go to] your own place.
20 [Only] yesterday you came, and today I should move you about with us, seeing that I go wherever I can go? Return and take back your brothers with you, (and do) kindness and truth (to them).”
21 And Ittai answered the king and said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, that in the place where my lord the king shall be, whether for life or for death, for there shall your servant be.’
22 And David said to Ittai, “Go and pass over.” And Ittai the Gittite passed over and [so did] all his men and all the little ones that were with him.
23 And all the land wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over; and the king passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness.
24 And lo, Zadok also [came], and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God: and they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar went up, until all the people had finished passing out of the city.
25 And the king said to Zadok, “Carry back the ark of God to the city; if I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, then He will bring me back, and He will show me it, and His habitation.
26 But if so [He] says, ‘I do not want you,’ behold, here I am, let Him do to me as seems good in His eyes.”
27 And the king said to Zadok the priest: ‘Do you (not) see? return to the city in peace, and Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, your two sons, [shall be] with you.
28 See, I will tarry in the plains of the wilderness, until there comes word from you to announce to me.’
29 And Zadok and Abiathar returned the ark of God to Jerusalem, and they abode there.
30 And David went up by the ascent of the [mount of] olives, weeping as he went up. And he had his head covered and he went barefoot; and (of) all the people that were with him every man covered his head, weeping as they went up.
31 And [someone] told David saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” And David said, “Make foolish, I beg you, the counsel of Ahithophel, O’ Lord.”
32 And David was coming to the top where he would prostrate himself to God, and behold, towards him [came] Hushai the Archite with his shirt torn, and earth upon his head.
33 And David said to him, “If you pass on with me you will be a burden to me.
34 But if you return to the city and you say to Absalom, ‘I O’ king will be your servant, just as I was previously your father’s servant,’ and now I am your servant; then you will (be able) to frustrate for me the counsel of Ahithophel.
35 And have you not there with you Zadok and Abiathar the priest? And it shall [therefore] be that everything you hear from the king’s house, you shall tell to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
36 And, behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz to Zadok, and Jonathan to Abiathar, and through them you shall send to me everything you hear.”
37 And Hushai the Archite, the friend of David, came into the city, and Absalom [was] coming to Jerusalem.

1 And Joab the son of Zeruiah knew that the king’s heart (longed) for Absalom.
2 And Joab sent to Tekoa and took from there a wise woman; and he said to her: “Please pretend to be a mourner, and please put on mourning clothes, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has mourned many days for the dead.
3 And come to the king and speak to him in this manner.” And Joab put the words into her mouth.
4 And the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, and fell to the ground, and prostrated herself; and she said: ‘Save, O’ king’.
5 And the king said to her: ‘What ails you?’ And she said: ‘Truly I am a woman [who is] a widow, and my husband is dead.
6 And your handmaid had two sons, and they both fought in the field, and there was no rescuer between them, and one struck the other and killed him.
7 And, behold, the whole family rose against your handmaid, and said: “Deliver the one that struck his brother whom he slew, and so destroy also the heir; and so they shall quench my coal which is left, so as not to leave my husband a name or a remainder upon the face of the earth.”
8 And the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give orders about you.”
9 And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “On me, my lord, the king, be the iniquity, and on my father’s house; and the king and his throne be guiltless.”
10 And the king said, “Who ever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he shall no longer continue to touch you.”
11 And she said, “I beg you, let the king remember the Lord your God that the avenger of blood destroy not excessively so that they destroy not my son.” And he said, “As the Lord lives, if one hair of your son shall fall to the earth.”
12 And the woman said, “May your handmaid speak a word with my lord the king?” And he said, “Speak.”
13 And the woman said, “Why have you thought such a thing about the people of God? [now, consider not] that the king in speaking this word has done so accidentally, so that the king shall not bring back his banished one.
14 For die we must, and [are] as water that is spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again; and God favors not a soul, but He devises means that he that is banished be not cast from Him.
15 And now my motive for having come to speak of this thing to the king my lord [is] because the people have made me afraid; and your maidservant said: I will now speak to the king, perhaps the king will perform the request of his handmaid.
16 For the king will hear, to deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man [that would] destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.
17 And your handmaid said, ‘Let, I pray, the word of my lord the king be for comfort, for as an angel of God so is my lord the king, to discern the good and the bad; and the Lord your God may be with you’.”
18 And the king answered and he said to the woman, “I beg you not to hide from me anything that I shall ask you.” And the woman said: “Let my lord the king please speak.”
19 And the king said: “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?” And the woman answered and said, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, if anyone can turn to the right or to the left from all that my lord the king has spoken, for your servant Joab he bade me, and he put in the mouth of your handmaid all these words.
20 In order to bring about the face of the matter, has your servant Joab done this thing; and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God to know all that is in the earth.”
21 And the king said to Joab: “Behold now, you have done this thing, now go bring back the young man Absalom.”
22 And Joab fell on his face to the ground and he prostrated himself, and he blessed the king; and Joab said: “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, O’ king, in that the king has done the request of your servant.”
23 And Joab arose and went to Geshur, and he brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
24 And the king said: “Let him turn to his house, but my face let him not see.” And Absalom turned to his house, and the king’s face he saw not.
25 Now like Absalom there was not a man in all Israel as beautiful, to be as [totally] praiseworthy [for beauty]; from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him.
26 And when he shaved his head-and it was at every year’s end that he shaved it; because the hair was heavy on him, then he would shave it- he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, after the king’s weight.
27 And to Absalom were born three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar; and she was a woman of beautiful appearance.
28 And Absalom dwelt in Jerusalem two full years; and the king’s face he did not see.
29 And Absalom sent to Joab, to send him to the king; and he would not come to him: and he sent again a second time, and he would not come.
30 And he said to his servants, “See, Joab’s field is near mine, and he has barley there; go and set it on fire.” And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.
31 And Joab arose, and he came to Absalom to his house, and he said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?”
32 And Absalom said to Joab, “Behold, I have sent to you, saying: ‘Come here,’ that I may send you to the king to say: ‘Why have I come from Geshur?’ it would be better for me were I still there; and now I will see the king’s face; and if there be iniquity in me, let him kill me.”
33 And Joab came to the king, and he told him: and he called for Absalom, and he came to the king, and he prostrated himself to him on his face to the ground before the king; and the king kissed Absalom.