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Absalom Returns to Jerusalem
14 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah recognized that the king’s mind was on Absalom. 2 So Joab sent a request to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman. He instructed her, “Act as if you are observing mourning rites. Put on mourning garments, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but act like a woman who has been mourning over the dead like this for many days. 3 Then come to the king and speak to him in this manner.” Thus Joab put the words in her mouth.
4 As the Tekoan woman spoke to the king, she fell on her face toward the ground and bowed low. Then she said, “Help me, O king.”
5 The king said to her, “What troubles you?”
She responded, “Alas, I am a widow, and my husband is dead. 6 Furthermore, your servant had two sons. The two of them were fighting in the field, but there was no one to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. 7 Now the entire family has risen up against your maidservant, and they said, ‘Deliver him who struck his brother, so that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and we will destroy the heir also.’ So they will extinguish my remaining ember, and leave my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.”
8 Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.”
9 The Tekoan woman responded to the king, “May guilt rest upon me and the house of my father, my lord the king, and may the king and his throne be blameless.”
10 The king said, “Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not cause you harm again.”
11 Then she said, “May the king remember the Lord your God so that the avenger of blood will not continue to destroy, lest they exterminate my son.”
He said, “As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son will fall to the ground.”
12 Then the woman said, “Allow your servant to speak a word to my lord the king.”
So he said, “Speak.”
13 The woman said, “Why have you planned like this against the people of God? The king’s speaking this word is like a self-conviction, for the king has not brought back his own banished one. 14 We will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; He devises plans so that His banished ones will not be cast out from Him.
15 “So now I have come to speak to my lord the king about this matter because the people have made me afraid. So, I thought, ‘I will speak to the king. Perhaps the king will perform the request of his servant. 16 For the king may accept my request to deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son from the inheritance of God.’
17 “So, your servant thought, ‘May the word of my lord the king provide rest. For like the angel of God, my lord the king discerns good from evil. May the Lord your God be with you.’ ”
18 Then the king answered and said to the woman, “Please do not conceal from me anything that I ask you.”
The woman said, “May my lord the king please speak.”
19 The king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all of this?”
The woman answered and said, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, there is no turning right or left from anything that you spoke, my lord the king, for your servant Joab is the very one who commanded me and placed all of these words in my mouth. 20 In order to change this situation, your servant Joab did this thing; but my lord is wise, as with the wisdom of the angel of God, so as to discern everything happening in the land.”
21 Then the king said to Joab, “This is what I will do. Go and bring back the young man Absalom.”
22 Then Joab fell with his face to ground and bowed low and blessed the king. Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, since the king has granted the request of his servant.”
23 Then Joab arose and went to Geshur, and he brought Absalom to Jerusalem. 24 The king said, “Let him turn to his own house. He shall not come into my presence.” So Absalom turned to his house and did not come into the king’s presence.
David Forgives Absalom
25 In all of Israel, there was no man as handsome as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head, there was not a blemish on him. 26 When he cut the hair of his head (and at the end of every year he cut it, for it was heavy on him), he weighed the hair from his head at two hundred shekels,[a] according to the king’s standard.
27 There were born to Absalom three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar. She was a beautiful woman.
28 Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two full years without coming into the king’s presence. 29 Then Absalom sent a message to Joab, requesting that he send him to the king, but he was not willing to come to him. So he sent a second message, but still he was not willing to come. 30 Then he said to his servants, “See, Joab’s field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go, set it on fire.” So the servants of Absalom set the field on fire.
31 Then Joab arose, came to Absalom at his house, and said to him, “Why have your servants set my plot of land on fire?”
32 Absalom said to Joab, “I sent a message to you, saying: Come, so that I may send you to the king, asking, ‘Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still.’ Now, let me go before the king, and if there is still guilt with me, may he put me to death.”
33 So Joab came and reported this to him. Then he summoned Absalom. So he came to the king, bowed low to him, his face on the ground before the king; then the king kissed Absalom.
Absalom’s Conspiracy
15 After this Absalom acquired for himself a chariot, horses, and fifty men to run before him. 2 Absalom would go early and stand beside the way into the gate. When any man who had a dispute concerning which he had come to the king for a judgment approached, Absalom would call to him and say, “Which city are you from?” And he would say, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.” 3 Then Absalom would say to him, “Look, your claim is good and right, but there is no one to hear you on behalf of the king.” 4 Absalom would continue, “If I were appointed a judge in the land, then every man who had a claim could come and I would give him justice.”
5 When a man would approach to bow before him, he would reach out, embrace him, and kiss him. 6 Absalom acted this way toward every Israelite who came to the king for a judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
7 After forty years, Absalom said to the king, “Please allow me to go fulfill my vow that I made to the Lord in Hebron. 8 For your servant made a vow when I was dwelling in Geshur in Aram, saying: If indeed the Lord will bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord.”
9 The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he arose and went to Hebron.
10 But Absalom sent scouts throughout all of the tribes of Israel, saying, “When you hear the sound of the horn, say: Absalom has become king in Hebron.” 11 Now two hundred men went with Absalom from Jerusalem, invited and unsuspecting; they did not know anything. 12 Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, the advisor of David, from his city Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. Now the conspiracy was strong, for the number of people with Absalom was continually growing.
David Flees Jerusalem
13 A messenger came to David and said, “The hearts of the men of Israel are following Absalom.”
14 David said to all of his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, “Get up. We must flee or there will be no escape from Absalom for us. Hurry up and leave, or he will soon reach us and bring disaster upon us, striking the city with the edge of the sword.”
15 The king’s servants said to the king, “Whatever our lord the king decides, we are your servants.”
16 So the king left with his entire house after him, but he left behind ten women, concubines, to watch over the house. 17 So the king left with all of the people after him, and they came to a stop at the furthest house. 18 Now all his servants passed on beside him, all the Kerethites, all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who had followed him from Gath, passed on before the king.
19 The king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why are you also going with us? Go back and dwell with the king, for you are a foreigner and, moreover, exiled from your own place. 20 You came only yesterday. Shall I cause you to go roaming around with us today? I am going where I go. Go back, and take back your brothers with you. Mercy and truth be with you.”
21 Ittai answered the king and said, “As the Lord lives and as lives my lord the king, only in the place where my lord the king is, whether for death or for life, there alone will your servant be.”
22 So David said to Ittai, “Go on, pass by.” So Ittai the Gittite passed by, along with all of his men and all of the children and elderly who were with him.
The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus(A)
18 When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples across the Kidron Valley. There was a garden which He and His disciples entered.
2 Now Judas, who betrayed Him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with His disciples. 3 So Judas, having taken a detachment of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
4 Jesus therefore, knowing everything that would happen to Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?”
5 They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who betrayed Him, was standing with them. 6 When He said, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
7 Again Jesus asked them, “Whom do you seek?”
They said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am He. So then let these go their way if you are looking for Me.” 9 This was to fulfill the word which He had spoken, “I have lost none of those whom You have given Me.”
10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.
11 Then Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”
Jesus Before the High Priest(B)
12 Then the detachment of soldiers and the commander and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him. 13 First they led Him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. 14 Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.
Peter’s Denial of Jesus(C)
15 Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. That disciple was known to the high priest and went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. 16 But Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter in.
17 Then the servant girl, being the doorkeeper, said to Peter, “Are you not also one of this Man’s disciples?”
He said, “I am not.”
18 Now the servants and officers stood there and warmed themselves, having made a fire of coals, for it was cold. Peter also stood with them and warmed himself.
The High Priest Questions Jesus(D)
19 The high priest then asked Jesus about His disciples and His teaching.
20 Jesus answered him, “I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where the Jews always meet, and I said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you ask Me? Ask those who heard Me and what I have said to them. Certainly they know what I said.”
22 When He had said this, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, “Is that how You answer the high priest?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil, but if well, why do you strike me?” 24 Then Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
מ Mem
97 Oh, how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandments have made me wiser than my enemies,
for they are continually with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for Your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the elders,
because I keep Your precepts.
101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
that I might keep Your word.
102 I have not departed from Your judgments,
for You have taught me.
103 How sweet are Your words to the taste of my mouth!
Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 Through Your precepts I receive understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.
נ Nun
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
106 I have sworn, and I will perform it,
that I will keep Your righteous judgments.
107 I am greatly afflicted;
revive me, O Lord, according to Your word.
108 Accept the freewill offerings of my praise, O Lord,
and teach me Your judgments.
109 My soul is continually in my hand,
yet I do not forget Your law.
110 The wicked have laid a trap for me,
yet I do not depart from Your precepts.
111 Your testimonies are my inheritance forever,
for they are the rejoicing of my heart.
112 I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes always,
even unto the end.
8 Better is a little with righteousness
than great revenues with injustice.
9 A man’s heart devises his way,
but the Lord directs his steps.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.