Psalms 3:1

⁷Show your marvelous loving kindness, you who save those who take refuge by your right hand from their enemies.

¹¹But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person. ¹²So we will come on him in some place where he will be found, and we will light on him as the dew falls on the ground, then we will not leave so much as one of him and of all the men who are with him. ¹³Moreover, if he has gone into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there isn’t one small stone found there.”

¹⁵Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him.

¹After this, Absalom prepared a chariot and horses for himself, and fifty men to run before him. ²Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. When any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, “What city are you from?” He said, “Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.”

³Absalom said to him, “Behold, your matters are good and right; but there is no man deputized by the king to hear you.” ⁴Absalom said moreover, “Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!” ⁵It was so, that when any man came near to bow down to him, he stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and kissed him. ⁶Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

⁷At the end of forty years, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the LORD, in Hebron. ⁸For your servant vowed a vow while I stayed at Geshur in Syria, saying, ‘If the LORD shall indeed bring me again to Jerusalem, then I will serve the LORD.’”

⁹The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he arose and went to Hebron.

¹⁰But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron!’”

¹¹Two hundred men went with Absalom out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they didn’t know anything. ¹²Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong, for the people increased continually with Absalom. ¹³A messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom.”

¹⁴David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise! Let’s flee, or else none of us will escape from Absalom. Hurry to depart, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down evil on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

¹⁵The king’s servants said to the king, “Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king chooses.”

¹⁶The king went out, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house. ¹⁷The king went out, and all the people after him; and they stayed in Beth Merhak. ¹⁸All his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.

²⁵All the people answered, “May his blood be on us and on our children!”

²¹“Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.