2 Samuel 19:9-23

19:9 All the people throughout all the tribes of Israel were arguing among themselves saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies. He rescued us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled from the land because of Absalom. 19:10 But Absalom, whom we anointed as our king, ¹  has died in battle. So now why do you hesitate to bring the king back?” ² 

19:11 Then King David sent a message to Zadok and Abiathar the priests saying, “Tell the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you delay any further in bringing the king back to his palace, ³  when everything Israel is saying has come to the king’s attention. ⁴  19:12 You are my brothers – my very own flesh and blood! ⁵  Why should you delay any further in bringing the king back?’ 19:13 Say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my flesh and blood? ⁶  God will punish me severely, ⁷  if from this time on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

19:14 He ⁸  won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man. Then they sent word to the king saying, “Return, you and all your servants as well.” 19:15 So the king returned and came to the Jordan River. ⁹ 

Now the people of Judah ¹⁰  had come to Gilgal to meet the king and to help him ¹¹  cross the Jordan. 19:16 Shimei son of Gera the Benjaminite from Bahurim came down quickly with the men of Judah to meet King David. 19:17 There were a thousand men from Benjamin with him, along with Ziba the servant ¹²  of Saul’s household, and with him his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They hurriedly crossed ¹³  the Jordan within sight of the king. 19:18 They crossed at the ford in order to help the king’s household cross and to do whatever he thought appropriate.

Now after he had crossed the Jordan, Shimei son of Gera threw himself down before the king. 19:19 He said to the king, “Don’t think badly of me, my lord, and don’t recall the sin of your servant on the day when you, my lord the king, left ¹⁴  Jerusalem! ¹⁵  Please don’t call it to mind! 19:20 For I, your servant, ¹⁶  know that I sinned, and I have come today as the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.”

19:21 Abishai son of Zeruiah replied, “For this should not Shimei be put to death? After all, he cursed the Lord’s anointed!” 19:22 But David said, “What do we have in common, ¹⁷  you sons of Zeruiah? You are like my enemy today! Should anyone be put to death in Israel today? Don’t you realize that today I am king over Israel?” 19:23 The king said to Shimei, “You won’t die.” The king vowed an oath ¹⁸  concerning this.

[19:10]  ¹ tn Heb “over us.”

[19:10]  ² tc The LXX includes the following words at the end of v. 11: “And what all Israel was saying came to the king’s attention.” The words are misplaced in the LXX from v. 12 (although the same statement appears there in the LXX as well).

[19:11]  ³ tn Heb “his house.”

[19:11]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text adds “to his house” (= palace), but the phrase, which also appears earlier in the verse, is probably accidentally repeated here.

[19:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “my bone and my flesh.”

[19:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “my bone and my flesh.”

[19:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “Thus God will do to me and thus he will add.”

[19:14]  ⁸ tn The referent of “he” is not entirely clear: cf. NCV “David”; TEV “David’s words”; NRSV, NLT “Amasa.”

[19:15]  ⁹ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:15]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text has simply “Judah.”

[19:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the king.” The pronoun (“him”) has been used in the translation to avoid redundancy.

[19:17]  ¹² tn Heb “youth.”

[19:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “rushed into.”

[19:19]  ¹⁴ tn Though this verb in the MT is 3rd person masculine singular, it should probably be read as 2nd person masculine singular. It is one of fifteen places where the Masoretes placed a dot over each of the letters of the word in question in order to call attention to their suspicion of the word. Their concern in this case apparently had to do with the fact that this verb and the two preceding verbs alternate from third person to second and back again to third. Words marked in this way in Hebrew manuscripts or printed editions are said to have puncta extrordinaria, or “extraordinary points.”

[19:19]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[19:20]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text has simply “your servant.”

[19:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “what to me and to you.”

[19:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “swore to him.”