Daily Text and Bible Reading: Sunday, April 13 [Press play below]

19.1 It was reported to Joab: “The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.”
19.2 So the victory on that day was turned into mourning for all the people, because they heard that the king was grieving over his son.
19.3 The people quietly returned to the city that day like people who are ashamed because they fled in the battle.
19.4 The king covered his face and kept crying out with a loud voice: “My son Absalom! Absalom my son, my son!”
19.5 Then Joab went in to the king at the house and said: “Today you have put to shame all your servants who this day saved your life and the lives of your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your concubines.
19.6 You love those who hate you and hate those who love you, for you have made it clear today that your chiefs and servants mean nothing to you, because I am sure that if only Absalom were alive today and the rest of us were dead, it would be all right with you.
19.7 Now get up, go out and reassure your servants, because by Jehovah I swear that if you do not go out, not a man will remain with you tonight. This will be worse for you than all the injury that has come upon you from your youth until now.”
19.8 So the king rose up and sat in the city gate, and all the people were informed: “Now the king is sitting in the gate.” Then all the people came before the king. But Israel had fled, each to his home.
19.9 All the people in all the tribes of Israel were disputing, saying: “The king saved us from our enemies, and he rescued us from the Philistines; but now he has fled the land because of Absalom.
19.10 And Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in the battle. So now, why are you doing nothing to bring the king back?”
19.11 King David sent this message to Zadok and Abiathar the priests: “Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, ‘Why should you be the last ones to bring the king back to his house, when the word of all Israel has come to the king at his house?
19.12 You are my brothers; you are my own bone and flesh. Why should you be the last ones to bring the king back?’
19.13 And you should say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my own bone and flesh? So may God do to me and add to it if you will not become my army chief from now on instead of Joab.’”
19.14 So he won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as one man, and they sent word to the king: “Come back, you and all your servants.”
19.15 The king started back and reached the Jordan, and the people of Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and to escort him across the Jordan.
19.16 Then Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David,
19.17 and there were 1,000 men from Benjamin with him. Also Ziba, the attendant of the house of Saul, with his 15 sons and 20 servants, rushed down to the Jordan ahead of the king.
19.18 He crossed the ford to bring the king’s household across and to do whatever he desired. But Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king when he was about to cross the Jordan.
19.19 He said to the king: “Do not let my lord hold me guilty, and do not remember the wrong your servant did on the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart,
19.20 for your servant well knows that I have sinned; so today I have been the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.”
19.21 At once Abishai the son of Zeruiah said: “Should not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the anointed of Jehovah?”
19.22 But David said: “What does this have to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should act against me today? Should anyone be put to death today in Israel? For do I not know that today I am king over Israel?”
19.23 Then the king said to Shimei: “You will not die.” And the king gave him his oath.
19.24 Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul, also came down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet or trimmed his mustache or washed his garments from the day the king left until the day he returned in peace.
19.25 When he came to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him: “Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?”
19.26 To this he said: “My lord the king, my servant tricked me. For your servant had said, ‘Let me get my donkey saddled so that I may ride on it and go with the king,’ for your servant is crippled.
19.27 But he slandered your servant to my lord the king. However, my lord the king is like an angel of the true God, so do whatever seems good to you.
19.28 All the household of my father could have been doomed to death by my lord the king, and yet you placed your servant among those eating at your table. So what right do I have to cry out further to the king?”
19.29 However, the king said to him: “Why keep on speaking like this? I have decided that you and Ziba should share the field.”
19.30 At this Mephibosheth said to the king: “Let him take it all, now that my lord the king has come to his house in peace.”
19.31 Then Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim to the Jordan to escort the king to the Jordan.
19.32 Barzillai was very old, 80 years of age, and he supplied the king with food while he was staying in Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man.
19.33 So the king said to Barzillai: “Cross over with me, and I will supply you with food in Jerusalem.”
19.34 But Barzillai said to the king: “How many days of my life are left that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?
19.35 I am 80 years old today. Can I discern between good and bad? Can I, your servant, taste what I eat and drink? Can I still listen to the voice of male and female singers? So why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?
19.36 It is enough that your servant could bring the king to the Jordan. Why should the king repay me with this reward?
19.37 Let your servant return, please, and let me die in my city near the burial place of my father and my mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king, and you may do for him what seems good to you.”
19.38 So the king said: “Chimham will go across with me, and I will do for him what seems good to you; whatever you ask of me I will do for you.”
19.39 All the people now began to cross the Jordan, and when the king crossed, the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him; and Barzillai returned home.
19.40 When the king went across to Gilgal, Chimham crossed with him. All the people of Judah and half the people of Israel brought the king across.
19.41 Then all the men of Israel approached the king and said to him: “Why did our brothers the men of Judah steal you away and bring the king and his household over the Jordan, along with all of David’s men?”
19.42 All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel: “Because the king is related to us. Why are you angry over this? Have we eaten anything at the king’s expense, or has a gift been given to us?”
19.43 However, the men of Israel answered the men of Judah: “We have ten parts in the king, so that we have a greater claim in David than you have. Why, then, have you treated us with contempt? Should we not have been first to bring our king back?” But the word of the men of Judah prevailed over that of the men of Israel.

20.1 Now there was a troublemaker named Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. He blew the horn and said: “We have no share in David, and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Everyone to his gods, O Israel!”
20.2 At that all the men of Israel quit following David to follow Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah stuck to their king, from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
20.3 When David came to his house at Jerusalem, the king took the ten concubines he had left behind to take care of the house, and he put them in a house under guard. He supplied food to them, but he did not have any relations with them. They remained in confinement until the day of their death, living as if they were widows, even though they had a living husband.
20.4 The king now said to Amasa: “Call the men of Judah together to me within three days, and you also should be here.”
20.5 So Amasa went to call Judah together, but he came later than the set time that had been appointed for him.
20.6 Then David said to Abishai: “Sheba the son of Bichri may do us more harm than Absalom did. Take the servants of your lord and chase after him, so that he may not find fortified cities and escape from us.”
20.7 So the men of Joab, the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the mighty men went out after him; they left Jerusalem to chase after Sheba the son of Bichri.
20.8 When they were near the great stone in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Now Joab was wearing his battle clothing, and he had a sword in its sheath strapped to his hip. When he stepped forward, the sword fell out.
20.9 Joab said to Amasa: “Are you all right, my brother?” Then with his right hand, Joab took hold of Amasa’s beard as if to kiss him.
20.10 Amasa was not on guard against the sword that was in Joab’s hand, and Joab stabbed him with it in the abdomen, and his intestines spilled out on the ground. He did not have to stab him again; once was enough to kill him. Then Joab and his brother Abishai chased after Sheba the son of Bichri.
20.11 One of Joab’s young men stood by him and was saying: “Whoever is on Joab’s side and whoever belongs to David, let him follow Joab!”
20.12 All the while Amasa was wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road. When the man saw that all the people were stopping, he moved Amasa from the road to the field. Then he threw a garment over him, because he saw that everyone was stopping when they came up to him.
20.13 After he had removed him from the road, all the men followed Joab to chase after Sheba the son of Bichri.
20.14 Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Beth-maacah. The Bichrites gathered together and also went in after him.
20.15 Joab and his men came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maacah and raised up a siege rampart against the city, as it was standing within a rampart. And all the men with Joab were undermining the wall to knock it down.
20.16 And a wise woman called out from the city: “Listen, men, listen! Please tell Joab, ‘Come here, and let me speak to you.’”
20.17 So he went near to her, and the woman said: “Are you Joab?” He replied: “I am.” At this she said to him: “Listen to the words of your servant.” He said: “I am listening.”
20.18 She continued: “They would always say in the past, ‘Let them inquire in Abel, and that was the end of the matter.’
20.19 I represent the peaceable and faithful ones of Israel. You are seeking to destroy a city that is like a mother in Israel. Why should you do away with the inheritance of Jehovah?”
20.20 Joab answered: “It is unthinkable for me to do away with it and destroy it.
20.21 That is not the case at all. Rather, a man named Sheba the son of Bichri from the mountainous region of Ephraim has rebelled against King David. If you hand over this one man, I will withdraw from the city.” Then the woman said to Joab: “Look! His head will be thrown over the wall to you!”
20.22 At once the wise woman went in to all the people, and they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. At that he blew the horn, and they dispersed from the city, each one to his home; and Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.
20.23 Now Joab was in charge of all the army of Israel; Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites.
20.24 Adoram was over those conscripted for forced labor; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder.
20.25 Sheva was the secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests.
20.26 And Ira the Jairite also became a chief minister for David.