CHAPTER 16
1 And when David had passed a little the top of the hill, Ziba, the child of Mephibosheth, appeared into his coming, with twain [or two] asses, that were charged with two hundred loaves, and with an hundred bundles of dried grapes, and with an hundred gobbets of pressed figs, and with two vessels of wine.
2 And the king said to Ziba, What will or mean these things to themselves? And Ziba answered, My lord the king, the asses be to the menials of the king, that they sit on them; and the loaves and the pressed figs be to thy children to eat; forsooth the wine is, that if any man fail in desert, he may drink.
3 And the king said, Where is the son of thy lord? And Ziba answered to the king, He dwelled [still] in Jerusalem, and said, Today the Lord of the house of Israel shall restore to me the realm of my father.
4 And the king said to Ziba, All things that were of Mephibosheth be thine. And Ziba said, I pray, find I grace before thee, my lord the king.
5 Therefore king David came to Bahurim, and lo! a man of the family of the house of Saul, Shimei by name, [the] son of Gera, went out from thence; he went forth going out, and cursed.
6 And he sent stones against David, and against all the servants of king David; and all the people, and all the fighting men went at the right side and at the left side of the king.
7 And Shimei spake thus, when he cursed the king, Go out, go out, thou man of bloods, that is, the shedder out of much guiltless blood, and man of Belial!
8 The Lord hath yielded to thee all the blood of the house of Saul, for thou hast ravished the realm from him; and the Lord hath given the realm into the hand of Absalom, thy son; and lo! thine evils oppress thee, for thou art a man of bloods.
9 And Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said to the king, Why curseth this dog, that shall die, my lord the king? I shall go, and I shall gird off his head.
10 And the king said, Ye sons of Zeruiah, what is it to me and to you? Suffer ye him, that he curse; forsooth the Lord hath commanded to him, that he should curse David; and who is he that dare say, Why did he so?
11 And the king said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Lo! my son, that went out of my womb, seeketh my life; how much more now this son of Benjamin? Suffer ye him, that he curse me by [the] commandment of the Lord;
12 if in hap the Lord behold my tormenting, and yield good to me for this day’s cursing.
13 Therefore David went forth, and his fellows, by the way with him; but Shimei went aside by the slade of the hill against David; and cursed David, and threw stones against him, and sprinkled earth.
14 And so king David came, and all the people weary with him, and they were refreshed there.
15 And Absalom, and all the people of Israel entered into Jerusalem, but also Ahithophel with him.
16 And when Hushai of Archi, the friend of David, had come to Absalom, he said to him, Hail, king! hail, king!
17 To whom Absalom said, This is thy grace to thy friend; why wentest thou not with thy friend?
18 And Hushai answered to Absalom, Nay, for I shall be the servant of him, whom the Lord hath chosen, and all this people, and all Israel; and I shall dwell with him.
19 But that I say also this, to whom shall I serve? whether not to the son of the king? as I obeyed to thy father, so I shall obey to thee.
20 And Absalom said to Ahithophel, Take ye counsel, what we owe to do.
21 And Ahithophel said to Absalom, Enter thou [in] to the concubines of thy father, which he left to keep the house; that when all Israel heareth, that thou hast defouled thy father’s bed, the hands of them be strengthened with thee.
22 Therefore they stretched out for Absalom a tabernacle in the solar, and he entered [in] to the concubines of his father before all Israel.
23 And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man had counselled with God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel, both when he was with David, and when he was with Absalom.