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2 Samuel 19 of 24

2 Samuel 19

A general tells his king that grief is destroying the army's morale, and the king rises to receive his people.

Summary

David is told: the king weepeth and mourneth for Absalom. The victory that day is turned into mourning for all the people; they steal away into the city as people ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. The king covers his face and crieth with a loud voice, O my son Absalom. Joab comes into the house to the king and says: thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants who have saved thy life and the lives of thy sons and daughters and wives and concubines, in that thou lovest thine enemies and hatest thy friends. For thou hast declared this day that princes and servants are nothing unto thee; I perceive that if Absalom had lived and all we had died, then it had pleased thee well. Now therefore arise, go forth and speak comfortably to thy servants; for I swear by the Lord if thou go not forth, there will not tarry one man with thee this night; and that will be worse to thee than all the evil that befell thee from thy youth until now. The king rises and sits in the gate; the people hear that the king doth sit in the gate, and they come before the king.

Israel has fled to his tent. All the people are at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying the king saved them from the hand of their enemies but fled the land because of Absalom. And Absalom, whom they anointed over them, is dead. The tribe of Judah fetches the king back first. Shimei the son of Gera comes down with a thousand men of Benjamin and falls before the king at the Jordan, begging for pardon for his cursing. Abishai says he should die for this. David says: shall any man be put to death this day in Israel? He sweareth to Shimei he shall not die. Mephibosheth comes down, his feet and beard untrimmed and his clothes unchanged since the king departed. He says Ziba deceived him — as thy servant is lame and could not ride, Ziba slandered me. David says: why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said thou and Ziba shall divide the land. Mephibosheth says: let Ziba take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is returned in peace. Barzillai the Gileadite, eighty years old, comes with the king to the Jordan. David offers him a place at court; Barzillai says he is too old to taste food or hear singing; let thy servant return that I may die in mine own city by the grave of my father and mother. Let Chimham my son go with the king. David agrees, and kisses and blesses Barzillai.

Appears
David Joab
Themes
Political Restoration Mercy and Pardon Grief and Mourning
All 24 chapters — click to jump
  1. 2 Samuel 1Chapter 1 is the hinge between 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel.
  2. 2 Samuel 2Chapter 2 opens the period of civil war that will occupy much of the first half of the book.
  3. 2 Samuel 3Chapter 3 is one of the most politically complex chapters in the book.
  4. 2 Samuel 4Chapter 4 closes the civil war with a brief, ugly episode.
  5. 2 Samuel 5Chapter 5 is the pivotal chapter of the book's first half.
  6. 2 Samuel 6Chapter 6 is one of the most dramatically charged chapters in 2 Samuel, covering two episodes that frame the ark's arrival in Jerusalem.
  7. 2 Samuel 7Chapter 7 is the theological centre of the entire David narrative and one of the most consequential passages in the Hebrew Bible for later Jewish and Christian thought.
  8. 2 Samuel 8Chapter 8 reads differently from everything around it.
  9. 2 Samuel 9Chapter 9 is the chapter the Court History uses to establish one key dimension of David's character before the crisis arrives.
  10. 2 Samuel 10Chapter 10 establishes the military context of the Bathsheba episode.
  11. 2 Samuel 11Chapter 11 is the turning point of 2 Samuel and one of the most consequential chapters in biblical narrative.
  12. 2 Samuel 12Chapter 12 contains the most famous confrontation in the book.
  13. 2 Samuel 13Chapter 13 is the first fulfilment of Nathan's sentence in chapter 12.
  14. 2 Samuel 14Chapter 14 covers the three years in which David longs for Absalom but will not recall him, and Joab's intervention to change that.
  15. 2 Samuel 15Chapter 15 is the emotional nadir of the first movement of the Absalom crisis.
  16. 2 Samuel 16Chapter 16 covers three encounters as David makes his way out of Jerusalem.
  17. 2 Samuel 17Chapter 17 is the intelligence chapter of the Absalom revolt and turns on a moment of competitive counsel.
  18. 2 Samuel 18Chapter 18 is the emotional climax of 2 Samuel.
  19. 2 Samuel 19Chapter 19 covers David's return to Jerusalem and the political settlements it requires.
  20. 2 Samuel 20Chapter 20 is the coda to the Absalom crisis.
  21. 2 Samuel 21Chapter 21 opens the appendix section of 2 Samuel — chapters 21-24 are not chronological narrative but supplementary materials: two episodes of famine and plague bracketing two poems and two hero lists.
  22. 2 Samuel 22Chapter 22 is an extended psalm, found also as Psalm 18 in the Psalter, which the editors of 2 Samuel have placed near the end of the book as David's retrospective meditation on his life.
  23. 2 Samuel 23Chapter 23 contains two distinct sections.
  24. 2 Samuel 24Chapter 24 is the second appendix episode bracketing the poems of chapters 22-23, and it closes the book on an unexpected note.
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2 Samuel 18
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2 Samuel 20
The book itself
Summary & story
What 2 Samuel is, why it matters.
Analysis
Themes
Power, consequence, grief, the dynastic promise, and the realism of the prose.
Who's who
David's court
The household of a king who has everything and gives most of it away.

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