¹³ A messenger came to David, saying, “The ·Israelites are giving their loyalty to [^Lhearts of the people/Israelites are with] Absalom.”

¹⁴ Then David said to all his ·officers [officials; ^Lservants] who were with him in Jerusalem, “We must ·leave [flee] quickly! If we don’t, we won’t be able to ·get away from [escape] Absalom. We must hurry before he ·catches [overtakes] us and ·destroys us and kills the people of Jerusalem [^Lbrings disaster and puts the city to the sword].”