The Daily Audio Bible

Joab Brings Absalom to Jerusalem

14 Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was on Absalom. ² So Joab sent word to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there. He said to her, “Please pretend to be a mourner and put on mourning clothes. Do not anoint yourself with oil but be like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead. ³ Then go to the king and speak to him these words.” Then Joab put the words in her mouth.

⁴ When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, bowed down and said, “Help, O king!”

⁵ “What’s the matter with you?” the king said to her.

“Truly, I am a widow, my husband is dead,” she said. ⁶ “Your handmaid had two sons, but the two of them fought with each other in the field, where there was no one to separate them. So one struck the other and killed him. ⁷ Now behold, the whole clan has risen against your handmaid and said, ‘Hand over the one who struck down his brother so we may put him to death, for the life of his brother whom he slew.’ So they will also destroy the heir and extinguish my one remaining ember, leaving to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth!”

⁸ Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your home. I will issue an order concerning you.”

⁹ The woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord the king, let the iniquity be on me and on my father’s house but may the king and his throne be innocent.”

¹⁰ “Whoever speaks to you,” the king said, “bring him to me and he shall not touch you anymore.”

¹¹ “Please, let the king remember Adonai your God,” she said, “so that the avenger of blood does not destroy any more, so they won’t destroy my son.”

“As Adonai lives,” he said, “not one hair of your son will fall to the ground.”

¹² Then the woman said, “Please, let your handmaid speak a word to my lord the king.”

“Say on,” he said.

¹³ The woman said, “Why have you devised a situation just like this against God’s people? For by speaking this word, the king is like the guilty one—by not bringing back the one he banished. ¹⁴ For we will all surely die and be like water spilt on the ground that cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life but rather, He devises plans so that a banished person may not remain an outcast from Him. ¹⁵ Now the reason I came to speak this word to my lord the king is because the people have made me afraid. So your handmaid thought, ‘I must speak to the king—perhaps the king will fulfill the request of his maidservant. ¹⁶ Surely the king will hear, to deliver his maidservant from the hand of the one who would eliminate both me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.’ ¹⁷ Then your handmaid also thought, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king bring relief. For like an angel of God so is my lord the king to discern good and evil.’ So may Adonai your God be with you.”

¹⁸ Then the king answered and said to the woman, “Please do not hide anything from me concerning what I am about to ask you.”

“Please let my lord the king speak,” the woman said.

¹⁹ Then the king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?”

“As your soul lives, my lord the king,” the woman answered, “no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. Yes, your servant Joab was the one who commanded me and put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid. ²⁰ Your servant Joab did this thing in order to bring about a change in the situation. But my lord is wise—like the wisdom of an angel of God—to know all that goes on in the land.”

²¹ Then the king said to Joab, “Behold now, I will do this thing. So go, bring the young man Absalom back.” ²² Joab fell on his face to the ground, prostrated himself and blessed the king. Then Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, since the king has done the word of your servant.” ²³ So Joab got up, went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴ However, the king said, “He may go directly to his own house, but he may not see my face.” So Absalom went directly to his own house and did not see the king’s face.

²⁵ Now in all Israel there was none as handsome as Absalom—so highly praised. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. ²⁶ When he cut the hair of his head—at the end of every year he would cut it because the hair got so heavy on him that he had to cut it. The weight of the hair from his head was 200 shekels by the royal weight^[a]. ²⁷ To Absalom were born three sons and one daughter, whose name was Tamar—she was a beautiful woman.

²⁸ Now Absalom had lived two full years in Jerusalem but he never saw the king’s face. ²⁹ Then Absalom sent for Joab, in order to send him to the king, but he was unwilling to come to him. So he sent word again a second time, but he still would not come. ³⁰ So he said to his servants, “See, Joab’s field is next to mine and he has barley there—go and set it on fire.” So Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.

³¹ Then Joab arose, came to Absalom at his house, and said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?”

³² “Look, I sent word to you,” Absalom said to Joab, “saying, ‘Come here, that I may send you to the king to say, “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there.’” So now, let me see the king’s face and if there is iniquity in me, let him put me to death.” ³³ So Joab went to the king and told him. When he summoned Absalom, he came to the king and bowed down on his face to the ground before the king, and then, the king kissed Absalom.

Absalom’s Revolt

15 Now it came about after this that Absalom provided himself with a chariot, horses and 50 men as runners before him. ² Absalom used to rise up early and stand beside the road to the city gate. Whenever anyone had a suit to come to the king for justice, then Absalom would call to him and say, “What town are you from?” Should he answer, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel,” ³ Absalom would say to him, “See, your claims are good and right, but there is no one assigned to you by the king to hear you.” ⁴ Moreover, Absalom would say, “If only I were appointed judge in the land, then every man who has any suit or case would come to me, and I would get him justice!” ⁵ Also, whenever anyone approached to bow to him, he would stretch his hand, take hold of him, and kiss him. ⁶ So Absalom kept doing this to everyone of Israel who came to the king for judgment. Thus Absalom stole the hearts of the people of Israel.

⁷ At the end of 40 years Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go to Hebron and pay my vow which I have vowed to Adonai. ⁸ For your servant vowed a vow while I was still living at Geshur in Aram saying, ‘If Adonai will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve Adonai.’”

⁹ So the king said to him, “Go in shalom.”

Then he rose and went to Hebron. ¹⁰ But Absalom sent spies to all the tribes of Israel to say, “As soon as you hear the sound of the shofar, then you are to say, ‘Absalom has become king in Hebron!’” ¹¹ Now 200 men from Jerusalem went with Absalom, who were invited and were going innocently, knowing nothing of the situation. ¹² Also Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor from his town Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. So the conspiracy gained momentum for the people following Absalom continued to increase.

¹³ Then a messenger came to David saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are following Absalom.”

David’s Exodus from Jerusalem

¹⁴ Then David said to all his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or else none of us will escape from Absalom. Leave in haste or else he will overtake us quickly and bring disaster down on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

¹⁵ Then the king’s officials said to the king, “Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever our lord the king chooses.” ¹⁶ So the king set out, and his entire household followed him. But the king left behind ten concubines to take care of the palace. ¹⁷ As the king went out and all the people after him, they paused at the last house. ¹⁸ All his servants passed on beside him: all the Cherethites, all the Pelethites and all the Gittites—600 men that had come after him from Gath—passed on before the king. ¹⁹ Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your own place. ²⁰ Your arrival was only yesterday—should I make you wander around with us today, to go wherever I may go? Go back and take your kinsmen back with you. Kindness and truth be with you!”

²¹ But Ittai answered the king and said, “As Adonai lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in whatever place my lord the king will be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.”^[b]

²² So David said to Ittai, “Go on and cross over.” So Ittai the Gittite passed on, with all his men and all the little children who were with him.

Betrayed and Arrested

18 When Yeshua had said these things, He went out with His disciples across the Kidron Valley,^[a] where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered. ² Now Judah, who was betraying Him, also knew the place, because Yeshua had often met there with His disciples. ³ So Judah, having taken a band of soldiers and some officers from the ruling kohanim and Pharisees, comes there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. ⁴ Then Yeshua, knowing all the things coming upon Him, went forward. He said to them, “Who are you looking for?”

⁵ “Yeshua ha-Natzrati,” they answered Him.

Yeshua tells them, “I am.” Now Judah, the one betraying Him, was also standing with them. ⁶ So when Yeshua said to them, “I am,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

⁷ So again He asked them, “Who are you looking for?”

And they said, “Yeshua ha-Natzrati.”

⁸ Yeshua answered, “I told you, I am! If you’re looking for Me, let these men go their way.” ⁹ This was so the word would be fulfilled that He spoke: “I did not lose one of those You have given Me.”^[b]

¹⁰ Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the servant of the kohen gadol, and cut off his right ear. Now the servant’s name was Malchus. ¹¹ So Yeshua said to Peter, “Put the sword into the sheath! The cup the Father has given Me—shall I never drink it?”

Interrogated and Tried

¹² Then the band of soldiers, with the captain and the officers of the Judeans, seized Yeshua and tied Him up. ¹³ They led Him first to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the kohen gadol that year. ¹⁴ Now Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Judean leaders that it was better for one man to die on behalf of the people.

¹⁵ Simon Peter was following Yeshua with another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the kohen gadol, so he went with Yeshua into the court of the kohen gadol. ¹⁶ But Peter was left standing outside by the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the kohen gadol, went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter in.

¹⁷ The maidservant at the door says to Peter, “Aren’t you one of this Man’s disciples too?”

He says, “No, I’m not.” ¹⁸ The servants and officers were standing around a fire they had made, because it was cold and they were warming themselves. And Peter was also with them, standing and warming himself.

¹⁹ The kohen gadol then questioned Yeshua about His disciples and His teaching. ²⁰ “I have spoken openly to the world,” Yeshua answered him. “I always taught in the synagogues and the Temple, where all the Jewish people come together. I spoke nothing in secret. ²¹ Why question Me? Ask those who have heard what I spoke to them. Look, they know what I said.”

²² When He had said this, one of the officers standing nearby gave Yeshua a slap, saying, “Is that the way you answer the kohen gadol?”

²³ Yeshua answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, give evidence of the wrong; but if rightly, why hit Me?” ²⁴ Then Annas sent Him, still tied up, to Caiaphas, the kohen gadol.

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