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11 but Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle. So why are we silent about restoring the king?”
12 Then King David sent word to Zadok and Abiathar the kohanim saying, “Speak to the elders of Judah saying, ‘Why should you be the last to bring the king back to his palace? The talk of all Israel had reached the king at his residence. 13 ‘You are my kinsmen, my bone and my flesh! Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’
14 “Also say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? May God do so to me and even more if you do not become my army commander before me continually, in place of Joab!’”
15 Thus he turned the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, and then they sent word to the king, “Come back, you and all your servants.” 16 So the king returned and reached the Jordan. Meanwhile, Judah came to Gilgal in order to meet the king, to escort the king over the Jordan.
17 Then Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite who was from Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David 18 accompanied by 1,000 men of Benjamin. Also Ziba the servant of Saul’s household, with his 15 sons and 20 slaves, rushed to the Jordan ahead of the king. 19 They ferried across the ford to bring the king’s household and they did whatever seemed good in his eyes. Now, Shimei son of Gera fell down before the king when he was crossing over the Jordan, 20 so he implored the king, “Let my lord not hold me guilty, and not remember the iniquity that your servant committed on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. Let the king not take it to his heart. 21 For your servant knows that I have sinned. So behold, I have come today the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.”
22 But Abishai son of Zeruiah answered and said, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed Adonai’s anointed?”
23 But David said, “What have I to do with you sons of Zeruiah that you should be my adversary[a] today? Should any man be put to death in Israel this day? Don’t I know that today I am king over Israel?” 24 Then the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die,” and the king swore it to him.
25 Then Mephibosheth son of Saul came down to meet the king. Now he had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came home in shalom. 26 Now it came to pass when he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why did you not go with me Mephibosheth?”
27 “My lord the king, my own servant deceived me,” he answered. “For your servant had said, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself, ride on it and go with the king,’ because your servant is lame. 28 However, he has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like an angel of God. So do what is good in your eyes. 29 For all my father’s household deserved only death at the hand of my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those eating at your own table! What right do I have yet to cry to the king?”
30 Then the king said to him, “Why do you still speak of your affairs? I have decreed, ‘You and Ziba shall divide the land.’”
31 “So let him take all,” Mephibosheth replied to the king, “as long as my lord the king has come back to his own home in shalom.”
32 Then Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim, and he approached the Jordan with the king to escort him over the Jordan. 33 Now Barzillai was a very aged man—80 years old—and he had provided for the king during his residence at Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man. 34 The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me, and I will provide for you with me in Jerusalem.” 35 But Barzillai said to the king, “How many years are left of my life that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? 36 I am now 80 years old. Can I distinguish between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I listen any more to the voice of singing men and women? Why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king? 37 Your servant would merely cross over the Jordan with the king. But why should the king reward me with such a reward? 38 Please let your servant go back, and let me die in my own hometown, near the grave of my father and my mother. But look, here is your servant Chimham—let him cross over with my lord the king, and do for him what seems good in your eyes.”
39 The king answered, “Chimham will cross over with me, and I will do for him what seems good in your eyes. Whatever you ask of me, I will do for you.” 40 When all the people had crossed over the Jordan and as the king was about to cross over, the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, so he returned to his own place.
41 Then the king crossed over to Gilgal, and Chimham and all the people of Judah crossed over with him, and also half the people of Israel escorted the king over. 42 Then all the men of Israel came to the king and said to him, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, steal you away by escorting the king and his household over the Jordan, along with all David’s men that were with him?”
43 Then all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, “Because the king is our close relative. So why are you angry over this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king’s cost? Or has he given us any gifts?”
44 Then the men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, “We have ten shares in the king, so in David we have even more than you. Why then did you despise us? Weren’t we the first to speak of restoring our king?” Yet the words of the men of Judah were harsher than the words of the men of Israel.
Joab the Terminator
20 Now a worthless fellow happened to be there, a Benjamite named Sheba son of Bichri. He blew the shofar and said, “We have no portion in David, no inheritance in the son of Jesse! Every man to his tents, O Israel!” 2 So all the men of Israel withdrew from following David and followed Sheba son of Bichri, but the men of Judah kept close to their king from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
3 Now when David arrived at his palace in Jerusalem, the king took the ten women, the concubines whom he had left to take care of the palace, and put them in a guarded house. He provided for them but he did not cohabit with them. So they were confined until the day they died, living in widowhood.
4 Then the king said to Amasa, “Summon to me the men of Judah within three days and be here yourself.” 5 So Amasa went to summon Judah but he took longer than the set time that he had allotted him.
6 Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. So take your lord’s servants and pursue him lest he find for himself fortified cities and escape from our sight.” 7 So Joab’s men went after him, along with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the mighty men, and set out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bichri. 8 When they were at the great stone that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Now Joab was dressed in his military uniform, and over it was a belt with a sword in its sheath fastened on his waist; and as he stepped forward, it fell out. 9 Then Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you my brother?” With his right hand Joab took Amasa by the beard to kiss him. 10 But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s other hand. So he stabbed him with it in the groin and poured out his entrails to the ground, and did not strike him again, for he died.
Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri. 11 Meanwhile, one of Joab’s young men stood over Amasa and said, “Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!” 12 Yet Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. So when the man saw that all the people stood still, he dragged Amasa from the highway into the field and threw a garment over him because he saw that everyone passing by him paused. 13 Once he removed him from the highway, everyone passed on, following Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.
Fish for Breakfast with the Risen One
21 After these things, Yeshua revealed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. Now here is how He appeared. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in the Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two of the other disciples were together.
3 Simon Peter said to them, “I’m going fishing.”
“We’re coming with you too,” they said. They went out and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.
4 At dawn, Yeshua stood on the beach; but the disciples didn’t know that it was Yeshua. 5 So Yeshua said to them, “Boys, you don’t happen to have any fish, do you?”
“No,” they answered Him.
6 He said to them, “Throw the net off the right side of the boat, and you’ll find some.” So they threw the net, and they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.
7 Therefore the disciple whom Yeshua loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer garment around himself—for he was stripped down for work—and threw himself into the sea. 8 But the other disciples came in the boat from about two hundred cubits[a] offshore, dragging the net full of fish.
9 So when they got out onto the land, they saw a charcoal fire with fish placed on it, and bread. 10 Yeshua said to them, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” 11 Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net to shore. There were 153 fish, many of them big; but the net was not broken. 12 Yeshua said to them, “Come, have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You?”—knowing it was the Lord. 13 Yeshua comes and takes the bread and gives it to them, and likewise the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Yeshua was revealed to the disciples after He was raised from the dead.
Love Restores Peter
15 When they had finished breakfast, Yeshua said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love you.”
He said to him, “Feed My lambs!”
16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Take care of My sheep!”
17 He said to him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
Peter was grieved because He said to him for a third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know everything! You know that I love You!”
Yeshua said to him, “Feed My sheep!”[b]
18 “Amen, amen I tell you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 Now this He said to indicate by what kind of death Peter was going to glorify God. And after this, Yeshua said to him, “Follow Me!”
20 Peter, turning around, sees the disciple following. This was the one whom Yeshua loved, who also had reclined against Yeshua’s chest at the seder meal and said, “Master, who is the one who is betraying You?” 21 Seeing him, Peter said to Yeshua, “Lord, what about him?”
22 Yeshua said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” 23 Therefore this saying went out among the brothers and sisters, that this disciple would not die. Yet Yeshua did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?”
John’s Witness
24 This is the disciple who is an eyewitness of these things and wrote these things. We know that his testimony is true. 25 There are also many other things that Yeshua did. If all of them were to be written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself will have room for the books being written!
I Am for Shalom
Psalm 120
1 A Song of Ascents.
In my trouble I cried out to Adonai,
and He answered me.
2 Adonai, deliver my soul from lying lips,
from a deceitful tongue.
3 What can be given to you,
and what more can be done to you, O deceitful tongue?—
4 sharp arrows of the mighty,
with burning coals of a broom tree!
5 Woe to me, for I sojourn in Meshech,
for I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 My soul has too long dwelt
with those who hate shalom.
7 I am for shalom and thus I speak,
but they are for war!
16 How much better to get wisdom than gold,
to choose understanding rather than silver.
17 The highway of the upright avoids evil.
He who guards his way protects his life.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.