1. IT WAS told Joab, Behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.
2. So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people, for they heard it said, The king grieves for his son.
3. The people slipped into the city stealthily that day as humiliated people steal away when they flee in battle.
4. But the king covered his face and cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!
5. And Joab came into the house to the king and said, You have today covered the faces of all your servants with shame, who this day have saved your life and the lives of your sons and your daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines.
6. For you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have declared today that princes and servants are nothing to you; for today I see that if Absalom had lived and all the rest of us had died, you would be well pleased.
7. So now arise, go out and speak kindly and encouragingly to your servants; for I swear by the Lord that if you do not go, not a man will remain with you this night. And this will be worse for you than all the evil that has befallen you from your youth until now.
8. Then the king arose and sat in the gate. And all [his followers] were told, The king is sitting in the gate, and they all came before the king. Now Israel [Absalom's troops] had fled, every man to his home.
9. And all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king delivered us from the hands of our enemies, and he saved us from the hands of the Philistines. And now he has fled out of the land from Absalom.