14. So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, “Come on! Let’s escape! Otherwise no one will be delivered from Absalom! Go immediately, or else he will quickly overtake us and bring disaster on us and kill the city’s residents with the sword.”
15. The king’s servants replied to the king, “We will do whatever our lord the king decides.”
16. So the king and all the members of his royal court set out on foot, though the king left behind ten concubines to attend to the palace.
17. The king and all the people set out on foot, pausing at a spot some distance away.
18. All his servants were leaving with him, along with all the Kerethites, all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites – some six hundred men who had come on foot from Gath. They were leaving with the king.
19. Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you come with us? Go back and stay with the new king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own country.