10. Now Absalom, whom we anointed to rule over us, is dead. Why not ask David to come back and be our king again?”
11. Then King David sent Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, to say to the elders of Judah, “Why are you the last ones to welcome back the king into his palace? For I have heard that all Israel is ready.
12. You are my relatives, my own tribe, my own flesh and blood! So why are you the last ones to welcome back the king?”
13. And David told them to tell Amasa, “Since you are my own flesh and blood, like Joab, may God strike me and even kill me if I do not appoint you as commander of my army in his place.”
14. Then Amasa convinced all the men of Judah, and they responded unanimously. They sent word to the king, “Return to us, and bring back all who are with you.”
15. So the king started back to Jerusalem. And when he arrived at the Jordan River, the people of Judah came to Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the river.
16. Shimei son of Gera, the man from Bahurim in Benjamin, hurried across with the men of Judah to welcome King David.
17. A thousand other men from the tribe of Benjamin were with him, including Ziba, the chief servant of the house of Saul, and Ziba’s fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed down to the Jordan to meet the king.
18. They crossed the shallows of the Jordan to bring the king’s household across the river, helping him in every way they could.As the king was about to cross the river, Shimei fell down before him.