20. then it shall be, if the sovereign’s wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
21. ‘Who smote Aḇimeleḵ the son of Yerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who threw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thĕḇĕts? Why did you go near the wall?’ Then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriyah the Ḥittite is also dead.’ ”
22. And the messenger went, and came and reported to Dawiḏ all with which Yo’aḇ had sent him.
23. And the messenger said to Dawiḏ, “The men have been mighty against us and came out to us in the field, but we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate.