17. So the sovereign went out, and all the people at his feet, and they stood still at the last house.
18. And all his servants were passing on at his side. And all the Kerĕthites, and all the Pelĕthites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who had followed him from Gath, were passing on before the sovereign.
19. And the sovereign said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you go, you also, with us? Turn back and remain with the sovereign, for you are a foreigner, and also an exile from your own place.
20. “You came yesterday, and should I today make you wander up and down with us, when I am going wherever I am going? Return, and take your brothers back. Kindness and truth be with you.”
21. And Ittai answered the sovereign and said, “As יהוה lives, and as my master the sovereign lives, in whatever place my master the sovereign is, whether in death or life, let your servant also be there.”
22. Therefore Dawiḏ said to Ittai, “Go, and pass over.” And Ittai the Gittite and all his men and all the little ones who were with him passed over.
23. And all the land was weeping with a loud voice, and all the people were passing over. And the sovereign himself was passing over the wadi Qiḏron, and all the people were passing over toward the way of the wilderness.
24. And see, Tsaḏoq also came, and all the Lĕwites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of Elohim. And they set down the ark of Elohim, and Eḇyathar went up until all the people completed passing over from the city.
25. And the sovereign said to Tsaḏoq, “Take the ark of Elohim back to the city. If I find favour in the eyes of יהוה, then He shall bring me back and show me both it and His dwelling.
26. “But if He says thus, ‘I have not delighted in you,’ here I am, let Him do to me as seems good in His eyes.”
27. And the sovereign said to Tsaḏoq the priest, “Are you not a seer? Return to the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Aḥima‛ats your son, and Yehonathan son of Eḇyathar.
28. “See, I am waiting in the desert plains of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.”