1. And it was reported to Yo’aḇ, “See, the sovereign is weeping and mourning for Aḇshalom.”
2. So the deliverance that day was turned into mourning for all the people. For the people heard on that day, saying, “The sovereign has been grieved for his son.”
3. And the people stole back into the city that day, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.
4. And the sovereign covered his face, and the sovereign cried out with a loud voice, “O my son Aḇshalom! O Aḇshalom, my son, my son!”
5. And Yo’aḇ came into the house to the sovereign, and said, “Today you have put to shame all your servants who today have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and daughters, and the lives of your wives and the lives of your concubines,
6. by loving those who hate you, and by hating those who love you. For you have made it clear today that you have neither commanders nor servants, for today I know that if Aḇshalom had lived and all of us had died today, then it would be right in your eyes.
7. “And now, arise, go out and speak to the heart of your servants. For I swear by יהוה, if you do not go out, not one passes the night with you. And that is worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now.”
8. So the sovereign rose up and sat in the gate. And they told all the people, saying, “Look, the sovereign is sitting in the gate.” And all the people came before the sovereign. As for Yisra’ĕl, they had fled, each one to his tent.
9. And it came to be, that all the people were contending throughout all the tribes of Yisra’ĕl, saying, “The sovereign delivered us from the hand of the enemies, he rescued us from the hand of the Philistines, and now he has fled from the land because of Aḇshalom,
10. and Aḇshalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle. And now, why are you silent about bringing back the sovereign?”
11. And Sovereign Dawiḏ sent to Tsaḏoq and Eḇyathar the priests, saying, “Speak to the elders of Yehuḏah, saying, ‘Why are you the last to bring the sovereign back to his house, since the words of all Yisra’ĕl have come to the sovereign, to his house?
12. ‘You are my brothers, you are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring back the sovereign?’
13. “And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? Elohim do so to me, and more also, if you are not commander of the army before me all the days in place of Yo’aḇ.’ ”
14. Thus he swayed the hearts of all the men of Yehuḏah as one man, so that they sent to the sovereign, saying “Return, you and all your servants!”
15. So the sovereign returned and came to the Yardĕn. And Yehuḏah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the sovereign, to bring the sovereign over the Yardĕn.
16. And Shim‛i son of Gĕra, a Binyamite, who was from Baḥurim, hastened and came down with the men of Yehuḏah to meet Sovereign Dawiḏ.
17. And with him were a thousand men of Binyamin, and Tsiḇa the servant of the house of Sha’ul, and his fifteen sons, and his twenty servants with him. And they rushed over the Yardĕn before the sovereign.