11. but Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle. So why are we silent about restoring the king?”
12. Then King David sent word to Zadok and Abiathar the kohanim saying, “Speak to the elders of Judah saying, ‘Why should you be the last to bring the king back to his palace? The talk of all Israel had reached the king at his residence.
13. ‘You are my kinsmen, my bone and my flesh! Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’
14. “Also say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? May God do so to me and even more if you do not become my army commander before me continually, in place of Joab!’”
15. Thus he turned the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, and then they sent word to the king, “Come back, you and all your servants.”
16. So the king returned and reached the Jordan. Meanwhile, Judah came to Gilgal in order to meet the king, to escort the king over the Jordan.