Absalom Is Defeated and Killed

¹King David brought all his men together, divided them into units of a thousand and of a hundred, and placed officers in command of them.

²Then he sent them out in three groups, with Joab and Joab's brother Abishai and Ittai from Gath, each in command of a group. And the king said to his men, “I will go with you myself.”

³“You mustn't go with us,” they answered. “It won't make any difference to the enemy if the rest of us turn and run, or even if half of us are killed; but you are worth ten thousand of us. It will be better if you stay here in the city and send us help.”

⁴“I will do whatever you think best,” the king answered. Then he stood by the side of the gate as his men marched out in units of a thousand and of a hundred.

⁵He gave orders to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai: “For my sake don't harm the young man Absalom.” And all the troops heard David give this command to his officers.

⁶David's army went out into the countryside and fought the Israelites in Ephraim Forest.

⁷The Israelites were defeated by David's men; it was a terrible defeat, with twenty thousand men killed that day.

⁸The fighting spread over the countryside, and more men died in the forest than were killed in battle.

⁹Suddenly Absalom met some of David's men. Absalom was riding a mule, and as it went under a large oak tree, Absalom's head got caught in the branches. The mule ran on and Absalom was left hanging in midair.

¹⁰One of David's men saw him and reported to Joab, “Sir, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!”

¹¹Joab answered, “If you saw him, why didn't you kill him on the spot? I myself would have given you ten pieces of silver and a belt.”

¹²But the man answered, “Even if you gave me a thousand pieces of silver, I wouldn't lift a finger against the king's son. We all heard the king command you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘For my sake don't harm the young man Absalom.’

¹³But if I had disobeyed the king and killed Absalom, the king would have heard about it—he hears about everything—and you would not have defended me.”

¹⁴“I'm not going to waste any more time with you,” Joab said. He took three spears and plunged them into Absalom's chest while he was still alive, hanging in the oak tree.

¹⁵Then ten of Joab's soldiers closed in on Absalom and finished killing him.

¹⁶Joab had the trumpet blown to stop the fighting, and his troops came back from pursuing the Israelites.

¹⁷They took Absalom's body, threw it into a deep pit in the forest, and covered it with a huge pile of stones. All the Israelites fled to their own hometowns.

¹⁸During his lifetime Absalom had built a monument for himself in King's Valley, because he had no son to keep his name alive. So he named it after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom's Monument.

David Is Told of Absalom's Death

¹⁹Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said to Joab, “Let me run to the king with the good news that the Lord has saved him from his enemies.”

²⁰“No,” Joab said, “today you will not take any good news. Some other day you may do so, but not today, for the king's son is dead.”

²¹Then he said to his Ethiopian slave, “Go and tell the king what you have seen.” The slave bowed and ran off.

²²Ahimaaz insisted, “I don't care what happens; please let me take the news also.” “Why do you want to do it, my son?” Joab asked. “You will get no reward for it.”

²³“Whatever happens,” Ahimaaz said again, “I want to go.” “Then go,” Joab said. So Ahimaaz ran off down the road through the Jordan Valley, and soon he passed the slave.

²⁴David was sitting in the space between the inner and outer gates of the city. The lookout went up to the top of the wall and stood on the roof of the gateway; he looked out and saw a man running alone.

²⁵He called down and told the king, and the king said, “If he is alone, he is bringing good news.” The runner kept coming closer.

²⁶Then the lookout saw another man running alone, and he called down to the gatekeeper, “Look! There's another man running!” The king answered, “This one also is bringing good news.”

²⁷The lookout said, “I can see that the first man runs like Ahimaaz.” “He's a good man,” the king said, “and he is bringing good news.”

²⁸Ahimaaz called out a greeting to the king, threw himself down to the ground before him, and said, “Praise the Lord your God, who has given you victory over the men who rebelled against Your Majesty!”

²⁹“Is the young man Absalom all right?” the king asked. Ahimaaz answered, “Sir, when your officer Joab sent me, I saw a great commotion, but I couldn't tell what it was.”

³⁰“Stand over there,” the king told him; and he went over and stood there.

³¹Then the Ethiopian slave arrived and said to the king, “I have good news for Your Majesty! Today the Lord has given you victory over all who rebelled against you!”

³²“Is the young man Absalom all right?” the king asked. The slave answered, “I wish that what has happened to him would happen to all your enemies, sir, and to all who rebel against you.”

³³The king was overcome with grief. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he cried, “O my son! My son Absalom! Absalom, my son! If only I had died in your place, my son! Absalom, my son!”

¹When David was very old, he made his son Solomon king of Israel.

The Work of the Levites

²King David brought together all the Israelite leaders and all the priests and Levites.

³He took a census of all the male Levites aged thirty or older. The total was thirty-eight thousand.

⁴The king assigned twenty-four thousand to administer the work of the Temple, six thousand to keep records and decide disputes,

⁵four thousand to do guard duty, and four thousand to praise the Lord, using the musical instruments provided by the king for this purpose.

⁶David divided the Levites into three groups, according to their clans: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

⁷Gershon had two sons: Ladan and Shimei.

⁸Ladan had three sons: Jehiel, Zetham, and Joel,

⁹who were the heads of the clans descended from Ladan. (Shimei had three sons: Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran.)

^10-11Shimei had four sons: Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah, in order of age. Jeush and Beriah did not have many descendants, so they were counted as one clan.

¹²Kohath had four sons: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.

¹³His oldest son, Amram, was the father of Aaron and Moses. (Aaron and his descendants were set apart to be in charge of the sacred objects forever, to burn incense in the worship of the Lord, to serve him, and to bless the people in his name.

¹⁴But the sons of Moses, the man of God, were included among the Levites.)

¹⁵Moses had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.

¹⁶The leader among Gershom's sons was Shebuel.

¹⁷Eliezer had only one son, Rehabiah, but Rehabiah had many descendants.

¹⁸Kohath's second son, Izhar, had a son, Shelomith, the head of the clan.

¹⁹Kohath's third son, Hebron, had four sons: Jeriah, Amariah, Jahaziel, and Jekameam.

²⁰Kohath's fourth son, Uzziel, had two sons, Micah and Isshiah.

²¹Merari had two sons, Mahli and Mushi. Mahli also had two sons, Eleazar and Kish,

²²but Eleazar died without having any sons, only daughters. His daughters married their cousins, the sons of Kish.

²³Merari's second son, Mushi, had three sons: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth.

²⁴These were the descendants of Levi, by clans and families, every one of them registered by name. Each of his descendants, twenty years of age or older, had a share in the work of the Lord's Temple.

²⁵David said, “The Lord God of Israel has given peace to his people, and he himself will live in Jerusalem forever.

²⁶So there is no longer any need for the Levites to carry the Tent of the Lord's presence and all the equipment used in worship.”

²⁷On the basis of David's final instructions all Levites were registered for service when they reached the age of twenty,

²⁸and were assigned the following duties: to help the priests descended from Aaron with the Temple worship, to take care of its courtyards and its rooms, and to keep undefiled everything that is sacred;

²⁹to be responsible for the bread offered to God, the flour used in offerings, the wafers made without yeast, the baked offerings, and the flour mixed with olive oil; to weigh and measure the Temple offerings;

³⁰and to praise and glorify the Lord every morning and every evening

³¹and whenever offerings to the Lord are burned on the Sabbath, the New Moon Festival, and other festivals. Rules were made specifying the number of Levites assigned to do this work each time. The Levites were assigned the duty of worshiping the Lord for all time.

³²They were given the responsibility of taking care of the Tent of the Lord's presence and the Temple, and of assisting their relatives, the priests descended from Aaron, in the Temple worship.

The Destiny of the Wicked and of the Good

¹Don't be worried on account of the wicked; don't be jealous of those who do wrong.

²They will soon disappear like grass that dries up; they will die like plants that wither.

³Trust in the Lord and do good; live in the land and be safe.

⁴Seek your happiness in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desire.

⁵Give yourself to the Lord; trust in him, and he will help you;

⁶he will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun.

⁷Be patient and wait for the Lord to act; don't be worried about those who prosper or those who succeed in their evil plans.

⁸Don't give in to worry or anger; it only leads to trouble.

⁹Those who trust in the Lord will possess the land, but the wicked will be driven out.

¹⁰Soon the wicked will disappear; you may look for them, but you won't find them;

¹¹but the humble will possess the land and enjoy prosperity and peace.

¹²The wicked plot against good people and glare at them with hate.

¹³But the Lord laughs at wicked people, because he knows they will soon be destroyed.

¹⁴The wicked draw their swords and bend their bows to kill the poor and needy, to slaughter those who do what is right;

¹⁵but they will be killed by their own swords, and their bows will be smashed.

¹⁶The little that a good person owns is worth more than the wealth of all the wicked,

¹⁷because the Lord will take away the strength of the wicked, but protect those who are good.

¹⁸The Lord takes care of those who obey him, and the land will be theirs forever.

¹⁹They will not suffer when times are bad; they will have enough in time of famine.

²⁰But the wicked will die; the enemies of the Lord will vanish like wild flowers; they will disappear like smoke.

²¹The wicked borrow and never pay back, but good people are generous with their gifts.

²²Those who are blessed by the Lord will possess the land, but those who are cursed by him will be driven out.

²³The Lord guides us in the way we should go and protects those who please him.

²⁴If they fall, they will not stay down, because the Lord will help them up.

²⁵I am old now; I have lived a long time, but I have never seen good people abandoned by the Lord or their children begging for food.

²⁶At all times they give freely and lend to others, and their children are a blessing.

²⁷Turn away from evil and do good, and your descendants will always live in the land;

²⁸for the Lord loves what is right and does not abandon his faithful people. He protects them forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be driven out.

²⁹The righteous will possess the land and live in it forever.

³⁰The words of good people are wise, and they are always fair.

³¹They keep the law of their God in their hearts and never depart from it.

³²Wicked people watch good people and try to kill them;

³³but the Lord will not abandon them to their enemy's power or let them be condemned when they are on trial.

³⁴Put your hope in the Lord and obey his commands; he will honor you by giving you the land, and you will see the wicked driven out.

³⁵I once knew someone wicked who was a tyrant; he towered over everyone like a cedar of Lebanon;

³⁶but later I passed by, and he wasn't there; I looked for him, but couldn't find him.

³⁷Notice good people, observe the righteous; peaceful people have descendants,

³⁸but sinners are completely destroyed, and their descendants are wiped out.

³⁹The Lord saves the righteous and protects them in times of trouble.

⁴⁰He helps them and rescues them; he saves them from the wicked, because they go to him for protection.