2. He would get up early each morning and wait by the side of the road that led to the city gate. Anyone who had a complaint to bring to King David would have to go that way, and Absalom would ask each of them, “Where are you from?”If they said, “I'm from a tribe in the north,”
3. Absalom would say, “You deserve to win your case. But the king doesn't have anyone to hear complaints like yours.
4. I wish someone would make me the judge around here! I would be fair to everyone.”
5. Whenever anyone would come to Absalom and start bowing down, he would reach out and hug and kiss them.
6. That's how he treated everyone from Israel who brought a complaint to the king. Soon everyone in Israel liked Absalom better than they liked David.
7. Four years later, Absalom said to David, “Please, let me go to Hebron. I have to keep a promise that I made to the Lord,
8. when I was living with the Arameans in Geshur. I promised that if the Lord would bring me back to live in Jerusalem, I would worship him in Hebron.”
9. David gave his permission, and Absalom went to Hebron.
16-17. David left behind ten of his wives to take care of the palace, but the rest of his family and his officials and soldiers went with him.They stopped at the last house at the edge of the city.
18. Then David stood there and watched while his regular troops and his bodyguards marched past. The last group was the six hundred soldiers who had followed him from Gath. Their commander was Ittai.
19. David spoke to Ittai and said, “You're a foreigner from the town of Gath. You don't have to leave with us. Go back and join the new king!
20. You haven't been with me very long, so why should you have to follow me, when I don't even know where I'm going? Take your soldiers and go back. I pray that the Lord will be kind and faithful to you.”
21. Ittai answered, “Your Majesty, just as surely as you and the Lord live, I will go where you go, no matter if it costs me my life.”
22. “Then come on!” David said.So Ittai and all his men and their families walked on past David.
23. The people of Jerusalem were crying and moaning as David and everyone with him passed by. He led them across Kidron Valley and along the road towards the desert.
24. Zadok and Abiathar the priests were there along with several men from the tribe of Levi who were carrying the sacred chest. They set the chest down, and left it there until David and his followers had gone out of the city.
25. Then David said:Zadok, take the sacred chest back to Jerusalem. If the Lord is pleased with me, he will bring me back and let me see it and his tent again.