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.”
21. Then he said to his Ethiopian slave, “Go and tell the king what you have seen.” The slave bowed and ran off.
22. Ahimaaz 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.
24. David was sitting in the space between the inner and outer gates of the city. The watchman 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.
25. He called down and told the king, and the king said, “If he is alone, he is bringing good news.” The runner came nearer and nearer.
26. Then the watchman 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.”
27. The watchman 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.”
28. Ahimaaz 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 safe?” 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 said; and he went over and stood there.
31. Then 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 safe?” 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.”
33. The 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!”