15. So the king returned and came as far as the Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and bring the king across the Jordan.
16. Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite who was from Bahurim, hastened to go down with the men of Judah to meet King David.
17. With him were a thousand men from Benjamin. And Ziba, the servant of the house of Saul, with his fifteen sons and twenty servants, rushed down to the Jordan before the king.
18. They crossed the ford to bring the household of the king across and to do what was pleasing in his eyes.Shimei the son of Gera fell before the king as he was crossing the Jordan,
19. and he said to the king, “Do not regard me as guilty, my lord, or remember how your servant went astray the day when my lord the king went out from Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart.
20. For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore, I have come this day, first from all of the house of Joseph, to go down to meet my lord the king.”
21. Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, “Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the anointed of the Lord?”
22. David said, “What do you sons of Zeruiah have against me that you should become an adversary to me today? Should any man in Israel be put to death today? For do I not know that today I am king over Israel?”
23. The king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” The king gave him his oath.
24. Then Mephibosheth the son of Saul went down to meet the king. He had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes from the day the king left until the day he came back in peace.