18. accompanied by a thousand men from Benjamin. Ziba, too, the servant of the house of Saul, accompanied by his fifteen sons and twenty servants, hastened to the Jordan before the king.
19. They crossed over the ford to bring the king’s household over and to do whatever he wished. When Shimei, son of Gera, crossed the Jordan, he fell down before the king
20. and said to him: “May my lord not hold me guilty; do not remember or take to heart the wrong that your servant did the day my lord the king left Jerusalem.
21. For your servant knows that I have done wrong. But I now am the first of the whole house of Joseph to come down today to meet my lord the king.”
22. But Abishai, son of Zeruiah, countered: “Shimei must be put to death for this. He cursed the anointed of the Lord.”
23. David replied: “What has come between you and me, sons of Zeruiah, that you would become my adversaries this day? Should anyone die today in Israel? Am I not aware that today I am king over Israel?”
24. Then the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king gave him his oath.
25. Meribbaal, son of Saul, also went down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet nor trimmed his mustache nor washed his clothes from the day the king left until he returned safely.
26. When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why did you not go with me, Meribbaal?”
27. He replied: “My lord king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said to him, ‘Saddle the donkey for me, that I may ride on it and go with the king’; your servant is lame.
28. But he slandered your servant before my lord the king. But my lord the king is like an angel of God. Do whatever seems good to you.