30. As they were on the way back to Jerusalem, this report reached David: “Absalom has killed all the king’s sons; not one is left alive!”
31. The king got up, tore his robe, and threw himself on the ground. His advisers also tore their clothes in horror and sorrow.
32. But just then Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimea, arrived and said, “No, don’t believe that all the king’s sons have been killed! It was only Amnon! Absalom has been plotting this ever since Amnon raped his sister Tamar.
33. No, my lord the king, your sons aren’t all dead! It was only Amnon.”
34. Meanwhile Absalom escaped.Then the watchman on the Jerusalem wall saw a great crowd coming down the hill on the road from the west. He ran to tell the king, “I see a crowd of people coming from the Horonaim road along the side of the hill.”
35. “Look!” Jonadab told the king. “There they are now! The king’s sons are coming, just as I said.”
36. They soon arrived, weeping and sobbing, and the king and all his servants wept bitterly with them.
37. And David mourned many days for his son Amnon.Absalom fled to his grandfather, Talmai son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur.
38. He stayed there in Geshur for three years.