13. Then a messenger came to David saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are following Absalom.”
14. Then David said to all his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or else none of us will escape from Absalom. Leave in haste or else he will overtake us quickly and bring disaster down on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
15. Then the king’s officials said to the king, “Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever our lord the king chooses.”
16. So the king set out, and his entire household followed him. But the king left behind ten concubines to take care of the palace.
17. As the king went out and all the people after him, they paused at the last house.
18. All his servants passed on beside him: all the Cherethites, all the Pelethites and all the Gittites—600 men that had come after him from Gath—passed on before the king.
19. Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your own place.
20. Your arrival was only yesterday—should I make you wander around with us today, to go wherever I may go? Go back and take your kinsmen back with you. Kindness and truth be with you!”
21. But Ittai answered the king and said, “As Adonai lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in whatever place my lord the king will be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.”
22. So David said to Ittai, “Go on and cross over.” So Ittai the Gittite passed on, with all his men and all the little children who were with him.
23. While all the country was weeping with a loud voice, all the people were crossing over as the king was crossing over Kidron Valley. So all the people crossed over toward the road of the wilderness.
24. Then behold, Zadok also came and all the Levites with him, carrying the ark of the covenant of God. They set down the ark of God, then Abiathar came up, until all the people had passed by, out of the city.
25. But the king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in Adonai’s eyes, He will bring me back, and let me see it and His dwelling.
26. But if He says thus, ‘I have no delight in you,’ here I am, let Him do to me as seems good in His eyes.”