13. ‘You are my kinsmen, my bone and my flesh! Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’
14. “Also say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? May God do so to me and even more if you do not become my army commander before me continually, in place of Joab!’”
15. Thus he turned the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, and then they sent word to the king, “Come back, you and all your servants.”
16. So the king returned and reached the Jordan. Meanwhile, Judah came to Gilgal in order to meet the king, to escort the king over the Jordan.
17. Then Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite who was from Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David
18. accompanied by 1,000 men of Benjamin. Also Ziba the servant of Saul’s household, with his 15 sons and 20 slaves, rushed to the Jordan ahead of the king.
19. They ferried across the ford to bring the king’s household and they did whatever seemed good in his eyes. Now, Shimei son of Gera fell down before the king when he was crossing over the Jordan,
20. so he implored the king, “Let my lord not hold me guilty, and not remember the iniquity that your servant committed on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. Let the king not take it to his heart.
21. For your servant knows that I have sinned. So behold, I have come today the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.”
22. But Abishai son of Zeruiah answered and said, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed Adonai’s anointed?”
23. But David said, “What have I to do with you sons of Zeruiah that you should be my adversary today? Should any man be put to death in Israel this day? Don’t I know that today I am king over Israel?”
24. Then the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die,” and the king swore it to him.
25. Then Mephibosheth son of Saul came down to meet the king. Now he had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came home in shalom.
26. Now it came to pass when he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why did you not go with me Mephibosheth?”
27. “My lord the king, my own servant deceived me,” he answered. “For your servant had said, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself, ride on it and go with the king,’ because your servant is lame.
28. However, he has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like an angel of God. So do what is good in your eyes.
29. For all my father’s household deserved only death at the hand of my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those eating at your own table! What right do I have yet to cry to the king?”