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?”
30. Then the king said to him, “Why do you still speak of your affairs? I have decreed, ‘You and Ziba shall divide the land.’”
31. “So let him take all,” Mephibosheth replied to the king, “as long as my lord the king has come back to his own home in shalom.”
32. Then Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim, and he approached the Jordan with the king to escort him over the Jordan.
33. Now Barzillai was a very aged man—80 years old—and he had provided for the king during his residence at Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man.
34. The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me, and I will provide for you with me in Jerusalem.”
35. But Barzillai said to the king, “How many years are left of my life that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?