David returns, but the kingdom remains divided
United Kingdom · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 6b427af3d27a6164 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: After Absalom · David returns to Jerusalem
David is escorted back across the Jordan amid disputes between Judah and Israel. Sheba son of Bichri raises another revolt. Joab kills Amasa during the pursuit, and a woman’s negotiation ends the siege at Abel-beth-maacah with Sheba’s death.
David’s restoration does not immediately heal tribal divisions. Mephibosheth disputes Ziba’s earlier accusation, and David divides the land rather than fully resolving their competing accounts. The women left in the palace remain confined afterward.
Primary Scripture
19:9 And all the people throughout the tribes of Israel were arguing, “The king rescued us from the hand of our enemies and delivered us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled the land because of Absalom.
19:10 But Absalom, the man we anointed over us, has died in battle. So why do you say nothing about restoring the king?”
19:11 Then King David sent this message to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests: “Say to the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be the last to restore the king to his palace, since the talk of all Israel has reached the king at his quarters?
19:12 You are my brothers, my own flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king?’
19:13 And say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me, and ever so severely, if from now on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”
19:14 So he swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man, and they sent word to the king: “Return, you and all your servants.”
19:15 So the king returned, and when he arrived at the Jordan, the men of Judah came to Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the Jordan.
19:16 Then Shimei son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David,
19:17 along with a thousand men of Benjamin, as well as Ziba the steward of the house of Saul and his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed down to the Jordan before the king
19:18 and crossed at the ford to carry over the king’s household and to do what was good in his sight. When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell down before the king
19:19 and said, “My lord, do not hold me guilty, and do not remember your servant’s wrongdoing on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart.
19:20 For your servant knows that I have sinned, so here I am today as the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.”
19:21 But Abishai son of Zeruiah said, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed?”
19:22 And David replied, “Sons of Zeruiah, what have I to do with you, that you should be my adversaries today? Should any man be put to death in Israel today? Am I not indeed aware that today I am king over Israel?”
19:23 So the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king swore an oath to him.
19:24 Then Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, went down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet or trimmed his mustache or washed his clothes from the day the king had left until the day he returned safely.
19:25 And he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, who asked him, “Mephibosheth, why did you not go with me?”
19:26 “My lord the king,” he replied, “because I am lame, I said, ‘I will have my donkey saddled so that I may ride on it and go with the king.’ But my servant Ziba deceived me,
19:27 and he has slandered your servant to my lord the king. Yet my lord the king is like the angel of God, so do what is good in your eyes.
19:28 For all the house of my grandfather deserves death from my lord the king, yet you have set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right, then, do I have to keep appealing to the king?”
19:29 The king replied, “Why say any more? I hereby declare that you and Ziba are to divide the land.”
19:30 And Mephibosheth said to the king, “Instead, since my lord the king has safely come to his own house, let Ziba take it all!”
19:31 Now Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim to cross the Jordan with the king and send him on his way from there.
19:32 Barzillai was quite old, eighty years of age, and since he was a very wealthy man, he had provided for the king while he stayed in Mahanaim.
19:33 The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me, and I will provide for you at my side in Jerusalem.”
19:34 But Barzillai replied, “How many years of my life remain, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king?
19:35 I am now eighty years old. Can I discern what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of singing men and women? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?
19:36 Your servant will go with the king only a short distance past the Jordan; why should the king repay me with such a reward?
19:37 Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king, and do for him what is good in your sight.”
19:38 The king replied, “Chimham will cross over with me, and I will do for him what is good in your sight, and I will do for you whatever you desire of me.”
19:39 So all the people crossed the Jordan, and then the king crossed over. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai returned home.
19:40 Then the king crossed over to Gilgal, and Chimham crossed over with him. All the troops of Judah and half the troops of Israel escorted the king.
19:41 Soon all the men of Israel came to the king and asked, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and bring the king and his household across the Jordan, together with all of David’s men?”
19:42 And all the men of Judah replied to the men of Israel, “We did this because the king is our relative. Why does this anger you? Have we ever eaten at the king’s expense or received anything for ourselves?”
19:43 “We have ten shares in the king,” answered the men of Israel, “so we have more claim to David than you. Why then do you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of restoring our king?” But the men of Judah spoke more fiercely than the men of Israel.
20:1 Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Every man to his tent, O Israel!”
20:2 So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba son of Bichri. But the men of Judah stayed by their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
20:3 When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace, and he placed them in a house under guard. He provided for them, but he no longer slept with them. They were confined until the day of their death, living as widows.
20:4 Then the king said to Amasa, “Summon the men of Judah to come to me within three days, and be here yourself.”
20:5 So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he took longer than the time allotted him.
20:6 And David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord’s servants and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and elude us.”
20:7 So Joab’s men, along with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the mighty men, marched out of Jerusalem in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri.
20:8 And while they were at the great stone in Gibeon, Amasa joined them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire, with a dagger strapped to his belt. And as he stepped forward, he slipped the dagger from its sheath.
20:9 “Are you well, my brother?” Joab asked Amasa. And with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him.
20:10 Amasa was not on guard against the dagger in Joab’s hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach and spilled out his intestines on the ground. And Joab did not need to strike him again, for Amasa was dead. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri.
20:11 One of Joab’s young men stood near Amasa and said, “Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!”
20:12 But Amasa wallowed in his blood in the middle of the road, and when the man saw that all the troops were stopping there, he dragged the body off the road into a field and threw a garment over it.
20:13 As soon as Amasa’s body was removed from the road, all the men went on with Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.
20:14 Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel-beth-maacah and through the entire region of the Berites, who gathered together and followed him.
20:15 And Joab’s troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel-beth-maacah and built a siege ramp against the outer rampart of the city. As all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to topple it,
20:16 a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen! Listen! Please tell Joab to come here so that I may speak with him.”
20:17 When he had come near to her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” “I am,” he replied. “Listen to the words of your servant,” she said. “I am listening,” he answered.
20:18 Then the woman said, “Long ago they used to say, ‘Seek counsel at Abel,’ and that is how disputes were settled.
20:19 I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?”
20:20 “Far be it!” Joab declared. “Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy!
20:21 That is not the case. But a man named Sheba son of Bichri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him alone, and I will depart from the city.” “Look,” the woman replied, “his head will be thrown to you over the wall.”
20:22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the ram’s horn and his men dispersed from the city, each to his own home. And Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.
20:23 Now Joab was over the whole army of Israel; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and Pelethites;
20:24 Adoram was in charge of the forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder;
20:25 Sheva was the scribe; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
20:26 and Ira the Jairite was David’s priest.
Related Scripture
2 Samuel 16:1–4 · recollection
Ziba’s earlier claim should be compared with Mephibosheth’s response in 19:24–30.
Location evidence
The marker is David’s restored royal seat. The account also includes Gilgal, Gibeon and the northern siege; it is not one event wholly within Jerusalem.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.234167, 31.776667]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Gibeon: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.183351, 31.847451]. Classification source: editorial.
Gilgal (lower Jordan region): Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.49, 31.87]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.44,31.82],[35.54,31.92]]; not a measured confidence interval.
Biblical setting · Joshua 4:19-5:12
OpenBible · possible locations / region
Jerusalem: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.234167, 31.776667]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)
OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)
For the class
What unresolved injuries remain beneath the appearance of restored royal order?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/united-kingdom.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm