2 Samuel 19:5-8

19:5 So Joab visited ¹  the king at his home. He said, “Today you have embarrassed all your servants who have saved your life this day, as well as the lives of your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your concubines. 19:6 You seem to love your enemies and hate your friends! For you have as much as declared today that leaders and servants don’t matter to you. I realize now ²  that if ³  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ⁴  it would be all right with you. 19:7 So get up now and go out and give some encouragement to ⁵  your servants. For I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out there, not a single man will stay here with you tonight! This disaster will be worse for you than any disaster that has overtaken you from your youth right to the present time!”

19:8 So the king got up and sat at the city gate. When all the people were informed that the king was sitting at the city gate, they ⁶  all came before him.

David Goes Back to Jerusalem

But the Israelite soldiers ⁷  had all fled to their own homes. ⁸ 

[19:5]  ¹ tn Heb “came to.”

[19:6]  ² tn Heb “today.”

[19:6]  ³ tc The translation follows the Qere, 4QSam^a, and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading לוּ (lu, “if”) rather than MT לֹא (lo’, “not”).

[19:6]  ⁴ tc The Lucianic Greek recension and Syriac Peshitta lack “today.”

[19:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “and speak to the heart of.”

[19:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the people.”

[19:8]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” (see 18:16-17).

[19:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “had fled, each to his tent.”