1 David had gone a little past the top when Ziba, Mephibosheth's servant, came to meet him with a pair of saddled donkeys loaded with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred raisin cakes, a hundred pieces of summer fruit and a skin of wine.
2 The king asked Ziba, "What are these for?" Ziba said, "The donkeys are for the king's household to ride, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for anyone who grows faint in the wilderness to drink."
3 The king asked, "Where is your master's son?" Ziba told the king, "He is staying in Jerusalem, because he said, 'Today the house of Israel will give me back my father's kingship.'"
4 The king told Ziba, "Everything that belonged to Mephibosheth is yours." Ziba said, "I bow before you; may I find favor in your sight, my lord the king!"
5 As King David came to Bahurim, a man from the clan of Saul's house came out of there; his name was Shimei son of Gera, and he kept cursing as he came out.
6 He threw stones at David and at all King David's servants, although all the people and all the mighty men were at his right and his left.
7 This is what Shimei said as he cursed: "Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man!
8 The LORD has paid you back for all the blood of Saul's house, in whose place you became king, and the LORD has handed the kingship over to your son Absalom. Here you are in your own disaster, because you are a man of blood!"
9 Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go across and cut off his head."
10 But the king said, "What do I have in common with you, sons of Zeruiah? If he curses because the LORD told him, 'Curse David,' who can ask, 'Why do you do this?'"
11 David said to Abishai and all his servants, "My own son, my own flesh and blood, is seeking my life; how much more this Benjaminite now! Let him be; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to.
12 Perhaps the LORD will look on my affliction, and the LORD will repay me with good for his cursing today."
13 David and his men went on along the road, while Shimei went along the hillside across from him, cursing as he went, throwing stones at him and tossing dust.
14 The king and all the people with him arrived weary, and there he caught his breath.
15 Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, entered Jerusalem, and Ahithophel was with him.
16 Hushai the Archite, David's friend, came to Absalom, and Hushai said to Absalom, "Long live the king! Long live the king!"
17 Absalom said to Hushai, "Is this your loyalty to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?"
18 Hushai told Absalom, "No; the one whom the LORD and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, his I will be, and with him I will stay.
19 Besides, whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? Just as I served your father, so I will serve you."
20 Absalom said to Ahithophel, "Give us your advice. What should we do?"
21 Ahithophel told Absalom, "Sleep with your father's concubines whom he left to look after the house. All Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father, and everyone with you will take heart."
22 So they put up a tent for Absalom on the roof, and Absalom slept with his father's concubines in full view of all Israel.
23 In those days the advice Ahithophel gave was treated as if someone had consulted the word of God; that was how all of Ahithophel's advice was regarded, by David and by Absalom alike.