2 Samuel 19:12-23
English Standard Version
Chapter 19
12You are my brothers; you are my bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’ 13And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me and more also, if you are not commander of my army from now on in place of Joab.’" 14And he swayed the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, "Return, both you and all your servants." 15So the king came back to the Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and to bring the king over the Jordan.
16And Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, from Bahurim, hurried to come down with the men of Judah to meet King David.
17And with him were a thousand men from Benjamin. And Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, with his fifteen sons and his twenty servants, rushed down to the Jordan before the king,
18and they crossed the ford to bring over the king 's household and to do his pleasure. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, as he was about to cross the Jordan,
19and said to the king, "Let not my lord hold me guilty or remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. Do not let the king take it to heart.
20For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore, behold, I have come this day, the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king."
21Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, "Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord 's anointed?"
22But David said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be as an adversary to me? Shall anyone be put to death in Israel this day? For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel?"
23And the king said to Shimei, "You shall not die." And the king gave him his oath.
