⁷ Now therefore arise, go out and speak ^[a]kindly to your servants, for I swear by the Lord, if you do not go out, surely ^(A)not a man will pass the night with you, and this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now.”

David Restored as King

⁸ So the king arose and sat in the gate. When they told all the people, saying, “Behold, the king is ^(B)sitting in the gate,” then all the people came before the king.

Now ^(C)Israel had fled, each to his tent. ⁹ All the people were quarreling throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “^(D)The king delivered us from the ^[b]hand of our enemies and ^(E)saved us from the ^[c]hand of the Philistines, but now ^(F)he has fled out of the land from Absalom.