David and Shimei. ⁵ As King David was approaching Bahurim, there was a man coming out; he was of the same clan as the house of Saul, and his name was Shimei, son of Gera. He kept cursing as he came out,^{(A) 6} and throwing stones at David and at all King David’s officers, even though all the soldiers, including the royal guard, were on David’s right and on his left. ⁷ Shimei was saying as he cursed: “Get out! Get out! You man of blood, you scoundrel! ⁸ The Lord has paid you back for all the blood shed from the family of Saul,^[a] whom you replaced as king, and the Lord has handed over the kingdom to your son Absalom. And now look at you: you suffer ruin 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 over and take off his head.”^{(B) 10} But the king replied: “What business is it of mine or of yours, sons of Zeruiah, that he curses? Suppose the Lord has told him to curse David; who then will dare to say, ‘Why are you doing this?’”^{(C) 11} Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants: “If my own son, who came forth from my loins, is seeking my life, how much more might this Benjaminite do so! Let him alone and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to.^{(D) 12} Perhaps the Lord will look upon my affliction and repay me with good for the curses he is uttering this day.” ¹³ David and his men continued on the road, while Shimei kept up with them on the hillside, all the while cursing and throwing stones and dirt as he went.^(E)

¹⁷ Shimei, son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, hurried down with the Judahites to meet King David,^{(A) 18} accompanied by a thousand men from Benjamin. Ziba, too, the servant of the house of Saul, accompanied by his fifteen sons and twenty servants, hastened to the Jordan before the king.^{(B) 19 (C)}They crossed over the ford to bring the king’s household over and to do whatever he wished. When Shimei, son of Gera, crossed the Jordan, he fell down before the king ²⁰ and said to him: “May my lord not hold me guilty; do not remember or take to heart the wrong that your servant did the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. ²¹ For your servant knows that I have done wrong. But I now am the first of the whole house of Joseph to come down today to meet my lord the king.” ²² But Abishai, son of Zeruiah, countered: “Shimei must be put to death for this. He cursed the anointed of the Lord.” ²³ David replied: “What has come between you and me, sons of Zeruiah, that you would become my adversaries this day? Should anyone die today in Israel? Am I not aware that today I am king over Israel?”^{(D) 24} Then the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king gave him his oath.