The man said to Joab, “I would not try to hurt the king’s son even if you gave me 1,000 {pieces of} silver. Why? Because we heard the king’s command to you, Abishai, and Ittai. The king said, ‘Be careful not to hurt young Absalom.’
So all the leaders of Israel came to meet with King David at Hebron. King David made an agreement with these leaders in Hebron in front of the Lord. Then the leaders anointed [22] David to be the king of Israel.
Even today those people live like they did in the past. They do not honor the Lord. They do not obey the rules and commands of the Israelites. They do not obey the Law or the commands that the Lord gave to the children of Jacob (Israel).
Lord, I know that you want people\par to be loyal to you.\par You hit the people of Judah,\par but they did not feel any pain.\par You destroyed them,\par but they refused to learn their lesson.\par They became very stubborn.\par They refused to be sorry\par for the bad things they did.\par
During that same time King Herod {\cf2\super [233]} began to persecute {\cf2\super [234]} some of the people that belonged to the church (group of believers).
Then the king told the guards at his side, “Go and kill the priests of the Lord. Do this because they are on David’s side also. They knew David was running away, but they didn’t tell me!”
{I don’t want to hurt you!} You can see that with your own eyes! The Lord let me have you today in the cave. But I refused to kill you. I was merciful to you. I said, ‘I won’t hurt my master. Saul is the Lord’s chosen king!’