If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.
8 April. 2 Samuel chapters 14-15.
More stories of deception from the house of David. His son Absalom (who had fled the country after killing his half-brother Amnon) is brought back, but only after the army commander Joab persuades someone to tell a story about a similar situation); and after a while David eventually reconciles him. But immediately Absalom starts plotting a coup against his father, gathering followers around him to crown him the pretender king at the old capital of Hebron. David fears that this revolt will be successful and leaves the city with all his retinue, leaving only a few servants with instructions to leak any news to him.
An interesting figure in this is Ittai the Gittite who appears to be a non-Jew who had entered the King’s service some time before, and now insists on staying with him in dangerous times, despite being offered his freedom. In this he is like Ruth, the Moabite woman whose better-known story is a Bible book in itself, who insisted on living with the Jewish family of her late husband and is a symbol for all those who convert to faith in God, leaving their own towns and families behind in doing so.