THE weary travellers found the help they needed, as Ziba supplied them with food and drink.
So the people settled down in groups and clusters, there in the plains overlooking the Mount of Olives. They refreshed themselves with the provisions provided them.
Then after the party had rested for a while, they picked themselves up again and resumed the long walk.
But the people had got some relief for the journey. There was food remaining for a later time. There were free donkeys too, which could carry the old and the weak.
So the travellers went on in a brighter spirit. As their heels were lighter than it’d been since they left home.
David mounted a donkey, too. This time he was in such spirits as to be riding high.
He was surrounded by his bodyguards, the six hundred soldiers he had for himself.
Then the boisterous fleet of soldiers and civilians cantered their horses and donkeys down the winding roads leading to Jordan.
It was a hassle-free tour this time round.
But then, something happened when they got to Bahurim. Bahurim was a small town belonging to the Israelite tribe of Benjamin.
And David’s adversary, Saul, had come from the region.
King David wasn’t expecting anything unpleasant in that region. As a matter of fact, there was no reason why the place might be dubbed frightening.
Yet the king of Israel hadn’t seen that a bitter tree could leave behind a bitter root, after it’d been felled.
For Saul his enemy had left behind a bitter people.
Yes, Saul had got a relative called Shimei. He was the worse side of David’s binary coin of experience now.
For it happened that the travellers entered the small town of Bahurim, with the hope to only pass through.
And the townspeople came out to watch them. But it was a wild, hungry look that popped from the faces of those folk.
They simply came to see a dethroned king leave.
No one was mourning, and no one cheering. Everyone stood in front of their houses and watched. Or simply looked out of the window, and just glared.
Then, all of a sudden, Ittai sounded an order – the leader of the king’s bodyguards. He commanded right then that his men surround the king.
Immediately, the frontline unit formed a great big wall round their monarch. It was a multi-layered blockade of shields and men.
The formation was swift and wild, as metal boots shook the ground and shoulders collided.
In a blink of an eye the surround was total.
King David looked round at the sudden formation. He was alerted, wondering at what could be coming.
But he didn’t look too long before he saw the trouble.
It was the boldest of the onlookers. It was Shimei.
Shimei bowed to ground to pick up stones. Then as he stood to his feet he hurled the stones at their king.
‘Get away from here! Your fighter! You blood thirsty man! Get away, will you!’
Joab was furious, the commander of Israel’s army. But his younger brother felt the temper more.
His name was Abishai. He was deputy for his fierce brother on the force.
He called out to the king. ‘Your Majesty! Why watch this dog curse at you?
‘Sound the order now and I’ll yank off his head with one swing of my sword! Why linger at the words of a fool?!’
But David wouldn’t give any order. He wouldn’t let anyone deal with his trouble.
So he spat a shocking answer. ‘What have I got to do with you, you sons of thunder? Let the man be, since Heaven has brought me down to his reach.
‘Don’t you see how my own son seeks my fall? Then why should I let hell loose on this frustrated man!’
With that, the king and the people picked up again to continue. But Shimei didn’t stop cursing, and the people didn’t stop moving.
So by the time the crowd were out of sight, it was Shimei’s turn to be sad. And he sorrowed so much that it hurt really bad.
But there was no one there to care.
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