2 He would get up early each morning and wait by the side of the road that led to the city gate. Anyone who had a complaint to bring to King David would have to go that way, and Absalom would ask each of them, “Where are you from?”If they said, “I'm from a tribe in the north,”
3 Absalom would say, “You deserve to win your case. But the king doesn't have anyone to hear complaints like yours.
4 I wish someone would make me the judge around here! I would be fair to everyone.”
5 Whenever anyone would come to Absalom and start bowing down, he would reach out and hug and kiss them.
6 That's how he treated everyone from Israel who brought a complaint to the king. Soon everyone in Israel liked Absalom better than they liked David.
7 Four years later, Absalom said to David, “Please, let me go to Hebron. I have to keep a promise that I made to the Lord,
8 when I was living with the Arameans in Geshur. I promised that if the Lord would bring me back to live in Jerusalem, I would worship him in Hebron.”