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.”
9 David gave his permission, and Absalom went to Hebron.
10-12 He took two hundred men from Jerusalem with him, but they had no idea what he was going to do. Absalom offered sacrifices in Hebron and sent someone to Gilo to tell David's adviser Ahithophel to come.More and more people were joining Absalom and supporting his plot. Meanwhile, Absalom had secretly sent some messengers to the northern tribes of Israel. The messengers told everyone, “When you hear the sound of the trumpets, you must shout, ‘Absalom now rules as king in Hebron!’ ”
13 A messenger came and told David, “Everyone in Israel is on Absalom's side!”