20 Whereas thou didst come but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? Seeing I go where I go, return thou and take back thy brethren; mercy and truth are in thee.
21 And Ittai answered the king and said, As the Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, for life or for death, wherever my lord the king shall be, there also will thy slave be.
22 Then David said to Ittai, Go, therefore, and pass. And Ittai, the Gittite, passed and all his men and all the little ones that were with him.
23 And all those of the land wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed the brook Kidron; and then the king also passed, and all the people passed unto the way of the wilderness.
24 And behold Zadok also and with him all the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of God, and they set down the ark of God. And Abiathar went up after all the people had finished leaving the city.
25 But the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city; if I shall find grace in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again and show me both it and his tabernacle.
26 But if he should say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here I am, let him do to me as seems good unto him.