3 Absalom said to him, “Behold, your matters are good and right; but there is no man deputized by the king to hear you.”
4 Absalom said moreover, “Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!”
5 It was so, that when any man came near to bow down to him, he stretched out his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him.
6 Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
7 At the end of forty years, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the Lord, in Hebron.
8 For your servant vowed a vow while I stayed at Geshur in Syria, saying, ‘If the Lord shall indeed bring me again to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord.’”
9 The king said to him, “Go in peace.”So he arose, and went to Hebron.