Maacah summons Natan and Yoav, hoping they can persuade David to allow her son to return from exile. Natan is reluctant, but Yoav says David already wants his son home, and he praises Avshalom for the decisiveness and cunning with which he took revenge on Amnon. In Yoav’s view, the crime Avshalom has avenged is not a crime against Tamar but against David’s own public, masculine honor. He says, “It was necessary” (254), causing Natan to shudder as he remembers all those whom David has killed with those words.

Yoav continues to insist that Avshalom will be a good king. He accuses Natan of wanting to put Shlomo on the throne in his own bid to become the power behind the throne. He warns that uncertainty about the heir to the throne could cause strife.

Natan goes to see David and finds him in a deep depression. What good is it, David wonders, to have built a kingdom but raised “rapists and murderers” as sons? Natan reminds David that he has other sons and takes David out on the balcony, where they see