History

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Like I said, Joab was very angry that I had set his field on fire and demanded to know why I had done that. I thought to myself, Is this guy kidding me? He didn't let me go to Dad because my dad didn't want to see me and wouldn't listen to reason when I tried to get him to let me go to Dad, so I figured if I got tough I would get his attention. Joab has an excess amount of loyalty to doing what my father said. If it weren't for this excess loyalty, Uriah would still be alive, after all. Joab's the one who agreed to put Uriah in a position where he'd be killed. All he had to do was tell my dad no. And now, because of Joab's excess loyalty to obeying my father's every command, he lost his barley field. You'd think he was my father's puppet or something. I kept my cool and said, "Joab, look, I have been in exile for a long time. If I can't even go to the palace and see my dad, I might as well till be in exile. If he decides he wants to execute me for murdering Amnon, I can take that punishment. Please tell him I want to see him."

Joab agreed and went to Dad to give him my message. Just as I expected, Dad called for me. I knew he would eventually knuckle under. He wants to be a forgiving person. I went to my dad and bowed down before him, my face to the ground. Dad put his arms around me and embraced and kiss me. All of this was just as I had expected!

But, even though Dad had fully forgiven me, I didn't forgive him at all for not letting me back for a long time. My grudge had grown so big that I wanted to kill him and take over the throne! However, I decided not to do it right then and there. I decided to rally support from people by making myself seem like a guy who really cared about getting things done so that the people would basically elect me king, and THEN I'd kill Dad. I stood by the gate to meet people who would enter our territory and ask them where they were from. They'd tell me--now, they came from all over, and I would sigh and say, "It's ashame there's no one here to listen to your problems. Now, if I were made judge, I would take care of everything and you wouldn't have to worry about problems ever again." I then took them by their hands and kissed them, and, just like that, they flocked around me. You see, it doesn't always take a person with strong ethics to be elected a leader. Sometimes it just takes a smooth talker who makes empty promises. Although I promised to help, I could care less about anything they were going through. I just wanted to overthrow my dad.

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