Servants (to David): ²¹ We don’t understand. When your son was alive, you wept and you refused to eat; now that he is dead, it is as if nothing is wrong—you are up and about and eating.

David: ²² While my son was still alive, I wept and fasted with all my being because I thought to myself, “Who knows? There is still a chance that the Eternal One will have mercy on me and let my child live.” ²³ But now that he is dead, why should I continue without eating? Will that bring my son back to life? Someday when I die I will go where he has gone, but he will never come back to me here.