2 Samuel 15:19

ITTAI; A NEW ALLY; JOINED DAVID'S FORCES

"Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why do you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king; for you are a foreigner, and also an exile from your home. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, seeing I go I know not where? Go back and take your brethren with you; and may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you." But Ittai answered the king, "As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be." And David said to Ittai, "Go then, pass on." So Ittai the Gittite passed, with all his men, and with all his little ones who were with him. And all the country wept aloud as all the people passed by, and the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on toward the wilderness."

The picture that emerges here is that of David standing by the Brook Kidron, taking with him all of the city of Jerusalem who wished to accompany him. "David compelled none. Those whose hearts were with Absalom, to Absalom let them go, and so shall their doom be. They will soon have enough of him. Christ enlists none but volunteers."[20]

Apparently, David was surprised by the arrival of Ittai and his company who had come to Jerusalem only recently. That group should not be confused with the Gittites mentioned a moment earlier. Those first mentioned were the faithful six hundred veterans of many of David's victories; but Ittai's group included women, children and brethren of Ittai. It also included some powerful soldiers. Ittai himself was evidently a very powerful and skilled general, because David placed him in command of a third of the army that defeated Absalom and his forces (2 Samuel 18:2).