2 Samuel 15:19
Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? return to thy place, and abide with the king: for thou art a stranger, and also an exile. Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? return to thy place, and abide with the king: for thou art a stranger, and also an exile.
The words were spoken during David's flight from Jerusalem when Absalom rebelled against him. It was a moment of urgent danger, when David and his company had rested near the Jordan and then had to cross the deep, swift river in darkness while Absalom's forces pursued them. In them David showed unselfish concern for the foreign Gittites who had joined him, urging Ittai not to share the danger of the flight but to return. His reason was that Ittai was a stranger and an exile who had only recently arrived.
Ittai answered with steadfast loyalty, pledging to stay with David whether for life or for death. The fidelity of Ittai and the Gittites showed that they had turned from pagan worship to the worship of Jehovah. The trial surrounding these events was joined to David's trust that God heard him and sustained him through it.