¹⁹ He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, ²⁰ the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? ²¹ Who killed Abimelek^(A) son of Jerub-Besheth^[a]? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall,^(B) so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’”

²² The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say.

² So Joab sent someone to Tekoa^(A) and had a wise woman^(B) brought from there. He said to her, “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don’t use any cosmetic lotions.^(C) Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead. ³ Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab^(D) put the words in her mouth.

¹⁹ The king asked, “Isn’t the hand of Joab^(A) with you in all this?”

The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything my lord the king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this and who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. ²⁰ Your servant Joab did this to change the present situation. My lord has wisdom^(B) like that of an angel of God—he knows everything that happens in the land.^(C)”