2 Samuel 14:1-11

Revised Geneva Translation

14 Then Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king’s heart was toward Absalom.

² And Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a cunning woman there, and said to her, “Please pretend to be a mourner, and put on mourning apparel. Do not anoint yourself with oil but be as a woman who has now mourned for the dead a long time.

³ “Go to the king and speak to him in this manner.” For Joab told her what she should say.

⁴ Then the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, and fell down on her face to the ground, and prostrated herself, and said, “Help, O king!”

⁵ Then the king said to her, “What is wrong?” And she answered, “I am indeed a widow, and my husband is dead.

⁶ “And your handmaid had two sons. And the two struggled together in the field. And there was no one to part them. So, one struck the other and killed him.

⁷ “And behold, the whole family arose against your handmaid. And they said, ‘Deliver him who struck his brother, so that we may kill him for the soul of his brother whom he killed, so that we may also destroy the heir.’ So shall they quench my ember which is left and shall not leave to my husband either name or posterity upon the Earth.”

⁸ And the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give you a charge.”

⁹ Then the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord, O king! This trespass is on me and on my father’s House. And the king and his throne are guiltless.”

¹⁰ And the king said, “Bring him to me, who speaks against you. And he shall no longer touch you.”

¹¹ Then she said, “Please, let the king remember the LORD your God, so that you would not allow revengers of blood to destroy anymore, lest they kill my son.” And he answered, “As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the earth.”