2 Samuel 14:1-8

English Standard Version

Absalom Returns to Jerusalem

14 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah knew ^(A)that the king's heart went out to Absalom. ²And Joab sent to ^(B)Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman and said to her, “Pretend to be a mourner and put on mourning garments. ^(C)Do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead. ³Go to the king and speak thus to him.” So Joab ^(D)put the words in her mouth.

⁴When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, ^(E)she fell on her face to the ground and paid homage and said, ^(F)“Save me, O king.” ⁵And the king said to her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, ^(G)“Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. ⁶And your servant had two sons, and they quarreled with one another in the field. There was no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him. ⁷And now the whole clan has risen against your servant, and they say, ‘Give up the man who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed.’ And so they would ^(H)destroy the heir also. Thus they would quench my coal that is left and leave to my husband neither name nor ^(I)remnant on the face of the earth.”