2 Samuel 14:1-20

Common English Bible

Absalom is restored

14 Now Joab, Zeruiah’s son, could see that the king’s mind was on Absalom. ² So Joab sent someone to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there. He said to her, “Pretend to be in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes. Don’t anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has spent a long time mourning over someone who has died. ³ Go to the king and speak to him as follows.” Then Joab told her what to say.

⁴ When the woman from Tekoa came to the king, she fell facedown, bowing low out of respect. “King, help me!” she said.

⁵ “What is wrong?” the king asked her.

“It’s terrible!” she said. “I am a widow; my husband is dead. ⁶ Your servant had two sons, but the two of them fought in the field. No one could separate them, and one struck the other and killed him. ⁷ Now the entire clan has turned against your servant. They say, ‘Hand over the one who killed his brother so we can execute him for murdering his brother, even though we would destroy the heir as well.’ So they would snuff out the one ember I have left, leaving my husband without name or descendant on the earth.”

⁸ The king said to the woman, “Return home, and I will issue an order in your behalf.”

⁹ The woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My master and king, let the guilt be on me and on my father’s household. The king and his throne are innocent.”

¹⁰ “If anyone speaks against you, bring him to me, and he will never trouble you again,” the king replied.

¹¹ She said, “Please let the king remember the Lord your God so that the one seeking revenge doesn’t add to the destruction and doesn’t kill my son.”

“As surely as the Lord lives,” David said, “not one of your son’s hairs will fall to the ground.”

¹² Then the woman said, “May your female servant say something to my master the king?”

“Speak!” he said.

¹³ The woman said, “Why have you planned the very same thing against God’s people? In giving this order, the king has become guilty because the king hasn’t restored his own banished son. ¹⁴ We all have to die—we’re like water spilled out on the ground that can’t be gathered up again. But God doesn’t take life away; instead, he makes plans so those banished from him don’t stay that way.^[a]

^15 [b]“I have come to my master the king to talk about this because people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, I must speak with the king. Maybe the king will act on the request of his servant, ¹⁶ because the king will agree to deliver his servant from the power of anyone who would destroy both me and my son from the inheritance God gave. ¹⁷ Your servant thought, The word of my master the king will definitely comfort me, because my master the king is like one of God’s messengers, understanding good and evil. May the Lord your God be with you!”

^18 [c] The king answered the woman, “I must ask you something—don’t hide anything from me!”

The woman said, “Please, my master and king, speak.”

¹⁹ So the king said, “Has Joab put you up to this?”

The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my master and king, no one can deviate a bit from whatever my master and king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who directed me, and it was Joab who told your female servant to say all these things. ²⁰ Your servant Joab did this to change the way things look.^[d] But my master’s wisdom is like the wisdom of one of God’s own messengers—he knows everything that takes place in the land.”