⁵ The king asked her, “What is troubling you?”

She said, “I am a widow; my husband is dead. ⁶ I your servant had two sons. They got into a fight with each other in the field, and no one was there to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. ⁷ Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant; they say, ‘Hand over the one who struck his brother down, so that we may put him to death^(A) for the life of his brother whom he killed; then we will get rid of the heir^(B) as well.’ They would put out the only burning coal I have left,^(C) leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth.”

¹¹ She said, “Then let the king invoke the Lord his God to prevent the avenger^(A) of blood from adding to the destruction, so that my son will not be destroyed.”

“As surely as the Lord lives,” he said, “not one hair^(B) of your son’s head will fall to the ground.^(C)”

¹³ The woman said, “Why then have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself,^(A) for the king has not brought back his banished son?^(B)