Absalom Returns to Jerusalem

14 So Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was concerned ^(A)about Absalom. ² And Joab sent to ^(B)Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman, and said to her, “Please pretend to be a mourner, ^(C)and put on mourning apparel; do not anoint yourself with oil, but act like a woman who has been mourning a long time for the dead. ³ Go to the king and speak to him in this manner.” So Joab ^(D)put the words in her mouth.

⁴ And when the woman of Tekoa ^[a]spoke to the king, she ^(E)fell on her face to the ground and prostrated herself, and said, ^(F)“Help, O king!”

⁵ Then the king said to her, “What troubles you?”

And she answered, ^(G)“Indeed I am a widow, my husband is dead. ⁶ Now your maidservant had two sons; and the two fought with each other in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other and killed him. ⁷ And now the whole family has risen up against your maidservant, and they said, ‘Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may execute him ^(H)for the life of his brother whom he killed; and we will destroy the heir also.’ So they would extinguish my ember that is left, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the earth.”

⁸ Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.”

⁹ And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord, O king, let ^(I)the ^[b]iniquity be on me and on my father’s house, ^(J)and the king and his throne be guiltless.”

¹⁰ So the king said, “Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you anymore.”

¹¹ Then she said, “Please let the king remember the Lord your God, and do not permit ^(K)the avenger of blood to destroy anymore, lest they destroy my son.”

And he said, ^(L)“As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.”

¹² Therefore the woman said, “Please, let your maidservant speak another word to my lord the king.”

And he said, “Say on.”

¹³ So the woman said: “Why then have you schemed such a thing against ^(M)the people of God? For the king speaks this thing as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring ^(N)his banished one home again. ¹⁴ For we ^(O)will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not ^(P)take away a life; but He ^(Q)devises means, so that His banished ones are not ^[c]expelled from Him. ¹⁵ Now therefore, I have come to speak of this thing to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. And your maidservant said, ‘I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his maidservant. ¹⁶ For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the ^(R)inheritance of God.’ ¹⁷ Your maidservant said, ‘The word of my lord the king will now be comforting; for ^(S)as the angel of God, so is my lord the king in ^(T)discerning good and evil. And may the Lord your God be with you.’ ”

¹⁸ Then the king answered and said to the woman, “Please do not hide from me anything that I ask you.”

And the woman said, “Please, let my lord the king speak.”

¹⁹ So the king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?” And the woman answered and said, “As you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. For your servant Joab commanded me, and ^(U)he put all these words in the mouth of your maidservant. ²⁰ To bring about this change of affairs your servant Joab has done this thing; but my lord is wise, ^(V)according to the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that is in the earth.”