2Sam 14
1
Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king`s heart was toward Absalom.
2
And Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said to her, I pray you,
feign yourself to be a mourner, and put on mourning apparel, I pray you, and anoint
not yourself with oil, but be as a woman that has a long time mourned for the dead:
3
and go in to the king, and speak on this manner to him. So Joab put the words in her
mouth.
4
And when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground,
and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king.
5
And the king said to her, What ails you? And she answered, Of a truth I am a widow,
and my husband is dead.
6
And your handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there
was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and killed him.
7
And, behold, the whole family is risen against your handmaid, and they say, Deliver
him whom smote his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom
he slew, and so destroy the heir also. Thus will they quench my coal which is left,
and will leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the face of the earth.
8
And the king said to the woman, Go to your house, and I will give charge concerning
you.
9
And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and
on my father`s house; and the king and his throne be guiltless.
10
And the king said, Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not
touch you any more.
11
Then said she, I pray you, let the king remember YHWH your God, that the avenger of
blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As YHWH lives,
there shall not one hair of your son fall to the earth.
12
Then the woman said, Let your handmaid, I pray you, speak a word to my lord the king.
And he said, Say on.
13
And the woman said, Wherefore then have you devised such a thing against the people
of God? for in speaking this word the king is as one that is guilty, in that the king
does not fetch home again his banished one.
14
For we must needs die, and are as water split on the ground, which cannot be gathered
up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished
be not an outcast from him.
15
Now therefore seeing that I am come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is
because the people have made me afraid: and your handmaid said, I will now speak to
the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.
16
For the king will hear, to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man that would
destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.
17
Then your handmaid said, Let, I pray you, the word of my lord the king be comfortable;
for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: and YHWH your
God be with you.
18
Then the king answered and said to the woman, Hide not from me, I pray you, anything
that I shall ask you. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.
19
And the king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman answered
and said, As your soul lives, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or
to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Joab,
he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid;
20
to change the face of the matter has your servant Joab done this thing: and my lord
is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in
the earth.
21
And the king said to Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring
the young man Absalom back.
22
And Joab fell to the ground on his face, and did obeisance, and blessed the king:
and Joab said, To-day your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my
lord, O king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant.
23
So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
24
And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, but let him not see my face. So
Absalom turned to his own house, and saw not the king`s face.
25
Now in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty:
from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
26
And when he cut the hair of his head (now it was at every year`s end that he cut it;
because it was heavy on him, therefore he cut it); he weighed the hair of his head
at two hundred shekels, after the king`s weight.
27
And to Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar:
she was a woman of a fair countenance.
28
And Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem; and he saw not the king`s face.
29
Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king; but he would not come to him:
and he sent again a second time, but he would not come.
30
Therefore he said to his servants, See, Joab`s field is near mine, and he has barley
there; go and set it on fire. And Absalom`s servants set the field on fire.
31
Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom to his house, and said to him, Wherefore have
your servants set my field on fire?
32
And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent to you, saying, Come here, that I may send
you to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? it were better for me to
be there still. Now therefore let me see the king`s face; and if there be iniquity
in me, let him kill me.
33
So Joab came to the king, and told him; and when he had called for Absalom, he came
to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the
king kissed Absalom.