2 Samuel 14:1-12 ▼

1 Ioab ye sonne of Zaruia perceaued that the kynges heart was toward Absalom:

2 And he sent to Thekoa, and fet thence a wyse woman, & sayde vnto her: I pray thee faine thy selfe to be a mourner, and put on mourning apparell, and annoynt not thy self with oyle, but be as a woman that had long tyme mourned for the dead:

3 And come to the king, and speake on this maner vnto hym (And so Ioab taught her what she should say.)

4 And when the woman of Thekoa spake with the king, she fell on her face to the grounde, and did obeysaunce, and sayde: Helpe, O king.

5 The king said vnto her: What ayleth thee? She aunswered: I am in deede a wydow, and myne husband is dead.

6 And thy hande mayde had two sonnes, and they two fought together in the fielde, where was no man to go betweene them, but the one smote the other, and slue him.

7 And beholde, the whole kindred is risen against thy handmayd, & they said: Delyuer hym that smote his brother, that we may kill him for the soule of his brother whom he slue, we will destroy the heyre also: And so they shall quenche my sparkle which is left, and shall not leaue to my husband neither name nor issue vpon the earth.

8 And the king sayde vnto the woman: Go home to thyne house, I wyll geue a charge for thee.

9 And the woman of Thekoa saide vnto the king: My lorde O king, this trespasse be on me and on my fathers house: and the king and his throne be giltlesse.

10 And the king saide: If any man say ought vnto thee, bring him to me, and he shall hurt thee no more.

11 Then saide she: I pray thee let the king remember the Lord thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer many reuengers of blood to destroy, lest they slay my sonne. And he aunswered: As the Lorde lyueth, there shal not one heere of thy sonne fall to the earth.

12 The woman sayde: Let thyne handmayde speake one worde vnto my lorde the king. And he sayde: Say on.