2 Samuel 14:1-17 ▼

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.

13 The woman sayd: Wherfore then hast thou thought suche a thing against the people of God? For the king doth speake this thing as one which is faultie, that he shoulde not fet home againe his banished.

14 For we must nedes dye, and are as wather spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered vp againe: Neither doth God spare any person, yet doth he appoynt meanes that his banished be not vtterly expelled from him.

15 Nowe therfore I am come to speake of this thing vnto the my lord the king, because they that be of ye people haue made me afrayd: And thy handmayde sayd, Now will I speake vnto the king, it may be that the king will perfourme the request of his handmayde.

16 And the king shall heare his handmayde, to deliuer her out of the hand of the man that woulde haue destroyed me, and also my sonne out of the inheritaunce of God.

17 And thyne handmayde sayde: The worde of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: For my lord the king is as an angel of God, in hearing of good & bad: Therfore the Lorde thy God be with thee.