2 Samuel 14:1-7 ▼

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.