2 Samuel 14:2-20 ▼

2 he sent to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there, and said to her, |Please pretend to be a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave as a woman who has been mourning for the dead a long time.

3 Go in to the king and say this to him.| Then Joab told her what to say.

4 And the woman of Tekoa went to the king, and she bowed down with her face to the ground and showed respect, and said, |Help, O king.|

5 And the king said to her, |What is your trouble?|And she replied, |Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead

6 And your servant had two sons, and they both fought together in the field, and there was no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.

7 Look, the whole family has risen against your servant, and they say, ‘Give us the man who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed.’ Thus they would eliminate also the heir and the one ember I have left will be extinguished, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.

8 Now therefore seeing that I have come to speak this word to the king, my lord, it is because the people have made me afraid: and your servant said, 'I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.'

9 For the king will hear and deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who is seeking to destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of the LORD.

10 Then your servant said, 'Please let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. May the LORD, your God, be with you.'|

11 Then the king said, |Go to your house, and I will give a command concerning you.|

12 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.|

13 The king said, |Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you any more.|

14 Then she said, |Please let the king remember the LORD your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son.| He said, |As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.|

15 Then the woman said, |Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.| He said, |Say on.|

16 The woman said, |Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of the LORD? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring home again his exiled one.

17 For your son is dead, and as water spilled on the ground can’t be gathered up again, so he can’t bring his life back again. But it seems sensible to the king to keep his exiled one away from him.|

18 Then the king answered the woman, |Please do not hide anything from me that I ask you.| The woman said, |Let my lord the king now speak.|

19 So the king said, |Did Joab put you up to all this?| The woman answered, |As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has said. Indeed, it was your servant Joab who had me do this, and he put all these words in the mouth of your servant.

20 Your servant Joab did this in order to change this situation. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of an angel of God for knowing things in the land.|