CHAPTER 14
So Joab
sent
to Tekoa
to bring
a wise
woman
from there.
He told her,
“Please
pretend to be a mourner;
put on
clothes
for mourning
and do not
anoint yourself
with oil.
Act
like a woman
who has mourned
for
the dead
a long
time.
When the woman
from Tekoa
went to
the king,
she fell
facedown
in homage
and said,
“Help me,
O king!”
“What
troubles you?”
the king
asked
her.
“Indeed,”
she said,
“I am
a widow,
for my husband
is dead.
And your maidservant
had two
sons
who
were fighting
in the field
with no
one to separate
them,
and one
struck
the other
and killed
him.
Now
the whole
clan
has risen up
against
your maidservant
and said,
‘Hand over
the one who struck down
his brother,
that we may put him to death
for the life
of the brother
whom
he killed.
Then we will cut off
the heir
as well!’
So they would extinguish
my one remaining
ember
by not
preserving
my husband’s
name
or posterity
on
the earth."
But the woman
of Tekoa
said
to
the king,
“My lord
the king,
may any blame
be on
me and my father’s
house,
and may the king
and his throne
be guiltless.”
“Please,”
she replied,
“may the king
invoke
the LORD
your God
to prevent the avenger
of blood
from increasing
the devastation,
so that my son
may not
be destroyed!”
“As surely as the LORD
lives,”
he vowed,
“not
a hair
of your son's head
will fall
to the ground.”
Then the woman
said,
“Please,
may your servant
speak
a word
to
my lord
the king?”
“Speak,”
he replied.
The woman
asked,
“Why
have you devised
a thing like this
against
the people
of God?
When the king
says
this,
does he not convict himself,
since he
has not
brought back
his own banished son?
For
surely
we will die
and be like water
poured out
on the ground,
which
cannot
be recovered.
Yet God
does not
take away
a life;
but He devises
ways
so that the banished one
may not
remain estranged
from Him.
Now therefore,
I have come
to present
this
matter
to
my lord
the king
because
the people
have made me afraid.
Your servant
thought:
I will speak
to
the king.
Perhaps
he
will grant
the request
of his maidservant.
For
the king
will hear
and deliver
his maidservant
from the hand
of the man
who would cut off
both
me
and
my son
from God’s
inheritance.
Your servant
thought:
May the word
of my lord
the king
bring me rest,
for
my lord
the king
is able to discern
good
and evil,
just like the Angel
of God.
May the LORD
your God
be
with you.”
Then the king
said to
the woman,
“I am
going to ask
you something;
do not
conceal
it from me!”
“Let my lord
the king
speak,”
she
replied.
So the king
asked,
“Is the hand
of Joab
behind
all
this?”
The woman
answered,
“As surely as you
live,
my lord
the king,
no one
can turn
to the right
or to the left
from anything
that
my lord
the king
says.
Yes,
your servant
Joab
is the one who
gave me orders;
he
told
your maidservant
exactly what to say.
Joab
your servant
has done
this
to
bring about
this change
of affairs,
but my lord
has wisdom
like the wisdom
of the Angel
of God,
to know
everything
that happens
in the land.”
Joab
fell
facedown
in homage
and blessed
the king.
“Today,”
said
Joab,
“your servant
knows
that
he has found
favor
with you,
my lord
the king,
because
the king
has granted
his request.”
But the king
added,
“He may return
to
his house,
but he must not
see
my face.”
So Absalom
returned
to
his own house,
but he did not
see the king.
Now there was
not
a man
in all
Israel
as handsome
and highly
praised
as Absalom.
From the sole
of his foot
to
the top of his head,
he did not
have
a single flaw.
And when he cut the hair
of
his head—
he shaved
it every year
because
his hair got so heavy—
he would weigh
it
to be two hundred
shekels
according to the royal
standard.
Then he
sent
for
Joab
to send
him to
the king,
but Joab refused
to come.
So Absalom sent
the second time,
but Joab still would not
come.
So Absalom said
to
his servants,
“Look,
Joab's
field is
next to
mine,
and he has
barley
there.
Go
and set fire
to it!”
And Absalom's
servants
set the field
on fire.
“Look,”
said
Absalom,
“I sent
for
you and said,
‘Come
here.
I want to send
you to
the king
to ask:
Why
have I come back
from Geshur?
It would be better
for me
if I were
still
there.’
So now,
let me see
the king's
face,
and if
there is
iniquity
in me,
let him kill me.”
So Joab
went
and told
the king,
and David summoned
Absalom,
who came
to
him
and bowed
facedown
before him.
Then the king
kissed
Absalom.