1 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived
that the king’s heart was toward Absalom.

2 Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a wise
woman from there, and said to her, “Please
act like a mourner, and put on mourning
clothing, please, and don’t anoint yourself with oil; but be as a woman who has
mourned a long time for the dead.

3 Go in to the king and speak like this to
him.” So Joab put the words in her mouth.
4When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the
king, she fell on her face to the ground,
showed respect, and said, “Help, O king!”

5 The king said to her, “What ails you?”
She answered, “Truly I am a widow, and
my husband is dead.

6 Your servant had two sons; and they
both fought together in the field, and there
was no one to partthem, butthe one struck
the other and killed him.

7 Behold, the whole family has risen
against your servant, and they say, ‘Deliver
him who struck his brother, that we may
kill him for the life of his brother whom he
killed, and so destroy the heir also.’ Thus
they would quench my coal which is left,
and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the
earth.”

8 The king said to the woman, “Go to
your house, and I will give a command
concerning you.”

9 The woman of Tekoa said to the king,
“My lord, O king, may the iniquity be on
me, and on my father’s house; and may the
king and his throne be guiltless.”

10 The king said, “Whoever says anything
to you, bring him to me, and he will not
bother you any more.”

11 Then she said, “Please let the king
remember Yahweh your God, that the
avenger of blood destroy not anymore, lest
they destroy my son.”He said, “As Yahweh lives, not one hair
of your son shall fall to the earth.”

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

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

14 For we must die, and are like water
spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither does God take away
life, but devises means, that he who is
banished not be an outcast from him.

15 Now therefore, seeing that I have
come to speak this word to my lord the
king, it is because the people have made
me afraid. Your servant said, ‘I will now
speak to the king; it may be that the king
will perform the request of his servant.’

16 For the king will hear, to deliver his
servant out of the hand of the man who
would destroy me and my son together out
of the inheritance of God.