2 Samuel 14:2-20

2So Joab sent a messenger to 1Tekoa and 2brought a wise woman from there, and said to her, “Please follow mourning rites, and put on mourning garments now, and do not 3anoint yourself with oil but be like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for many days. 3Then go to the king and speak to him in this way.” So Joab put 4the words in her mouth.

4Now when the woman of Tekoa 5spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and 6prostrated herself, and said, “7Help, O king!” 5And the king said to her, “What is troubling you?” And she 8answered, “Truly I am a widow, for my husband is dead. 6And your servant had two sons, but the two of them fought in the field, and there was no 9one to save 10them from each other, so one struck the other and killed him. 7Now behold, 11the entire family has risen against your servant, and they have said, ‘Hand over the one who struck his brother, so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed, 12and eliminate the heir as well.’ So they will extinguish my coal which is left, so as to 13leave my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.”

8Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your home, and I will issue orders concerning you.” 9The woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord, the king, 14the guilt is on me and my father’s house, but 15the king and his throne are guiltless.” 10So the king said, “Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you anymore.” 11Then she said, “May the king please remember the Lord your God, 16so that the avenger of blood will not continue to destroy, otherwise they will destroy my son.” And he said, “17As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.”

12Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” And he said, “Speak.” 13The woman said, “18Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is like one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back 19his banished one. 14For 20we will surely die and are 21like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. Yet God does not take away life, but makes plans so that 22the banished one will not be cast out from Him. 15Now then, 23the reason I have come to speak this word to my lord the king is that the people have made me afraid; so your servant said, ‘Let me now speak to the king, perhaps the king will perform the 24request of his slave. 16For the king will listen, to save his slave from the 25hand of the man who would eliminate 26both me and my son from 27the inheritance of God.’ 17Then your servant said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king be 28comforting, for as 29the angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil. And may the Lord your God be with you.’”

18Then the king answered and said to the woman, “Please do not hide anything from me that I am about to ask you.” And the woman said, “Let my lord the king please speak.” 19So the king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?” And the woman replied, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. Indeed, it was 30your servant Joab who commanded me, and it was he who put all these words in the mouth of your servant. 20In order to change the appearance of things your servant Joab has done this thing. But my lord is wise, 31like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know all that is on the earth.”