2 Samuel 14:4-20

4Now when the woman of Tekoa 1spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and 2prostrated herself, and said, “3Help, O king!” 5And the king said to her, “What is troubling you?” And she 4answered, “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 5one to save 6them from each other, so one struck the other and killed him. 7Now behold, 7the 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, 8and eliminate the heir as well.’ So they will extinguish my coal which is left, so as to 9leave 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, 10the guilt is on me and my father’s house, but 11the 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, 12so that the avenger of blood will not continue to destroy, otherwise they will destroy my son.” And he said, “13As 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, “14Why 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 15his banished one. 14For 16we will surely die and are 17like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. Yet God does not take away life, but makes plans so that 18the banished one will not be cast out from Him. 15Now then, 19the 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 20request of his slave. 16For the king will listen, to save his slave from the 21hand of the man who would eliminate 22both me and my son from 23the inheritance of God.’ 17Then your servant said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king be 24comforting, for as 25the 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 26your 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, 27like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know all that is on the earth.”