2 Samuel 14

1Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king's heart was on Absalom.

2Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there, and said to her, "Please mourn and put on mourning garments, please, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be like a woman who has mourned for the dead these many days."

3Go to the king and speak to him in this manner. Joab placed the words in her mouth.

4When the Tekoite woman spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and bowed down, saying, "Help, O king!"

5The king said to her, "What troubles you?" She said, "Indeed, I am a widow woman, and my husband died."

6Your maidservant had two sons, and both of them strove in the field, with no deliverer between them, and one struck the other and he died.

7See, the whole family has risen against your servant, and they say, “Hand over the one who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for his brother's life, the one he killed, and destroy the heir too.” Thus they would extinguish my remaining ember and leave my husband without name or survivor upon the earth's surface.

8The king said to the woman, "Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you."

9The Tekoite woman said to the king, "My lord the king, let the guilt fall on me and my father's house, while the king and his throne remain innocent."

10The king said, "Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you again."

11She said, "Please let the king remember Yahweh your God, lest the blood avenger multiply destruction any further and wipe out my son." He said, "As Yahweh lives, not one hair of your son will fall to the ground."

12The woman said, “Please let your maidservant speak a word to my lord the king.” He said, “Speak.”

13The woman said, "Why have you schemed like this against God's people? For in saying this the king acts as guilty, because he fails to bring his banished one back."

14For we must die, and we are like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up; God does not take away life, but devises plans so the castaway is not cast away from him.

15Now that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid; and your handmaid said, "Please let me speak to the king; perhaps the king will do the word of his handmaid."

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

17Your maidservant said, "Now may the word of my lord the king be comfort, for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to hear good and bad; and may Yahweh your God be with you."

18The king answered the woman, saying, "Please do not conceal from me the matter that I am asking you." The woman said, "Please let my lord the king speak."

19The king said, "Is Joab's hand behind all this with you?" The woman answered and said, "As you live, my lord the king, no one can turn right or left from anything my lord the king has spoken; your servant Joab commanded me, and he put all these words into your maidservant's mouth."

20To change the aspect of the matter, your servant Joab has done this thing. My lord is wise, like an angel of God in wisdom, to know everything in the earth.

21The king said to Joab, "See now, I have done this thing; go, bring back the young man Absalom."

22Joab fell on his face to the ground, prostrated himself, and blessed the king. Joab said, "Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, for the king has fulfilled the request of his servant—your servant."

23Joab arose and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

24The king said, “Let him go to his house, but let him not see my face.” So Absalom went to his house, and did not see the king’s face.

25No man in all Israel was as beautiful as Absalom, for which he was greatly praised—from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.

26When he shaved his head, it was at the end of every period of days that he shaved it because it was heavy on him, so he shaved it and weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels by the king's stone.

27Three sons were born to Absalom, along with one daughter named Tamar; she was a woman of beautiful appearance.

28Absalom stayed in Jerusalem two full years without seeing the king's face.

29Absalom sent to Joab to send him to the king, but he was not willing to come to him; he sent yet a second time, but he was not willing to come.

30He said to his servants, "See Joab's field beside mine, and he has barley there. Go—I have burned it, and you burn it in the fire." Absalom's servants then burned the field in the fire.

31Joab arose and went to Absalom at his house, and he said to him, "Why have your servants set my field on fire?"

32Absalom answered Joab, "Look, I sent to you saying, 'Come here, and I will send you to the king to say, "Why have I come from Geshur? It would have been better for me to remain there still. Now let me see the king's face; and if there is iniquity in me, let him put me to death."'"

33Joab came to the king and informed him, then he summoned Absalom, who entered the king's presence and bowed with his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom.