2 Samuel 14

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

²Joab 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.

³Go 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!”

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

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

⁷Behold, 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.”

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

⁹The 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.”

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

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