2 Samuel 14

 2 Samuel 14

1 Now when Joab the son of Zeruiah knew that the king's heart was toward Absalom,

2 Joab sent to Tekoa, and took a wise woman from there, and said to her, Now pretend that you are disgusted; put on mourning garments, and do not anoint yourself with oil, and be like a woman who has been in disgust for a dead man for many days.

3 And go in to the king, and speak to him according to this word. And Joab put the words in his mouth.

4 And the Tekoite woman spoke to the king, and lying down with her face to the ground, she fell down and said, Save me, O king.

5 And the king said to him, What have you? And she said, Verily I am a widow, and my husband is dead.

6 So your maidservant had two sons, and both of them quarreled in the field, and there was no one to separate them: so the one smote the other, and killed him.

7 And behold, all the lineage rose up against thy handmaid, and they said, Give us him that smote his brother, that we may slay him, for the life of his brother whom he slew, and that we may destroy the heir also. In this way they will extinguish the coal that is left to me, so that they will not leave my husband's name, nor any rest on earth.

8 And the king said to the woman, Go to your house, and I will command about you.

9 And the Tekoite woman said unto the king, Iniquity, my lord the king, come upon me, and upon my father's house: and the king and his throne shall be blameless.

10 And the king said, Whoever speaks against you, bring him to me, and he will never touch you again.

11 And she said, Now let the king remember the LORD his God, lest the avengers of blood multiply and destroy us, and destroy my son. Then he said, As the Lord lives, not one of your son's hairs will fall to the ground.

12 Then said the woman, I pray thee, let thy handmaid speak a word to my lord the king. And he said: Speak.

13 And the woman said, Why then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? For when the king speaks such a word, he is guilty; since the king does not bring back his exile.

14 For we shall surely die, and we shall be as waters spilled upon the earth, which are not gathered any more: God shall not take away his life, but he will devise thoughts, lest his outcast be banished from him.

15 And if I have now come to speak this word to the king, my lord, it is because the people have terrified me: therefore thy handmaid said, I will therefore speak to the king; perhaps the king will do according to the word of his handmaid.

16 For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaiden from the hand of the man who seeks to destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God.

17 And thy handmaid said, Let now the word of my lord the king be for rest: for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king, to hear good and evil; and the Lord your God will be with you.

18 Then answered the king, and said to the woman, I pray thee, do not hide what I ask of thee. And the woman said, Now speak the king, my lord.

19 And the king said, Is it not true that the hand of Joab walks with you in all this? And the woman answered and said, As your soul lives, my lord the king, that no one will be able to turn aside, either to the right or to the left, from all that my lord the king has said; for your servant Joab commanded me, and it was he who put all these words in your maidservant's mouth:

20 Let me turn the shape of this business; Joab thy servant did this; but my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to understand everything on earth.

21 Then the king said to Joab, Behold, I have done this: go therefore, and bring back the young man Absalom.

22 Then Joab fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down, and thanked the king; And Joab said, Today your servant has known that I have found favor in your sight, my lord the king, because the king has done according to the word of your servant.

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

24 And the king said, Return to your house, and see not my face. So Absalom returned to his house, and did not see the king's face.

25 But there was not in all Israel a man so beautiful and so pleasant as Absalom; from the sole of his foot to his head there was no defect in him.

26 And when he sheared his head (and it happened that at the end of each year he sheared it, because it weighed heavily on him, and therefore he sheared it), the hair of his head weighed two hundred cycles, according to the real weight.

27 Also to Absalom were born three sons and a daughter, whose name was Tamar; and this was a woman beautiful to look at.

28 So Absalom remained in Jerusalem two whole years, and he did not see the king's face.

29 So Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king; but would not come to him; and he sent again the second time, and yet he would not come.

30 Then he said to his servants, You see Joab's piece of field there attached to mine, and it has barley in it; go and set it on fire. And Absalom's servants set the piece of field on fire.

31 Then Joab arose and came to Absalom in the house, and said to him, Why have your servants set fire to my piece of field?

32 And Absalom said to Joab, Behold, I have sent you, saying, Come hither, that I may send you to the king, to say to him, Why have I come from Geshur? I'd better be still there. Now therefore let me see the king's face: and if there is still any guilt in me, let him kill me.   

33 Then Joab went in to the king, and he told him so. Then he called for Absalom, and he went in to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Absalom.