1Now Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king’s heart was toward Absalom.
2So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman, and he said to her, “Please pretend to mourn, and please put on garments of mourning; do not anoint yourself with oil, but be like a woman who has mourned many days over the dead.”
3Then go to the king and speak to him in this manner.” And Joab put the words in her mouth.
4So the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king; she fell on her face to the ground and prostrated herself, and said, “Save me, O king!”
5The king said to her, “What is troubling you?” And she said, “Truly I am a widow woman; my husband is dead.”
6Your servant had two sons, and the two of them fought in the field, and there was no one to rescue between them, and the one struck the other and killed him.
7And now, look, the whole clan has risen against your servant, and they say, ‘Give up the one who struck down his brother, so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed, and destroy the heir as well.’ So they would extinguish my ember that is left, leaving my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.”
8The king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I myself will give orders concerning you.”
9The woman of Tekoa said to the king, “On me, my lord the king, be the guilt, and on my father’s house; but the king and his throne are 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, that the avenger of blood not multiply destruction, lest they destroy my son.” And he said, “As Yahweh lives, not a 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, “Then why have you devised such a thing against the people of God? In speaking this word the king convicts himself, in that the king does not bring back his own banished one.
14For we will surely die, and are like water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up; yet God does not take away life, but devises plans so that a banished one may not remain banished from him.
15And now, the reason I have come to speak this word to the king my lord is that the people made me afraid; so your servant thought, ‘Let me speak to the king; perhaps the king will do what his maidservant asks.’
16For the king will listen, to rescue his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God.”
17And your servant said, ‘May the word of my lord the king bring rest, for like an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil.’ And may Yahweh your God be with you.”
18Then the king answered and said to the woman, “Please do not hide from me anything that I ask you.” And the woman said, “Let my lord the king speak.”
19The king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?” And the woman answered and said, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, one cannot turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king has said. Yes, it was your servant Joab who commanded me; it was he who put in the mouth of your maidservant all these words.
20It was to change the appearance of the matter that your servant Joab did this thing; but my lord is wise, like the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all that is in the land.”
21Then the king said to Joab, “Look, I now grant this thing. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.”
22Joab fell on his face to the ground and prostrated himself and blessed the king, and Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, in that the king has granted the request of his servant.”
23So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
24But the king said, “Let him turn to his own house; he shall not see my face.” So Absalom turned to his own house and did not see the king’s face.
25Now in all Israel there was no man so highly praised for his beauty as Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
26When he cut the hair of his head — for at the end of every year he would cut it, because it was heavy on him, so he cut it — he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels by the king’s weight.
27To Absalom were born three sons and one daughter, and her name was Tamar; she was a woman beautiful in appearance.
28Absalom dwelt in Jerusalem two full years, and he did not see the king’s face.
29Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king, but he was not willing to come to him; and he sent a second time, but he was not willing to come.
30So he said to his servants, “See, Joab’s field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire.” And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.
31Then Joab arose and came to Absalom at the house and said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?”
32And Absalom said to Joab, “Look, I sent to you, saying, ‘Come here, so that I may send you to the king to say, “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me still to be there.”’ So now let me see the king’s face; and if there is guilt in me, then let him put me to death.”
33So Joab came to the king and told him, and he called for Absalom. And he came to the king and bowed down to him with his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom.
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