Daily Bread

Absalom Returns to Jerusalem

14 Joab^(A) son of Zeruiah knew that the king’s heart longed for Absalom. ² So Joab sent someone to Tekoa^(B) and had a wise woman^(C) brought from there. He said to her, “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don’t use any cosmetic lotions.^(D) Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead. ³ Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab^(E) put the words in her mouth.

⁴ When the woman from Tekoa went^[a] to the king, she fell with her face to the ground to pay him honor, and she said, “Help me, Your Majesty!”

⁵ The king asked her, “What is troubling you?”

She said, “I am a widow; my husband is dead. ⁶ I your servant had two sons. They got into a fight with each other in the field, and no one was there to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. ⁷ Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant; they say, ‘Hand over the one who struck his brother down, so that we may put him to death^(F) for the life of his brother whom he killed; then we will get rid of the heir^(G) as well.’ They would put out the only burning coal I have left,^(H) leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth.”

⁸ The king said to the woman, “Go home,^(I) and I will issue an order in your behalf.”

⁹ But the woman from Tekoa said to him, “Let my lord the king pardon^(J) me and my family,^(K) and let the king and his throne be without guilt.^(L)”

¹⁰ The king replied, “If anyone says anything to you, bring them to me, and they will not bother you again.”

¹¹ She said, “Then let the king invoke the Lord his God to prevent the avenger^(M) of blood from adding to the destruction, so that my son will not be destroyed.”

“As surely as the Lord lives,” he said, “not one hair^(N) of your son’s head will fall to the ground.^(O)”

¹² Then the woman said, “Let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.”

“Speak,” he replied.

¹³ The woman said, “Why then have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself,^(P) for the king has not brought back his banished son?^{(Q) 14} Like water^(R) spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die.^(S) But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person^(T) does not remain banished from him.

¹⁵ “And now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king; perhaps he will grant his servant’s request. ¹⁶ Perhaps the king will agree to deliver his servant from the hand of the man who is trying to cut off both me and my son from God’s inheritance.’^(U)

¹⁷ “And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king secure my inheritance, for my lord the king is like an angel^(V) of God in discerning^(W) good and evil. May the Lord your God be with you.’”