2 Samuel 14

¹ And Joab son of Zeruial knows that the heart of the king [is] on Absalom, ² and Joab sends to Tekoah, and takes thence a wise woman, and said unto her, "Feign yourself a mourner, I pray you, and put on, I pray you, garments of mourning, and anoint not yourself with oil, and you have been as a woman these many days mourning for the dead, ³ and you have gone unto the king, and spoken unto him, according to this word"; and Joab puts the words into her mouth. ⁴ And the woman of Tekoah speaks unto the king, and falls on her face to the earth, and does obeisance, and said, "Save, O king." ⁵ And the king said to her, "What - to you?" and she said, "Truly a widow woman [am] I, and my husband dies, ⁶ and your maid-servant has two sons; and they strive both of them in a field, and there is no deliverer between them, and the one smites the other, and puts him to death; ⁷ and lo, the whole family has risen against your maid-servant, and say, Give up him who smites his brother, and we put him to death for the life of his brother whom he has slain, and we destroy also the heir; and they have quenched my coal which is left - so as not to set to my husband a name and remnant on the face of the ground." ⁸ And the king said unto the woman, "Go to your house, and I give charge concerning you." ⁹ And the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, "On me, my lord, O king, [is] the iniquity, and on the house of my father; and the king and his throne [are] innocent." ¹⁰ And the king said, "He who speaks [aught] unto you, and you have brought him unto me, then he does not add any more to come against you." ¹¹ And she said, "Let, I pray you, the king remember by Yahweh your Elohim, that the redeemer of blood add not to destroy, and they destroy not my son"; and he said, "Yahweh lives; if there does fall of the hair of your son to the earth." ¹² And the woman said, "Let, I pray you, your maid-servant speak unto my lord the king a word"; and he said, "Speak." ¹³ And the woman said, "And why have you thought thus concerning the people of Elohim? yea, the king is speaking this thing as a guilty one, in that the king has not brought back his outcast; ¹⁴ for we do surely die, and [are] as water which is running down to the earth, which is not gathered, and Elohim does not accept a person, and has devised devices in that the outcast is not outcast by Him. ¹⁵ And now that I have come to speak unto the king my lord this word, [it is] because the people made me afraid, and your maid-servant said, Let me speak, I pray you, unto the king; it may be the king does do the word of his handmaid, ¹⁶ for the king does hearken to deliver his handmaid out of the paw of the man [seeking] to destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of Elohim, ¹⁷ and your maid-servant said, Let, I pray you, the word of my lord the king be for ease; for as a messenger of Elohim so [is] my lord the king, to understand the good and the evil; and Yahweh your Elohim is with you." ¹⁸ And the king answers and said unto the woman, "Do not, I pray you, hide from me the thing that I am asking you"; and the woman said, "Let, I pray you, my lord the king speak." ¹⁹ And the king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?" And the woman answers and said, "Your soul lives, my lord, O king, none [does turn] to the right or to the left from all that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Joab he commanded me, and he put in the mouth of your maid-servant all these words; ²⁰ in order to bring round the appearance of the thing has your servant Joab done this thing, and my lord [is] wise, according to the wisdom of a messenger of Elohim, to know all that [is] in the land." ²¹ And the king said unto Joab, "Lo, I pray you, you have done this thing; and go, bring back the young man Absalom." ²² And Joab falls on his face to the earth, and does obeisance, and blesses the king, and Joab said, "To-day has your servant known that I have found grace in your eyes, my lord, O king, in that the king has done the word of his servant." ²³ And Joab rises and goes to Geshur, and brings in Absalom to Jerusalem, ²⁴ and the king said, "Let him turn round unto his house, and my face he does not see". And Absalom turns round unto his house, and the face of the king he has not seen. ²⁵ And like Absalom there was no man [so] fair in all Israel, to praise greatly; from the sole of his foot even unto his crown there was no blemish in him; ²⁶ and in his polling his head - and it has been at the end of year by year that he polls [it], for it [is] heavy on him, and he has polled it - he has even weighed out the hair of his head - two hundred shekels by the king's weight. ²⁷ And there are born to Absalom three sons, and one daughter, and her name [is] Tamar; she was a woman of a fair appearance. ²⁸ And Absalom dwells in Jerusalem two years of days, and the face of the king he has not seen; ²⁹ and Absalom sends unto Joab, to send him unto the king, and he has not been willing to come unto him; and he sends again a second time, and he has not been willing to come. ³⁰ And he said unto his servants, "See, the portion of Joab [is] by the side of mine, and he has barley there; go, and burn it with fire"; and the servants of Absalom burn the portion with fire. ³¹ And Joab rises and comes unto Absalom in the house, and said unto him, "Why have your servants burned the portion that I have with fire?" ³² And Absalom said unto Joab, "Lo, I sent unto you, saying, Come hither, and I send you unto the king to say, Why have I come in from Geshur? - good for me while I [am] there - and now, let me see the king's face, and if there is in me iniquity then you have put me to death." ³³ And Joab comes unto the king, and declares [it] to him, and he calls unto Absalom, and he comes unto the king, and bows himself to him, on his face, to the earth, before the king, and the king gives a kiss to Absalom.