1 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was
toward Absalom. 2 Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, 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 a long time
mourned for the dead: 3 and go in to the king, and speak on this manner to
him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. 4 When the woman of Tekoa spoke
to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said,
Help, O king. 5 The king said to her, What ails you? She answered, Of a
truth I am a widow, and my husband is dead. 6 Your handmaid had two sons,
and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them,
but the one struck the other, and killed him. 7 Behold, the whole family
is risen against your handmaid, 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 will they quench my coal which is left, and
will leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the
earth. 8 The king said to the woman, Go to your house, and I will give
charge concerning you. 9 The woman of Tekoa said to the king, My lord, O
king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father’s house; and the king and his
throne be guiltless. 10 The king said, Whoever says anything to you, bring
him to me, and he shall not touch you any more. 11 Then said she, Please
let the king remember Yahweh your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not
any more, lest they destroy my son. He said, As Yahweh lives, there shall not
one hair of your son fall to the earth. 12 Then the woman said, Please let
your handmaid speak a word to my lord the king. He said, Say on. 13 The
woman said, Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of God?
for in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king
does not bring home again his banished one. 14 For we must needs die, and
are as water split on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither
does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an
outcast from him. 15 Now therefore seeing that I have come to speak this
word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and
your handmaid said, I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king
will perform the request of his servant. 16 For the king will hear, to
deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my
son together out of the inheritance of God. 17 Then your handmaid said,
Please let the word of my lord the king be comfortable; for as an angel of
God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: and Yahweh your God be
with you. 18 Then the king answered the woman, Please don’t hide anything
from me that I shall ask you. The woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.
19 The king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all this? The woman
answered, As your soul lives, my lord the king, none can turn to the right
hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your
servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your
handmaid; 20 to change the face of the matter has your servant Joab done
this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God,
to know all things that are in the earth. 21 The king said to Joab, Behold
now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom back.
22 Joab fell to the ground on his face, and did obeisance, and blessed the
king: and Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your
sight, my lord, king, in that the king has performed the request of his
servant. 23 So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to
Jerusalem. 24 The king said, Let him turn to his own house, but let him
not see my face. So Absalom turned to his own house, and didn’t see the
king’s face. 25 Now in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as
Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his
head there was no blemish in him. 26 When he cut the hair of his head (now
it was at every year’s end that he cut it; because it was heavy on him,
therefore he cut it); he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels,
after the king’s weight. 27 To Absalom there were born three sons, and one
daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a woman of a beautiful face.
28 Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem; and he didn’t see the king’s
face. 29 Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king; but he would
not come to him: and he sent again a second time, but he would not come.
30 Therefore he said to his servants, Behold, Joab’s field is near mine,
and he has barley there; go and set it on fire. Absalom’s servants set the
field on fire. 31 Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom to his house, and
said to him, Why have your servants set my field on fire? 32 Absalom
answered Joab, Behold, I sent to you, saying, Come here, that I may send you
to the king, to say, Why am I come from Geshur? it were better for me to be
there still. Now therefore let me see the king’s face; and if there be
iniquity in me, let him kill me. 33 So Joab came to the king, and told
him; and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed
himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed
Absalom.
World English Bible - Public Domain |
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