14:1 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah realized that the king was thinking kindly¹ toward Absalom.² 14:2 So Joab sent to Tekoa and took from there a wise woman. He told her, “Pretend to be in mourning³ and put on garments for mourning. Don’t anoint yourself with oil. Instead, act like a woman who has for some time⁴ been mourning for the deceased. 14:3 Go to the king and speak to him in the following fashion.” Then Joab told her what to say.⁵

14:4 So the Tekoan woman went⁶ to the king. She fell prostrate with her face to the ground in deference to him and said, “Please help me,⁷ O king!” 14:5 The king replied to her, “What do you seek?”⁸ She answered, “I am a widow; my husband is dead. 14:6 I⁹ have two sons. When the two of them struggled together in the field, there was no one present who could intervene. One of them struck the other and killed him. 14:7 Now the entire family has risen against me saying, ‘Turn over the one who struck his brother so that we can put him to death for¹⁰ the life of his brother whom he has slain. In so doing we will also destroy the heir.’ Now they will extinguish my remaining coal,¹¹ leaving no one on the face of the earth to carry on the name of my husband.”

14:8 Then the king replied to the woman, “Go to your home. I will give instructions concerning you.” 14:9 The Tekoan woman said to the king, “My lord the king, let any blame fall on me and on the house of my father. But let the king and his throne be innocent!”

14:10 The king replied, “Bring whoever speaks to you to me, and he won’t bother you again!” 14:11 She answered, “In that case,¹² let the king remember the LORD your God, that the avenger of blood not destroy so much.¹³ Then they would not destroy my son!” He replied, “As the LORD lives, there shall not fall to the ground a single hair of your son.”

14:12 Then the woman said, “Permit me now to speak to my lord the king about another matter.” He replied, “Tell me.” 14:13 The woman said, “Why have you devised something like this against God’s people? When the king speaks in this fashion, he is like one who is guilty, in that the king has not brought back the one he has banished. 14:14 For we surely die and are like water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up again. But God does not take away life; rather, he devises plans so that the banished may not remain banished from him. 14:15 I have now come to speak with my lord the king about this matter, because the people have made me fearful.¹⁴ But I said, ‘I will speak to the king! Perhaps the king will do what I ask, 14:16 because the king will listen and deliver me from the hand of the man who seeks to destroy me and my son as well from God’s inheritance!’ 14:17 So I said, ‘Let now the word of my lord the king be my security, for my lord the king is like the angel of God when it comes to arbitrating between good and evil! May the LORD your God be with you!’”

14:18 Then the king replied to the woman, “Don’t conceal anything from me that I am about to ask you.” The woman said, “Let my lord the king speak!” 14:19 The king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all of this?” The woman replied, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, there is no deviation to the right or to the left from all that my lord the king has said. For your servant Joab gave me instructions. He has put all these words in my mouth. 14:20 Your servant Joab did this so as to bring about change in this matter. But my lord has wisdom like that of the angel of God, so as to know all that is in the land.”

14:21 Then the king said to Joab, “All right! I¹⁵ will do this thing! Go and bring back the lad Absalom!

14:22 Then Joab fell prostrate with his face to the ground and blessed the king. Joab said, “Today I¹⁶ know that I have found favor in your sight, my lord the king, in that the king has granted the request of your¹⁷ servant!”

14:23 So Joab arose and went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. 14:24 But the king said, “Let him turn aside to his own house. He may not see my face.” So Absalom turned aside to his own house; he did not see the king’s face.

14:25 Now in all Israel there was no one as striking in appearance as was Absalom. From the sole of his feet to the top of his head there was no blemish in him. 14:26 When he would shave his head—it so happened that at the end of every year he used to shave his head, for it seemed heavy to him and he would shave it—he used to weigh the hair of his head at two hundred shekels¹⁸ in the king’s weight. 14:27 There were born to Absalom three sons and one daughter, whose name was Tamar. She was a very attractive woman.¹⁹

14:28 So Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years without seeing the king’s face. 14:29 Then Absalom sent a message to Joab asking him to send him to the king, but Joab was not willing to come to him. So he sent to him yet a second time, but he still was not willing to come. 14:30 So he said to his servants, “Look, Joab has a portion of field adjacent to mine, and he has some barley there. Go and set it on fire.”²⁰ So Absalom’s servants set the portion of the field on fire.

14:31 Then Joab arose and came to Absalom at his house. He said to him, “Why did your servants set the portion of my field on fire?” 14:32 Absalom said to Joab, “Look, I sent to you saying, ‘Come so that I can send you to the king saying, “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there. Let me now see the face of the king. If I am at fault, put me to death!”

14:33 So Joab went to the king and informed him. He called for Absalom, and he came to the king. When Absalom fell prostrate with his face to the ground in the king’s presence, the king kissed him.