2 Samuel 14:1-20

The Woman of Tekoa

1 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that ¹the king's heart was inclined toward Absalom.

2 So Joab sent to ²Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there and said to her, "Please pretend to be a mourner, and put on mourning garments now, and do not ³anoint yourself with oil, but be like a woman who has been mourning for the dead many days;

3 then go to the king and speak to him in this manner." So Joab put ⁴the words in her mouth.

4 Now when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and ⁵prostrated herself and said, "⁶Help, O king."

5 The king said to her, "What is your trouble?" And she answered, "Truly I am a widow, for my husband is dead.

6 "Your maidservant had two sons, but the two of them struggled together in the field, and there was no one to separate them, so one struck the other and killed him.

7 "Now behold, ⁷the whole family has risen against your maidservant, and they say, 'Hand over the one who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed, ⁸and destroy the heir also.' Thus they will extinguish my coal which is left, so as to leave my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth."

8 Then the king said to the woman, "Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you."

9 The woman of Tekoa said to the king, "O my lord, the king, ⁹the iniquity is on me and my father's house, but ¹⁰the king and his throne are guiltless."

10 So the king said, "Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you anymore *."

11 Then she said, "Please let the king remember the LORD your God, ¹¹so that the avenger of blood will not continue to destroy, otherwise they will destroy my son." And he said, "¹²As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground."

12 Then the woman said, "Please let your maidservant speak a word to my lord the king." And he said, "Speak."

13 The woman said, "¹³Why then have you planned 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 back ¹⁴his banished one.

14 "For ¹⁵we will surely die and are ¹⁶like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that ¹⁷the banished one will not be cast out from him.

15 "Now the reason I have come to speak this word to my lord the king is that the people have made me afraid; so your maidservant said, 'Let me now speak to the king, perhaps the king will perform the request of his maidservant.

16 'For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy both me and my son from ¹⁸the inheritance of God.'

17 "Then your maidservant said, 'Please let the word of my lord the king be comforting, for as ¹⁹the angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil. And may the LORD your God be with you.' "

18 Then the king answered and said to the woman, "Please do not hide anything from me that I am about to ask you." And the woman said, "Let my lord the king please speak."

19 So the king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?" And the woman replied, "As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. Indeed, it was ²⁰your servant Joab who commanded me, and it was he who put all these words in the mouth of your maidservant;

20 in order to change the appearance of things your servant Joab has done this thing. But my lord is wise, ²¹like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know all that is in the earth."

2 Samuel 14:1-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 14

This chapter relates that Joab, perceiving David's inclination to bring back Absalom, employed a wise woman of Tekoah to lay before him a feigned case of hers, drawn up by Joab, whereby this point was gained from the king, that murder might be dispensed with in her case, 2Sa 14:1-20; which being applied to the case of Absalom, and the king finding out that the hand of Joab was in this, sent for him, and ordered him to bring Absalom again, though as yet he would not see his face, 2Sa 14:21-24; and after some notice being taken of the beauty of Absalom's person, particularly of his head of hair, and of the number of his children, 2Sa 14:25-27; it is related, that after two full years Absalom was uneasy that he might not see the king's face, and sent for Joab, who refused to come to him, till he found means to oblige him to it, who, with the king's leave, introduced him to him, 2Sa 14:28-33.

Cross References

• 1. 2 Samuel 13:39
• 2. 2 Samuel 23:26; 2 Chronicles 11:6; Amos 1:1
• 3. 2 Samuel 12:20
• 4. 2 Samuel 14:19
• 5. 1 Samuel 25:23
• 6. 2 Kings 6:26-28
• 7. Numbers 35:19; Deuteronomy 19:12, 13
• 8. Matthew 21:38
• 9. Genesis 43:9; 1 Samuel 25:24
• 10. 1 Kings 2:33
• 11. Numbers 35:19, 21; Deuteronomy 19:4-10
• 12. 1 Samuel 14:45; 1 Kings 1:52; Matthew 10:30
• 13. 2 Samuel 12:7; 1 Kings 20:40-42
• 14. 2 Samuel 13:37, 38
• 15. Job 30:23; Job 34:15; Hebrews 9:27
• 16. Psalms 58:7
• 17. Num 35:15, 25, 28
• 18. Deuteronomy 32:9; 1 Samuel 26:19
• 19. 1 Samuel 29:9; 2 Samuel 14:20; 2 Samuel 19:27
• 20. 2 Samuel 14:3
• 21. 2 Samuel 14:17; 2 Samuel 19:27

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "took"
• [b]. Many mss and ancient versions read "came"
• [c]. Lit "said"
• [d]. Lit "deliverer between"
• [e]. Lit "set"
• [f]. Lit "devices"
• [g]. Lit "that"
• [h]. Lit "word"
• [i]. Lit "to"
• [j]. Lit "palm"
• [k]. Lit "together"
• [l]. Lit "for rest"