11
Then she said, I pray thee, let the king remember Jehovah thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they cut off my son. And he said, [As] Jehovah liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.
12
And the woman said, Let thy bondmaid, I pray thee, speak a word to my lord the king. And he said, Speak.
13
And the woman said, Why then hast thou thought such a thing against God's people? and the king in saying this thing, is as one guilty, in that the king does not bring back his banished one.
14
For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; and God has not taken away his life, but devises means that the banished one be not expelled from him.
15
And now that I am come to speak of this thing to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid; and thy bondmaid said, I will now speak to the king; perhaps the king will perform the request of his handmaid.
16
For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.
17
And thy bondmaid said, Let the word of my lord the king now be comfortable; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad; and Jehovah thy God will be with thee.
18
And the king answered and said to the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.
19
And the king said, Is the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, [As] thy soul liveth, my lord, O king, there is no turning to the right hand or to the left from aught that my lord the king has spoken; for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words into the mouth of thy bondmaid:
20
in order to turn the appearance of the thing has thy servant Joab done this thing; but my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all that is in the earth.
21
And the king said to Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: so go, bring back the young man Absalom.