16
Then cried a wise woman out of the city, "Hear, hear! Please say to Yo'av, 'Come near here, that I may speak with you.'"
17
He came near to her; and the woman said, Are you Yo'av? He answered, I am. Then she said to him, Hear the words of your handmaid. He answered, I do hear.
18
Then she spoke, saying, They were wont to speak in old time, saying, They shall surely ask [counsel] at Hevel: and so they ended [the matter].
19
I am of those who are peaceable and faithful in Yisra'el: you seek to destroy a city and a mother in Yisra'el: why will you swallow up the inheritance of the LORD?
20
Yo'av answered, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.
21
The matter is not so: but a man of the hill-country of Efrayim, Sheva the son of Bikhri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, even against David; deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. The woman said to Yo'av, Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.
22
Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. They cut off the head of Sheva the son of Bikhri, and threw it out to Yo'av. He blew the shofar, and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. Yo'av returned to Yerushalayim to the king.
23
Now Yo'av was over all the host of Yisra'el; and Benayah the son of Yehoiada was over the Kereti and over the Peleti;
24
and Adoram was over the men subject to forced labor; and Yehoshafat the son of Achilud was the recorder;
25
and Sheva was Sofer; and Tzadok and Avyatar were Kohanim;
26
and also `Ira the Ya'irite was chief minister to David.