Parallel Bible results for "2 samuel 14"

2 Samuel 14

Good News Translation GNT

1 Joab knew that King David missed Absalom very much,

2 so he sent for a clever woman who lived in Tekoa. When she arrived, he said to her, "Pretend that you are in mourning; put on your mourning clothes, and don't comb your hair. Act like a woman who has been in mourning for a long time.

3 Then go to the king and say to him what I tell you to say." Then Joab told her what to say.

4 The woman went to the king, bowed down to the ground in respect, and said, "Help me, Your Majesty!"

5 "What do you want?" he asked her. "I am a poor widow, sir," she answered. "My husband is dead.

6 Sir, I had two sons, and one day they got into a quarrel out in the fields, where there was no one to separate them, and one of them killed the other.

7 And now, sir, all my relatives have turned against me and are demanding that I hand my son over to them, so that they can kill him for murdering his brother. If they do this, I will be left without a son. They will destroy my last hope and leave my husband without a son to keep his name alive."

8 "Go back home," the king answered, "and I will take care of the matter."

9 "Your Majesty," she said, "whatever you do, my family and I will take the blame; you and the royal family are innocent."

10 The king replied, "If anyone threatens you, bring him to me, and he will never bother you again."

11 She said, "Your Majesty, please pray to the Lord your God, so that my relative who is responsible for avenging the death of my son will not commit a greater crime by killing my other son." "I promise by the living Lord," David replied, "that your son will not be harmed in the least."

12 "Please, Your Majesty, let me say just one more thing," the woman said. "All right," he answered.

13 She said to him, "Why have you done such a wrong to God's people? You have not allowed your own son to return from exile, and so you have condemned yourself by what you have just said.

14 We will all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which can't be gathered again. Even God does not bring the dead back to life, but the king can at least find a way to bring a man back from exile.

15 Now, Your Majesty, the reason I have come to speak to you is that the people threatened me, and so I said to myself that I would speak to you in the hope that you would do what I ask.

16 I thought you would listen to me and save me from the one who is trying to kill my son and me and so remove us from the land God gave his people.

17 I said to myself that your promise, sir, would make me safe, because the king is like God's angel and can distinguish good from evil. May the Lord your God be with you!"

18 The king answered, "I'm going to ask you a question, and you must tell me the whole truth." "Ask me anything, Your Majesty," she answered.

19 "Did Joab put you up to this?" he asked her. She answered, "I swear by all that is sacred, Your Majesty, that there is no way to avoid answering your question. It was indeed your officer Joab who told me what to do and what to say.

20 But he did it in order to straighten out this whole matter. Your Majesty is as wise as the angel of God and knows everything that happens."

21 Later on the king said to Joab, "I have decided to do what you want. Go and get the young man Absalom and bring him back here."

22 Joab threw himself to the ground in front of David in respect, and said, "God bless you, Your Majesty! Now I know that you are pleased with me, because you have granted my request."

23 Then he got up and went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem.

24 The king, however, gave orders that Absalom should not live in the palace. "I don't want to see him," the king said. So Absalom lived in his own house and did not appear before the king.

25 There was no one in Israel as famous for his good looks as Absalom; he had no defect from head to toe.

26 His hair was very thick, and he had to cut it once a year, when it grew too long and heavy. It would weigh about five pounds according to the royal standard of weights.

27 Absalom had three sons and one daughter named Tamar, a very beautiful woman.

28 Absalom lived two years in Jerusalem without seeing the king.

29 Then he sent for Joab, to ask him to go to the king for him; but Joab would not come. Again Absalom sent for him, and again Joab refused to come.

30 So Absalom said to his servants, "Look, Joab's field is next to mine, and it has barley growing in it. Go and set fire to it." So they went and set the field on fire.

31 Joab went to Absalom's house and demanded, "Why did your servants set fire to my field?"

32 Absalom answered, "Because you wouldn't come when I sent for you. I wanted you to go to the king and ask for me: "Why did I leave Geshur and come here? It would have been better for me to have stayed there.' " And Absalom went on, "I want you to arrange for me to see the king, and if I'm guilty, then let him put me to death."

33 So Joab went to King David and told him what Absalom had said. The king sent for Absalom, who went to him and bowed down to the ground in front of him. The king welcomed him with a kiss.

World English Bible WEB

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.