6
And your handmaid had two sons, and they quarreled with one another in the field; there was no one to part them, and one struck the other and killed him.
7
And now the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, 'Give up the man who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he slew'; and so they would destroy the heir also. Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant upon 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
And the woman of Teko'a said to the king, "On me be the guilt, my lord the king, and on my father's house; let the king and his throne be guiltless."
10
The king said, "If any one says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again."
11
Then she said, "Pray let the king invoke the LORD your God, that the avenger of blood slay no more, and my son be not destroyed." He said, "As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground."
12
Then the woman said, "Pray let your handmaid speak a word to my lord the king." He said, "Speak."
13
And the woman said, "Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in giving this decision the king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished one home again.
14
We must all die, we are like water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; but God will not take away the life of him who devises means not to keep his banished one an outcast.
15
Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid; and your handmaid thought, 'I will speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.
16
For the king will hear, and deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the heritage of God.'