2 Samuel 14:1-9

1 Now Jo'ab the son of Zeru'iah perceived that the king's heart went out to Ab'salom.
2 And Jo'ab sent to Teko'a, and fetched from there a wise woman, and said to her, "Pretend to be a mourner, and put on mourning garments; do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead;
3 and go to the king, and speak thus to him." So Jo'ab put the words in her mouth.
4 When the woman of Teko'a came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, "Help, O king."
5 And the king said to her, "What is your trouble?" She answered, "Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead.
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."
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.