14. We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. And God does not take away life, but devises means so that he who is banished may not be an utter outcast from Him.
15. And now I have come to speak of this thing to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. And I thought, I will speak to the king; it may be that he will perform the request of his servant.
16. For the king will hear to deliver his handmaid from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from [Israel] the inheritance of God.
17. And the woman said, The word of my lord the king will now give me rest and security, for as an angel of God is my lord the king to hear and discern good and evil. May the Lord your God be with you!
18. Then the king said to the woman, Hide not from me anything I ask you. And the woman said, Let my lord the king speak.
19. The king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman answered, As your soul lives, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything my lord the king has said. It was your servant Joab who directed me; he put all these words in my mouth.
20. In order to change the course of matters [between Absalom and his father] your servant Joab did this. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God–to know all things that are on the earth.
21. Then the king said to Joab, Behold now, I grant this; go, bring back the young man Absalom.
22. And Joab fell to the ground on his face and did obeisance and thanked the king. And Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant.
23. So Joab arose, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
24. And the king said, Let him go to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the king's face.
25. But in all Israel there was none so much to be praised for his beauty as Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
26. And when he cut the hair of his head, he weighed it–for at each year's end he cut it, because its weight was a burden to him–and it weighed 200 shekels by the king's weight.