1. Joab, Zeruiah’s son, knew the king was still thinking about Absalom.
2. So Joab sent ⌊someone⌋ to Tekoa to get a clever woman from there. He told her, “Please act like a mourner, and dress in mourning clothes. Don’t rub olive oil on yourself, but act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for a long time.
3. Go to the king, and tell him this. . . .” Then Joab told her exactly what to say.
4. The woman from Tekoa came to the king and immediately bowed down with her face touching the ground. “Help ⌊me⌋, Your Majesty,” she said.
5. The king asked her, “What can I do for you?”She answered, “I’m a widow; my husband is dead.
6. I had two sons who quarreled in the field, and there was no one to separate them. One killed the other.
7. Then the entire family turned against me. They said, ‘Give us the man who killed his brother so that we can kill him because he took his brother’s life. We’re going to destroy the one who ⌊now⌋ would be the heir.’ In this way they wish to extinguish the ⌊one⌋ burning coal that is left for me. They will not let my husband’s name or descendants remain on the face of the earth.”
8. “Go home,” the king told the woman. “I will order someone to take care of this matter.”