1. Joab the son of Zeruiah realized that the mind of the king was on Absalom.
2. So Joab sent to Tekoa and took from there a wise woman, and he said to her, “Please pretend to mourn and put on garments of mourning. You should not anoint yourself with oil, and you must act like this woman who has been mourning over the dead for a long time.
3. Then you must go to the king and speak to him according to this word.” Thus Joab put the words in her mouth.
4. So the Tekoite woman spoke to the king, and she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance. She said, “Help me, O king!”
5. Then the king asked her, “What do you want?” And she said, “Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead.
6. Your servant had two sons, and they both fought in the open field, and there was no one to part them. One struck the other and killed him.
7. And look, all of the family has risen up against your servant, and they said, ‘Give up the one who struck his brother, that we may kill him in exchange for the life of his brother whom he murdered. We will also wipe out the heir,’ and so they would put out my embers which remain, by not preserving for my husband a name and a remnant on the face of the earth.”
8. Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I myself will give the command concerning you.”
9. The Tekoite woman said to the king, “On me, my lord the king, is the guilt, and on the house of my father, but the king on his throne is innocent.”
10. The king said, “Whoever has spoken to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you again.”