18. The king answered and said to the woman, “Please do not withhold from me a thing which I am about to ask you.” The woman said, “Please let my lord the king speak.”
19. The king asked, “Was the hand of Joab with you in all of this?” The woman answered and said, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, surely one cannot go to the right or to the left from all that my lord the king has spoken. Yes, your servant Joab himself commanded me, and he put all of these words in the mouth of your servant.
20. In order to change the situation, your servant Joab did this thing. But my lord has wisdom, as the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all that is on the earth.”
21. Then the king said to Joab, “Look, please, I will grant this thing. Go and bring back the young man Absalom.”
22. Joab fell with his face to the ground and did obeisance. And he blessed the king, and he said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, in that the king has granted the request of his servant.”
23. Then Joab got up and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
24. The king said, “Let him go over to his house, and he may not see my face.” So Absalom went over to his house, and did not see the face of the king.