1. Now Joab, son of Zeruiah, knew how the king felt toward Absalom.
2. Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman, to whom he said: “Pretend to be in mourning. Put on mourning apparel and do not anoint yourself with oil, that you may appear to be a woman who has long been mourning someone dead.
3. Then go to the king and speak to him in this manner.” And Joab told her what to say.
4. So the woman of Tekoa went to the king and fell to the ground in homage, saying, “Help, O king!”
5. The king said to her, “What do you want?” She replied: “Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead.
6. Your servant had two sons, who quarreled in the field, with no one to part them, and one of them struck his brother and killed him.
7. Then the whole clan confronted your servant and demanded: ‘Give up the one who struck down his brother. We must put him to death for the life of his brother whom he has killed; we must do away with the heir also.’ Thus they will quench my remaining hope and leave my husband neither name nor posterity upon the earth.”
8. The king then said to the woman: “Go home. I will issue a command on your behalf.”