17. "So now I'm saying, 'May what you have told me bring me peace and rest. You are like an angel of God. You know what is good and what is evil. May the Lord your God be with you.' "
18. Then the king said to the woman, "I'm going to ask you a question. I want you to tell me the truth." "Please ask me anything you want to," the woman said.
19. The king asked, "Joab told you to say all of this, didn't he?" The woman answered, "What you have told me is exactly right. And that's just as sure as you are alive. It's true that Joab directed me to do this. He told me everything he wanted me to say.
20. He did it to change the way things now are. You are as wise as an angel of God. You know everything that happens in the land."
21. Later the king said to Joab, "All right. I'll do what you want. Go. Bring the young man Absalom back."