9. But the woman from Tekoa said to him, "You are my king and master. No matter what you do, I and my family will take the blame for it. You and your royal family won't be guilty of doing anything wrong."
10. The king replied, "If people give you any trouble, bring them to me. They won't bother you again."
11. She said, "Please pray to the Lord your God. Pray that he will keep our nearest male relative from killing my other son. Then my son won't be destroyed." "You can be sure that the Lord lives," the king said. "And you can be just as sure that not one hair of your son's head will fall to the ground."
12. Then the woman said, "King David, please let me say something else to you." "Go ahead," he replied.
13. The woman said, "You are the king. So why have you done something that brings so much harm on God's people? When you do that, you hand down a sentence against yourself. You won't let the son you drove away come back.
14. All of us must die. We are like water that is spilled on the ground. It can't be put back into the jar. But God doesn't take life away. Instead, he finds a way to bring back anyone who was driven away from him.
15. "King David, I've come here to say this to you now. I've done it because people have made me afraid. I thought, 'I'll go and speak to the king. Perhaps he'll do what I'm asking.
16. Perhaps he'll agree to save me from the man who is trying to cut off me and my son from the property God gave us.'
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."