1. Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was on Absalom.
2. So Joab sent word to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there. He said to her, “Please pretend to be a mourner and put on mourning clothes. Do not anoint yourself with oil but be like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead.
3. Then go to the king and speak to him these words.” Then Joab put the words in her mouth.
4. When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, bowed down and said, “Help, O king!”
5. “What’s the matter with you?” the king said to her. “Truly, I am a widow, my husband is dead,” she said.
6. “Your handmaid had two sons, but the two of them fought with each other in the field, where there was no one to separate them. So one struck the other and killed him.