14. We are all dying, and we are all like waters that flow into the ground and do not return. God does not will to lose a soul. Instead, he renews his efforts, thinking that what has been rejected might not perish altogether.
15. Therefore, now I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, in the presence of the people. And your handmaid said: I will speak to the king, for perhaps there may be some way for the king to accomplish the word of his handmaid.
16. And the king listened, and he freed his handmaid from the hand of all who were willing to take away me and my son together, from the inheritance of God.
17. Therefore, let your handmaid speak, so that the word of my lord the king may be like a sacrifice. For even like an Angel of God, so is my lord the king, so that he is moved by neither a blessing, nor a curse. Then too, the Lord your God is with you."
18. And in response, the king said to the woman, "You shall not conceal from me a word of what I ask you." And the woman said to him, "Speak, my lord the king."
19. And the king said, "Is not the hand of Joab with you in all this?" And the woman answered and said: "By the welfare of your soul, my lord the king, it is neither to the left, nor to the right, in all these things that my lord the king has spoken. For your servant Joab himself instructed me, and he himself placed all these words in the mouth of your handmaid.
20. Thus did I turn to this figure of speech, because your servant Joab instructed it. But you, my lord the king, are wise, just as an Angel of God has wisdom, so that you understand all that is upon the earth."
21. And the king said to Joab: "Behold, your word has succeeded in appeasing me. Therefore, go and call back the boy Absalom."
22. And falling to the ground upon his face, Joab reverenced, and he blessed the king. And Joab said: "Today your servant has understood that I have found grace in your sight, my lord the king. For you have accomplished the word of your servant."
23. Then Joab rose up, and he went away to Geshur. And he brought Absalom into Jerusalem.
24. But the king said, "Let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face." And so, Absalom returned to his own house, but he did not see the face of the king.
25. Now in all of Israel, there was no man so handsome, and so very stately as Absalom. From the sole of the foot to the top of the head, there was no blemish in him.