12. Then the woman said, "May your female servant say something to my master the king?""Speak!" he said.
13. The woman said, “Why have you planned the very same thing against God’s people? In giving this order, the king has become guilty because the king hasn’t restored his own banished son.
14. We all have to die—we’re like water spilled out on the ground that can’t be gathered up again. But God doesn’t take life away; instead, he makes plans so those banished from him don’t stay that way.
15. "I have come to my master the king to talk about this because people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, I must speak with the king. Maybe the king will act on the request of his servant,
16. because the king will agree to deliver his servant from the power of anyone who would destroy both me and my son from the inheritance God gave.
17. Your servant thought, The word of my master the king will definitely comfort me, because my master the king is like one of God’s messengers, understanding good and evil. May the Lord your God be with you!"
18. The king answered the woman, "I must ask you something—don’t hide anything from me!"The woman said, "Please, my master and king, speak."
19. So the king said, "Has Joab put you up to this?"The woman answered, "As surely as you live, my master and king, no one can deviate a bit from whatever my master and king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who directed me, and it was Joab who told your female servant to say all these things.
20. Your servant Joab did this to change the way things look. But my master’s wisdom is like the wisdom of one of God’s own messengers—he knows everything that takes place in the land."
21. So the king said to Joab, "All right then. I will do it. Go and bring back my boy Absalom."
22. Joab fell facedown, bowing low out of respect, and he blessed the king."Today your servant knows that you think well of me, my master and king," Joab said, "because the king has followed up on his servant’s recommendation."
23. So Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem.
24. The king said, "He must go straight to his own house. He must not see my face." So Absalom went straight to his own house and did not see the king.
25. No man throughout Israel was as praised for his good looks as Absalom. From the soles of his feet to the crown of his head there was nothing wrong with him.
26. When he shaved his head—he had to shave his head at the end of each year because his hair was so heavy that he had to shave it—the weight of the hair from his head was two hundred shekels by the royal weight.
27. Absalom had three sons and one daughter. The daughter’s name was Tamar. She was a beautiful woman.