6. And your servant had two sons, and they quarreled with one another in the field. There was no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.
7. And now the whole clan has risen against your servant, and they say, ‘Give up the man who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed.’ And so they would destroy the heir also. Thus they would quench my coal that is left and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.”
8. Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.”
9. And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “On me be the guilt, my lord the king, and on my father’s house; let the king and his throne be guiltless.”
10. The king said, “If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again.”
11. Then she said, “Please let the king invoke the Lord your God, that the avenger of blood kill no more, and my son be not destroyed.” He said, “As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.”
12. Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” He said, “Speak.”
13. And the woman said, “Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in giving this decision the king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished one home again.
14. We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God will not take away life, and he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast.
15. Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid, and your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.
16. For the king will hear and deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the heritage of God.’