12. “Please, Your Majesty, let me say just one more thing,” the woman said.“All right,” he answered.
13. She said to him, “Why have you done such a wrong to God's people? You have not allowed your own son to return from exile, and so you have condemned yourself by what you have just said.
14. We will all die; we are like water spilt on the ground, which can't be gathered again. Even God does not bring the dead back to life, but the king can at least find a way to bring a man back from exile.
15. Now, Your Majesty, the reason I have come to speak to you is that the people threatened me, and so I said to myself that I would speak to you in the hope that you would do what I ask.
16. I thought you would listen to me and save me from the one who is trying to kill my son and me and so remove us from the land God gave his people.
17. I said to myself that your promise, sir, would make me safe, because the king is like God's angel and can distinguish good from evil. May the Lord your God be with you!”
18. The king answered, “I'm going to ask you a question, and you must tell me the whole truth.”“Ask me anything, Your Majesty,” she answered.
19. “Did Joab put you up to this?” he asked her.She answered, “I swear by all that is sacred, Your Majesty, that there is no way to avoid answering your question. It was indeed your officer Joab who told me what to do and what to say.
20. But he did it in order to straighten out this whole matter. Your Majesty is as wise as the angel of God and knows everything that happens.”
21. Later on the king said to Joab, “I have decided to do what you want. Go and get the young man Absalom and bring him back here.”
22. Joab threw himself to the ground in front of David in respect, and said, “God bless you, Your Majesty! Now I know that you are pleased with me, because you have granted my request.”
23. Then he got up and went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem.
24. The king, however, gave orders that Absalom should not live in the palace. “I don't want to see him,” the king said. So Absalom lived in his own house and did not appear before the king.