1. Joab son of Zeruiah observed that the king’s mind was on Absalom.
2. So Joab sent someone to Tekoa to bring a clever woman from there. He told her, “Pretend to be in mourning: dress in mourning clothes and don’t put on any oil. Act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for a long time.
3. Go to the king and speak these words to him.” Then Joab told her exactly what to say.
4. When the woman from Tekoa came to the king, she fell with her face to the ground in homage and said, “Help me, my king! ”
5. “What’s the matter? ” the king asked her.“To tell the truth, I am a widow; my husband died,” she said.
6. “Your servant had two sons. They were fighting in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.
7. Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant and said, ‘Hand over the one who killed his brother so we may put him to death for the life of the brother he murdered. We will destroy the heir! ’ They would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on earth.”
8. The king told the woman, “Go home. I will issue a command on your behalf.”
9. Then the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord the king, may any blame be on me and my father’s house, and may the king and his throne be innocent.”
10. “Whoever speaks to you,” the king said, “bring him to me. He will not trouble you again! ”