2 Samuel 14:1-7 ▼

1 Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart longed for Absalom.

2 So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.

3 Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab put the words in her mouth.

4 When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell facedown in homage and said, “Help me, O king!”

5 “What troubles you?” the king asked her. “Indeed,” she said, “I am a widow, for my husband is dead.

6 And your maidservant had two sons who 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 maidservant and said, ‘Hand over the one who struck down his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of the brother whom he killed. Then we will cut off the heir as well!’ So they would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on the earth.”