Thematic Bible: Joab's guile in securing absalom's return


Thematic Bible



And Joab sent to Tekoah, and brought from there a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray you, pretend to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not yourself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead: And come to the king, and speak in this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. And when the woman of Tekoah spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and pain him honor, and said, Help, O king. read more.
And the king said unto her, What ails you? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and my husband is dead. And your handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one struck the other, and slew him. And, behold, the whole family is risen against your handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that struck his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my ember which is left, and shall not leave to my husband either name or remnant upon the earth. And the king said unto the woman, Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you. And the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father's house: and the king and his throne be guiltless. And the king said, Whosoever says anything unto you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you any more. Then said she, I pray you, let the king remember the LORD your God, that you would not allow the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As the LORD lives, there shall not one hair of your son fall to the earth. Then the woman said, Let your handmaid, I pray you, speak one word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on. And the woman said, Why then have you thought such a thing against the people of God? for the king does speak this thing as one who is faulty, in that the king does not bring home again his banished one. For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither does God respect any person: yet does he devise means, that his banished one be not expelled from him. Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and your handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid. For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. Then your handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: therefore the LORD your God will be with you. Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray you, the thing that I shall ask you. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak. And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman answered and said, As your soul lives, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken: for your servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid: To bring about this change of affairs has your servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.