King James Version › 2 Samuel › 14

2 Samuel

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1 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah per­ceived that the king's heart was to­ward Ab­sa­lom. 2 And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise wom­an, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thy­self to be a mourn­er, and put on now mourn­ing ap­par­el, and anoint not thy­self with oil, but be as a wom­an that had a long time mourned for the dead: 3 And come to the king, and speak on this man­ner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. 4 And when the wom­an of Tekoah spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obei­sance, and said, Help, O king. 5 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she an­swered, I am in­deed a wid­ow wom­an, and mine hus­band is dead. 6 And thy hand­maid had two sons, and they two strove to­geth­er in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the oth­er, and slew him. 7 And, be­hold, the whole fam­i­ly is risen against thine hand­maid, and they said, De­liv­er him that smote 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 coal which is left, and shall not leave to my hus­band neither name nor re­main­der upon the earth. 8 And the king said unto the wom­an, Go to thine house, and I will give charge con­cern­ing thee. 9 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. 10 And the king said, Whoso­ev­er saith ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more. 11 Then said she, I pray thee, let the king re­mem­ber the LORD thy God, that thou wouldest not suf­fer the re­vengers of blood to de­stroy any more, lest they de­stroy my son. And he said, As the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth. 12 Then the wom­an said, Let thine hand­maid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on. 13 And the wom­an said, Where­fore then hast thou thought such a thing against the peo­ple of God? for the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his ban­ished. 14 For we must needs die, and are as wa­ter spilt on the ground, which can­not be gath­ered up again; nei­ther doth God re­spect any per­son: yet doth he de­vise means, that his ban­ished be not ex­pelled from him. 15 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 thy hand­maid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will per­form the re­quest of his hand­maid. 16 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. 17 Then thine 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 thy God will be with thee. 18 Then the king an­swered and said unto the wom­an, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the wom­an said, Let my lord the king now speak. 19 And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the wom­an an­swered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king hath spo­ken: for thy ser­vant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine hand­maid: 20 To fetch about this form of speech hath thy 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. 21 And the king said unto Joab, Be­hold now, I have done this thing: go there­fore, bring the young man Ab­sa­lom again. 22 And Joab fell to the ground on his face, and bowed him­self, and thanked the king: and Joab said, To day thy ser­vant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that the king hath ful­filled the re­quest of his ser­vant. 23 So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Ab­sa­lom to Jerusalem. 24 And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Ab­sa­lom re­turned to his own house, and saw not the king's face. 25 But in all Is­rael there was none to be so much praised as Ab­sa­lom for his beau­ty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blem­ish in him. 26 And when he polled his head, (for it was at ev­ery year's end that he polled it: be­cause the hair was heavy on him, there­fore he polled it: ) he weighed the hair of his head at two hun­dred shekels af­ter the king's weight. 27 And unto Ab­sa­lom there were born three sons, and one daugh­ter, whose name was Tamar: she was a wom­an of a fair coun­te­nance. 28 So Ab­sa­lom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king's face. 29 There­fore Ab­sa­lom sent for Joab, to have sent him to the king; but he would not come to him: and when he sent again the sec­ond time, he would not come. 30 There­fore he said unto his ser­vants, See, Joab's field is near mine, and he hath bar­ley there; go and set it on fire. And Absalom's ser­vants set the field on fire. 31 Then Joab arose, and came to Ab­sa­lom unto his house, and said unto him, Where­fore have thy ser­vants set my field on fire? 32 And Ab­sa­lom an­swered Joab, Be­hold, I sent unto thee, say­ing, Come hith­er, that I may send thee to the king, to say, Where­fore am I come from Geshur? it had been good for me ­to have been there still: now there­fore let me see the king's face; and if there be any in­iq­ui­ty in me, let him kill me. 33 So Joab came to the king, and told him: and when he had called for Ab­sa­lom, he came to the king, and bowed him­self on his face to the ground be­fore the king: and the king kissed Ab­sa­lom.