2 Samuel 14 — Read & Listen Online

Joab Brings Absalom Back to Jerusalem

Chapter 14.

Now Joab son of Zeruiah realized that the king's heart longed for Absalom. So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there. He said to her, "Please pretend to be a mourner. Put on mourning clothes and don't put on any lotion. Act like a woman who has grieved many days for the dead." "Then go to the king and speak these words to him." And Joab put the words in her mouth.

When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell facedown to the ground in homage and said, "Help me, my king!"

The king asked her, "What is troubling you?" She answered, "I am a widow; my husband is dead.

Your servant had two sons. They quarreled out in the field, and there was no one to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. Now the whole clan has risen against your servant. They say, 'Hand over the one who struck down his brother, so we can put him to death for the life of the brother he killed; and we will destroy the heir as well.' They would snuff out the one ember I have left, leaving my husband no name and no survivor on the face of the earth."

The king said to the woman, "Go home, and I will issue orders on your behalf."

But the woman of Tekoa said to the king, "My lord the king, let the guilt be on me and on my father's house, and let the king and his throne be innocent."

The king replied, "If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he will never trouble you again."

Then she said, "Please, let the king remember your Father, so that the avenger of blood will not add to the bloodshed and my son will not be destroyed." "As surely as our Father lives," he said, "not one hair of your son's head will fall to the ground." ¹

Then the woman said, "Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king." "Speak," he said.

The woman said, "Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of our Father? In saying this, the king convicts himself, for he has not brought back his own banished one. We will surely die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet our Father does not take away life; instead he devises ways so that the banished one is not cast out from him. ²

Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people made me afraid. Your servant thought, 'Let me speak to the king; perhaps he will do what his servant asks. Perhaps the king will listen and rescue his servant from the hand of the man who would cut off both me and my son from the inheritance of our Father.'

And your servant thought, 'May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is like an angel of our Father in discerning good and evil. May your Father be with you.'"

Then the king said to the woman, "Do not hide from me anything I ask you." "Let my lord the king speak," the woman said.

The king asked, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?" The woman replied, "As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything my lord the king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me; he put all these words in your servant's mouth.

Your servant Joab did this to change the way things look. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of an angel of our Father; he knows everything that happens in the land."

Then the king said to Joab, "Very well, I will do this. Go, bring back the young man Absalom."

Joab fell facedown to the ground in homage and blessed the king. "Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your eyes, my lord the king," Joab said, "because the king has granted his servant's request."

So Joab got up and went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. But the king said, "He must go to his own house; he must not see my face." So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the king's face.

Now in all Israel there was no man so praised for his beauty as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head there was no blemish in him. Whenever he cut the hair of his head — he used to cut it at the end of every year because it grew heavy on him — he would weigh it: about five pounds.

Three sons were born to Absalom, and a daughter named Tamar. She was a beautiful woman.

Absalom and David Are Finally Reconciled

Absalom lived in Jerusalem two full years without seeing the king's face. Then Absalom sent for Joab to ask him to intercede with the king, but Joab would not come to him. He sent a second time, but still Joab would not come.

So Absalom said to his servants, "Look, Joab's field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire." And Absalom's servants set the field on fire.

Then Joab got up and came to Absalom at his house and said to him, "Why have your servants set my field on fire?"

Absalom answered Joab, "Look, I sent word to you, saying, 'Come here, so I can send you to the king to ask, "Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to still be there."' Now let me see the king's face, and if I am guilty of anything, let him put me to death."

So Joab went to the king and told him. Then the king summoned Absalom, and he came in and bowed facedown to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom.

❤️ FHB? Review Now