The wise woman of Tekoa
1Joab, son of Zeruiah, knew that the king was thinking about Absalom a lot. 2Then Joab sent someone to the town of Tekoa to get a wise woman who lived there. He told her: ‘You must look sad and cry and wear sack-cloth. Don't put olive oil on yourself. You must cry like a woman who mourns for someone who has died. 3Then you must go to the king and tell him what I tell you.’
4The woman of Tekoa then went to the king and talked to him. She bowed down with her face to the ground and she said: ‘Your_Majesty, please help me.’ 5The king asked her what her problem was and she said: ‘Oh, I am a widow. My husband has died. 6I had 2 sons and they started to argue when they were in the field. No one stopped them and one son killed the other son. 7Everyone in my family came to me and said: “Give us the boy who killed his brother. We want to kill him because he killed his brother. He is the son who will inherit everything his father had, but we want to kill him.” I have only this one son, and he is the light of my life, but now they want to kill him. If he dies, no one will be left on earth who will have the name of my husband.’ 8The king said to the woman: ‘Go home. I will help you and tell the people what is the right thing to do.’
9Then the woman of Tekoa said to the king: ‘Your_Majesty, if someone does something wrong, it is my family and I who are guilty. You are not guilty.’ 10Then the king said: ‘If someone talks to you about this, then you must bring him to me. I will make sure that he will not give you problems again.’ 11But the woman said: ‘There is someone in my family who is the closest to me. He wants to punish my son. Your_Majesty, you must please promise that he will not kill my son. The Lord your God must be your Witness.’ The king answered: ‘As sure as the Lord lives, no one will kill your son. Not one hair of your son will fall to the ground.’
12Then the woman said: ‘Your_Majesty, may I ask you one more thing?’ The king said: ‘Yes, ask.’ 13She said: ‘Why do you want to do such a wrong thing to the people of God? When you said what must happen in my family, you showed that you are doing wrong, because you do not let your son come back, and your son must live in another land. 14We must all die. We are like water that falls on the ground and no one can pick it up again. But God does not want anyone to die. He wants someone who has gone away from Him to come back to Him. 15I was afraid of the people, Your_Majesty, and that is why I came to talk to you about my problem. I thought I must come and talk to the king. Maybe you could do something to help me with my problem, 16because the king would listen and help me against the person that wants to take my son and me away from the people of God. 17I thought Your_Majesty would say something to help me feel safe, because the king is like an angel of God who listens and who knows what is right and what is wrong. I pray that the Lord your God will be with you.’
18The king said to the woman: ‘I want to ask you something. Please tell me everything.’ She said: ‘Your_Majesty, please ask what you want to ask.’ 19Then the king asked: ‘Was it Joab who sent you to tell me these things?’ The woman answered: ‘As sure as you live, Your_Majesty, no one can lie to you. Yes, it was your servant Joab. He sent me and told me all these things that I must say. 20But Joab did this because he wants to make right this wrong, and you have the wisdom of an angel of God. You know everything that happens in the land.’
Absalom comes back
21Then the king said to Joab: ‘All right, you can do it. Go and bring the young man Absalom back.’ 22Joab bowed with his face to the ground and he praised the king and said: ‘Your_Majesty, now I know that you love me, because you do what I ask.’
23Joab got up. He went to the land of Geshur to get Absalom and to bring him back to Jerusalem. 24But the king said to Joab: ‘Let Absalom go to his house. I do not want to see him.’ Absalom went home and he did not see the king.
Absalom sees the king
25Absalom was a beautiful man. In all of Israel there was no one as good-looking as he was, and everyone was talking about him. There was nothing wrong with him, from his head to his toes. 26Every year he shaved off his hair because it became too heavy. His hair weighed 200 shekels. 27Absalom had 3 sons and one daughter. The name of his daughter was Tamar, and she was a beautiful woman.
28After Absalom had been back in Jerusalem for 2 years, he had still not seen the king. 29Absalom wanted Joab to send a message to the king, but Joab did not want to go to Absalom. Absalom called Joab again, but Joab did not go to Absalom. 30Then Absalom told his servants: ‘Go to the barley field of Joab, next to my field, and burn his field.’ Absalom's servants went and they burnt Joab's barley field.
31Then Joab came to Absalom's house and he asked Absalom: ‘Why did you tell your servants to burn my barley field?’ 32Absalom said to Joab: ‘I sent a message to call you to come here. I wanted to send you to the king. I want you to ask him why he said I must come back from the land of Geshur. It would have been better for me if I had stayed there. That is why I did it. I want to see the king and if I have done something wrong, then he must kill me.’
33Joab went to the king and he told the king what Absalom had said. The king called Absalom and Absalom came to the king. He bowed down before the king with his face to the ground and the king kissed Absalom.
