2So Joab sent to Tekoah and brought a wise woman from there. He said to her, "Please pretend to be a mourner. Put on mourning clothes, and do not rub yourself with oil. Be like a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead."
3"Then go to the king and speak to him in this way." And Joab told her what words to say.
4When the woman of Tekoah spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and bowed low. She said, "Help me, O king."
5The king said to her, "What is wrong?" She answered, "I am a widow. My husband is dead."
6"Your servant had two sons. The two of them fought together in the field, and there was no one to part them. One struck the other and killed him."
7"Now look, the whole family has risen up against your servant. They say, 'Hand over the one who struck his brother, so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed. We will destroy the heir as well.' So they will put out the last coal I have left, and leave my husband no name and no one to follow him on the earth."
8The king said to the woman, "Go home, and I will give orders about your case."
9The woman of Tekoah said to the king, "My lord, O king, let the guilt be on me and on my father's house. Let the king and his throne be free of blame."
10The king said, "If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you again."
11Then she said, "Please let the king remember the LORD your God, so that those who avenge blood will not destroy any more, and my son will not be killed." He said, "As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son will fall to the ground."
12Then the woman said, "Please let your servant speak one more word to my lord the king." He said, "Speak."
13The woman said, "Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? In saying this, the king speaks as one who is guilty, for the king does not bring home again the one he sent away."
14"We must all die. We are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life; instead he plans ways so that the one who is driven away is not shut out from him."
15"Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant said, 'I will speak to the king. Perhaps the king will do what his servant asks.'"
16"For the king will listen and save his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy both me and my son from the inheritance of God."
17"Then your servant said, 'The word of my lord the king will bring me rest.' For my lord the king is like an angel of God, able to tell good from bad. May the LORD your God be with you."
18Then the king answered the woman, "Please do not hide from me the thing I am going to ask you." The woman said, "Let my lord the king speak."
19The king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?" The woman answered, "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 has said. Yes, it was your servant Joab who told me to do this, and he put all these words in the mouth of your servant."
20"Your servant Joab did this to change the way things look. But my lord is wise, with the wisdom of an angel of God, and knows everything that happens in the land."
21The king said to Joab, "Very well, I will do this thing. Go and bring back the young man Absalom."
22Joab fell to the ground on his face and bowed low and thanked the king. Joab said, "Today your servant knows that I have found grace in your sight, my lord, O king, because the king has done what his servant asked."
24But the king said, "Let him 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.
25In all Israel there was no man praised for his beauty as much as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head there was no flaw in him.
26When he cut the hair of his head (he cut it at the end of every year, because it grew heavy on him), he weighed the hair of his head. It weighed two hundred shekels by the king's weight.
27Three sons were born to Absalom, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar. She was a beautiful woman.
29Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. He sent a second time, and still Joab would not come.
30So he 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.
31Then Joab got up and came to Absalom's house and said to him, "Why have your servants set my field on fire?"