The Reign of David

Then the king stood up, tore his clothes, and lay down on the ground; and all his servants stood by with their clothes torn.

But Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, spoke up: “My lord must not think they have killed all the sons of the king, for only Amnon is dead. In fact, Absalom has planned this since the day Amnon violated his sister Tamar.

So now, my lord the king, do not take to heart the report that all the sons of the king are dead. Only Amnon is dead.”

Meanwhile, Absalom had fled. When the young man standing watch looked up, he saw many people coming down the road west of him, along the side of the hill. And the watchman went and reported to the king, “I see men coming from the direction of Horonaim, along the side of the hill.”

So Jonadab said to the king, “Look, the sons of the king have arrived! It is just as your servant said.”

And as he finished speaking, the sons of the king came in, wailing loudly. Then the king and all his servants also wept very bitterly.

Now Absalom fled and went to Talmai son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur. But David mourned for his son every day.

After Absalom had fled and gone to Geshur, he stayed there three years.

And King David longed to go to Absalom, for he had been consoled over Amnon’s death.

Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart longed for Absalom.

So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.

Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab put the words in her mouth.

When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell facedown in homage and said, “Help me, O king!”

“What troubles you?” the king asked her. “Indeed,” she said, “I am a widow, for my husband is dead.

And your maidservant had two sons who were fighting in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.

Now the whole clan has risen up against your maidservant and said, ‘Hand over the one who struck down his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of the brother whom he killed. Then we will cut off the heir as well!’ So they would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on the earth.”

“Go home,” the king said to the woman, “and I will give orders on your behalf.”

But the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord the king, may any blame be on me and on my father’s house, and may the king and his throne be guiltless.”

“If anyone speaks to you,” said the king, “bring him to me, and he will not trouble you again!”

“Please,” she replied, “may the king invoke the LORD your God to prevent the avenger of blood from increasing the devastation, so that my son may not be destroyed!” “As surely as the LORD lives,” he vowed, “not a hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.”

Then the woman said, “Please, may your servant speak a word to my lord the king?” “Speak,” he replied.

The woman asked, “Why have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself, since he has not brought back his own banished son?

For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.

Now therefore, I have come to present this matter to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king. Perhaps he will grant the request of his maidservant.

For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would cut off both me and my son from God’s inheritance.’