2 Samuel 14

Joab son of Zeruiah could tell that the king's heart was longing for Absalom.

1Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was toward Absalom.

NoteJoab was David's nephew (Zeruiah was David's sister) and the commander of his army. The Absalom in question is David's son, who had killed his half-brother Amnon for raping their sister Tamar and had then fled the country three years earlier.

2So Joab sent to the town of Tekoa and brought back a wise woman from there. He told her, "Please pretend to be in mourning. Put on mourning clothes, and do not rub yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has been grieving for the dead a long time.

2And 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:

NoteTekoa was a town about ten miles south of Jerusalem, on the edge of the Judean wilderness. Rubbing the skin and hair with olive oil was ordinary daily grooming; going without it, together with coarse mourning clothes, was the recognized public sign that someone was in grief. Mourning normally ran a set period, so a woman still mourning after a long time signaled a household that had never recovered.

3Then go to the king and say this to him." And Joab told her exactly what to say.

3And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth.

4When the woman from Tekoa came to the king, she bowed with her face to the ground to show respect and said, "Help me, O king!"

4And 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.

NoteThe king was the final court of appeal, and ordinary people could petition him in person for a ruling. The woman's approach follows that standard procedure, which is why David hears her out as a legal case.

5The king said to her, "What is wrong?" She answered, "I am a widow. My husband is dead.

5And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead.

6I had two sons. The two of them got into a fight out in the field, and there was no one there to pull them apart. One struck the other and killed him.

6And 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.

7Now the whole family has turned against me. They say, 'Hand over the one who struck his brother, so we can put him to death for the life of the brother he killed. We will get rid of the heir too.' They would put out the one live coal I have left, and leave my husband no name and no descendant anywhere on earth."

7And, 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.

NoteUnder the custom of blood vengeance, the dead man's relatives had both the right and the duty to put his killer to death. Here the family is also demanding the surviving son's death as "the heir," which would let his share of the land pass to them. A "coal" is the ember banked overnight so the fire could be relit in the morning, a common image for the one surviving member who can keep a family alive. Without a male heir the husband's name and his family's land would both be lost.

8The king said to the woman, "Go home. I will give orders about your case."

8And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee.

9But the woman from Tekoa said to the king, "My lord the king, let the blame fall on me and on my father's family. Let the king and his throne be free of guilt."

9And 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.

NoteShielding a killer could leave unavenged blood, bloodguilt, resting on whoever protected him. The woman is offering to carry that guilt herself so that it does not fall on the king or on his royal line.

10The king said, "If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he will never bother you again."

10And the king said, Whosoever saith ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more.

11Then she said, "Please, let the king swear by the LORD your God, so that the avenger of blood will not destroy anyone else, and my son will not be killed." He said, "As surely as the LORD lives, not one hair of your son's head will fall to the ground."

11Then 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.

NoteThe "avenger of blood" was a formal office, not a mob: the nearest male relative of a murdered person, legally responsible for executing the killer. Israelite law distinguished deliberate murder from an unplanned killing and provided cities of refuge for the second case, but the family in her story is pressing for death regardless. "As surely as the LORD lives" was the strongest binding oath a person could swear.

12Then the woman said, "Please let me say one more word to my lord the king." He said, "Speak."

12Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on.

13The woman said, "Then why have you planned such a thing against God's people? In saying this, the king shows he is in the wrong himself, because he has not brought back his own banished one.

13And 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.

NoteThis is the trap springing. Having got a royal ruling in her invented case, the woman now points out that the king has judged himself: he has protected her son from the avengers while leaving his own son in exile.

14We all have to die. We are like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be scooped up again. Yet God does not take a life; instead he works out ways so that the one driven away is not shut out from him.

14For 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.

NoteThe middle clause is obscure in the Hebrew and translators divide over it. The King James takes it as "God shows no partiality"; others take it as "God does not take away a life." Both readings are defensible from the text as it stands.

15I have come to speak about this to my lord the king because the people frightened me. I said to myself, 'I will speak to the king. Maybe the king will do what I ask.'

15Now 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.

16I thought, 'The king will listen and save me from the man who wants to cut off both me and my son from the land God gave us.'

16For 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.

NoteEach Israelite family held an allotted portion of land, understood as given by God and meant to stay in the family permanently. To be cut off from it was to lose not just property but a place among the people.

17And I said, 'May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is like the angel of God in telling right from wrong. May the LORD your God be with you.'"

17Then 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.

NoteAn "angel of God" is literally a messenger of God, a figure who carries out God's decisions. Comparing a king to one was standard court flattery for exceptional judgment, not a claim about his nature.

18Then the king said to the woman, "I am going to ask you something. Do not hide anything from me." The woman said, "Let my lord the king speak."

18Then 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.

19The king said, "Is Joab behind all of this?" The woman answered, "As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or the left away from anything my lord the king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who told me to do this. He gave me every word I have spoken.

19And 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:

Note"As surely as you live" swears by the king's own life, the strongest oath available short of swearing by God. "Turn to the right or the left" is an idiom for dodging or evading what has been said.

20Your servant Joab did it this way to change how things stand. But my lord is wise, as wise as the angel of God, and knows everything that happens in the land."

20To 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.

21Then the king said to Joab, "All right, I am granting this. Go and bring back the young man Absalom."

21And the king said unto Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again.

22Joab bowed with his face to the ground to show respect, and he blessed the king. Joab said, "Today your servant knows that you are pleased with me, my lord the king, because the king has done what his servant asked."

22And 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.

23So Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem.

23So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

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.

24And 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.

NoteAccess to the king's presence was the mark of standing at court. Absalom is back in the capital but formally shut out, legally home, socially still in exile.

25In all Israel there was no man as handsome and admired as Absalom. From the soles of his feet to the top of his head there was not a single flaw in him.

25But 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.

26He cut his hair once a year, at the end of the year, because it grew so heavy. When he cut it, he would weigh it, and it came to two hundred shekels by the royal standard.

26And 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.

NoteThick hair was admired as a sign of vigor and standing, and weighing the cuttings was a boast about it. Two hundred shekels "by the royal standard", an official palace weight, comes to roughly five pounds, a little over two kilograms, though the exact value of that standard is not known.

27Absalom had three sons and one daughter, named Tamar. She was a beautiful woman.

27And unto Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a woman of a fair countenance.

NoteAbsalom names his daughter after his sister Tamar, whose rape by Amnon set off the whole quarrel. The three sons are not named here, and a later verse (2 Samuel 18:18) has Absalom saying he has no son to carry his name, which suggests they died young.

28Absalom lived in Jerusalem two full years without seeing the king's face.

28So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king’s face.

29So Absalom sent for Joab, meaning to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. Absalom sent a second time, and still Joab would not come.

29Therefore 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.

30So Absalom said to his servants, "Look, Joab's field is next to mine, and he has barley growing there. Go and set it on fire." And Absalom's servants set the field on fire.

30Therefore 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.

NoteBarley ripened around April and May. Burning a neighbor's standing grain destroyed a year's income and was a serious offense, an act calculated to force Joab to respond in person, which is exactly what happens.

31Then Joab got up, went to Absalom's house, and said to him, "Why did your servants set my field on fire?"

31Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom unto his house, and said unto him, Wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire?

32Absalom answered Joab, "Look, I sent for you and said, 'Come here, so I can send you to the king to ask why I was brought back from Geshur. It would have been better for me to stay there.' Now let me see the king's face. If I am guilty of anything, let him put me to death."

32And 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.

33So Joab went to the king and told him. The king called for Absalom, and Absalom came to him and bowed with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom.

33So 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.

NoteA kiss given by a superior was a formal, public gesture of acceptance. It marks Absalom's official restoration to the court, not merely a private show of affection.