2 Samuel 14

1Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was toward Absalom.Cross-references: 2Sam 2:18 · 2Sam 13:39 · 2Sam 18:33 · 2Sam 19:2 · 2Sam 19:4 · 1Chr 2:16 · +1 more

2Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there, and said to her, “Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and don’t anoint yourself with oil; but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead.Cross-references: Ruth 3:3 · 2Sam 11:26 · 2Sam 12:20 · 2Chr 11:6 · 2Chr 20:20 · Neh 3:5 · +6 more

3Go in to the king and speak like this to him.” So Joab put the words in her mouth.Cross-references: Ex 4:15 · Num 23:5 · Deut 18:18 · 2Sam 14:19 · Isa 51:16 · Isa 59:21 · +1 more

4When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, showed respect, and said, “Help, O king!”Cross-references: 1Sam 20:41 · 1Sam 25:23 · 2Sam 1:2 · 2Ki 6:26 · Job 29:12 · Luke 18:3

5The king said to her, “What ails you?” She answered, “Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead.Cross-references: Judg 9:8 · 2Sam 12:1

6Your servant had two sons; and they both fought together in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other and killed him.Cross-references: Gen 4:8 · Ex 2:13 · Deut 22:26

7Behold, the whole family has risen against your servant, and they say, ‘Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the heir also.’ Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth.”Cross-references: Gen 4:14 · Gen 27:45 · Num 35:19 · Deut 19:12 · Deut 25:6 · 2Sam 12:17 · +1 more

8The king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give a command concerning you.”Cross-references: 2Sam 12:5 · 2Sam 16:4 · Job 29:16 · Prov 18:13 · Isa 11:3

9The woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord, O king, may the iniquity be on me, and on my father’s house; and may the king and his throne be guiltless.”Cross-references: Gen 27:13 · Num 35:33 · Deut 21:1 · 1Sam 25:24 · 2Sam 3:28 · 1Ki 2:33 · +1 more

10The king said, “Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he will not bother you any more.”

11Then she said, “Please let the king remember Yahweh your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son.” He said, “As Yahweh lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the earth.”Cross-references: Gen 14:22 · Gen 24:2 · Gen 31:50 · Num 35:19 · Num 35:21 · Num 35:27 · +9 more

12Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” He said, “Say on.”Cross-references: Gen 18:27 · Gen 18:32 · Gen 44:18 · 1Sam 25:24 · Jer 12:1 · Acts 26:1

13The woman said, “Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring home again his banished one.Cross-references: Judg 20:2 · 2Sam 7:8 · 2Sam 12:7 · 2Sam 13:37 · 1Ki 20:40 · Luke 7:42

14For we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him.Cross-references: Ex 21:13 · Lev 26:40 · Num 35:15 · Num 35:25 · Num 35:28 · Deut 10:17 · +19 more

15Now therefore, seeing that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid. Your servant said, ‘I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.’

16For the king will hear, to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.Cross-references: 1Sam 26:19

17Then your servant said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. May Yahweh, your God, be with you.’”Cross-references: 1Sam 29:9 · 2Sam 14:20 · 2Sam 19:27 · 1Ki 3:9 · 1Ki 3:28 · Job 6:30 · +4 more

18Then the king answered the woman, “Please don’t hide anything from me that I ask you.” The woman said, “Let my lord the king now speak.”Cross-references: 1Sam 3:17 · Jer 38:14 · Jer 38:25

19The king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?” The woman answered, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Joab urged me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your servant.Cross-references: Ex 4:15 · Num 20:17 · Deut 5:32 · Deut 28:14 · Josh 1:7 · 1Sam 1:26 · +13 more

20Your servant Joab has done this thing to change the face of the matter. My lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.”Cross-references: Gen 3:5 · 2Sam 5:23 · 2Sam 14:17 · 2Sam 19:27 · Job 32:21 · Job 38:16 · +3 more

21The king said to Joab, “Behold now, I have granted this thing. Go therefore, and bring the young man Absalom back.”Cross-references: 1Sam 14:39 · 2Sam 14:11 · Mark 6:26

22Joab fell to the ground on his face, showed respect, and blessed the king. Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant.”Cross-references: Gen 6:8 · Ex 33:16 · Ruth 2:2 · 1Sam 20:3 · 2Sam 19:39 · Neh 11:2 · +3 more

23So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.Cross-references: 2Sam 3:3 · 2Sam 13:37

24The king said, “Let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, and didn’t see the king’s face.Cross-references: Gen 43:3 · Ex 10:28 · 2Sam 3:13 · 2Sam 14:28 · Rev 22:4

25Now in all Israel there was no one 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 defect in him.Cross-references: Deut 28:35 · 1Sam 9:2 · 1Sam 16:7 · Job 2:7 · Prov 31:30 · Isa 1:6 · +2 more

26When he cut the hair of his head (now it was at every year’s end that he cut it; because it was heavy on him, therefore he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, after the king’s weight.Cross-references: Gen 23:16 · Lev 19:36 · 2Sam 18:9 · Isa 3:24 · Ezek 44:20 · Ezek 45:9 · +1 more

27Three sons were born to Absalom, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar. She was a woman with a beautiful face.Cross-references: 2Sam 13:1 · 2Sam 18:18 · Job 18:16 · Isa 14:22 · Jer 22:30

28Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem, and he didn’t see the king’s face.

29Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king, but he would not come to him. Then he sent again a second time, but he would not come.Cross-references: 2Sam 14:30 · Esth 1:12 · Matt 22:3

30Therefore he said to his servants, “Behold, Joab’s field is near mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire.” So Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.Cross-references: Judg 15:4 · 2Sam 13:28 · 1Ki 21:9 · 2Ki 9:33 · 2Ki 10:6

31Then Joab arose and came to Absalom to his house, and said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?”

32Absalom answered Joab, “Behold, I sent to you, saying, ‘Come here, that I may send you to the king, to say, “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still. Now therefore, let me see the king’s face; and if there is iniquity in me, let him kill me.”’”Cross-references: Gen 3:12 · Ex 14:12 · Ex 16:3 · Ex 17:3 · 1Sam 15:13 · 1Sam 20:8 · +6 more

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.Cross-references: Gen 27:26 · Gen 33:4 · Gen 45:15 · Luke 15:20