2 Samuel 14:1-7
English Standard Version
Chapter 14
1Now Joab the son of Zeruiah knew that the king 's heart went out to Absalom. 2And Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman and said to her, "Pretend to be a mourner and put on mourning garments. Do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead. 3Go to the king and speak thus to him." So Joab put the words in her mouth.
4When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and paid homage and said, "Save me, O king."
5And the king said to her, "What is your trouble?" She answered, "Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead.
6And your servant had two sons, and they quarreled with one another in the field. There was no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.
7And now the whole clan has risen against your servant, and they say, ‘Give up the man who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed.’ And so they would destroy the heir also. Thus they would quench my coal that is left and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth."
