2 Samuel 14:12 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Then the woman said, "Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king." He said, "Speak."

NIV: Then the woman said, "Let your servant speak a word to my lord the king." "Speak," he replied.

NASB: Then the woman said, 'Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.' And he said, 'Speak.'

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

NLT: Please allow me to ask one more thing of my lord the king,' she said. 'Go ahead and speak,' he responded.

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

NKJV: Therefore the woman said, “Please, let your maidservant speak another word to my lord the king.” And he said, “Say on.”

The widowed woman from Tekoa has received exactly what she came to request from King David. He has agreed to use his authority to pardon her son for the crime of murdering his brother and to order her clan not to execute him (2 Samuel 14:14–11). The matter should be resolved.

The woman, though, is not a widow whose son is guilty of murdering his brother. She is Joab's secret agent. Joab knows that David's son Absalom has been in exile for three years for murdering his brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13). He knows David has strong feelings about Absalom, although it's not clear what those feelings are (2 Samuel 14:1). Joab believes that leaving Absalom in exile is not in the nation's best interests.

The message is twofold. First, if David forgives a stranger for murder but doesn't forgive his own son, he stands condemned (2 Samuel 14:13). Second, he is free to forgive because God is gracious and offers restoration for outcasts (2 Samuel 14:14). Execution for murder is God's first civil law (Genesis 9:6). And yet, when Adam and Eve sinned, before He pronounced the curses they and their descendants would endure, He promised grace: one who would crush Satan's head (Genesis 3:15) and bring forgiveness and salvation.

When David murdered Uriah, God showed grace and let David live (2 Samuel 12:13). There's precedent for David to let Absalom live, too.

Scholars conjecture that upon the death of David's firstborn, Amnon, Absalom was the heir apparent. Some believe David's second-born, Abigail's son Chileab (2 Samuel 3:2), called Daniel in the genealogies (1 Chronicles 3:1), has died. It's also possible that Abigail's first husband Nabal had no heirs, and David's marriage to her was a form of levirate marriage to produce a son to inherit Nabal's estate (2 Samuel 25). That would explain Chileab's absence from the stories as well as Absalom's importance to Joab and the people.

Second Samuel 14:12–20 records David's realization that he's being manipulated. Joab sent a woman to ask David to pardon her son for murdering his brother; David agrees (2 Samuel 14:1–11). She pivots and tells David to forgive his own son, Absalom, for killing his brother Amnon. David recognizes Joab's hand in the situation but agrees to bring Absalom home from exile. Absalom takes the opportunity to win the people's loyalty and conspire to take the throne (2 Samuel 15).

Second Samuel 14 sets the scene for Absalom's rebellion against David. Joab wants David to forgive Absalom for murdering his brother and end his exile. Joab has a woman pretend to be a widow, who tells a story about a murderous son to convince David to pardon his own son. David brings Absalom home to Jerusalem, but not to the court or family. Joab eventually convinces David to see Absalom and the two are officially reconciled. With freedom, status, and ambition, Absalom starts a campaign to draw the people's hearts away from David and toward himself (2 Samuel 15:1–6).

Second Samuel 14 continues God's promise that tragedy will plague David's family. This is a curse for David's sin against Uriah and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:9–11). David's son Amnon raped his own half-sister Tamar. Tamar's full brother Absalom avenged her by killing Amnon, then fled to his maternal grandfather (2 Samuel 13). David thinks about Absalom, and Joab convinces David to bring him home and reconcile with him. Absalom wins the hearts of the people and takes the throne while David flees. Eventually, Absalom will be dead, and David will be a chastened man and wiser king. (2 Samuel 15–20).