1-3. Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king, deep down, still cared for Absalom. So he sent to Tekoa for a wise woman who lived there and instructed her, “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in black and don’t comb your hair, so you’ll look like you’ve been grieving over a dead loved one for a long time. Then go to the king and tell him this . . .” Joab then told her exactly what to say.
10. “Bring the man who has been harassing you,” the king continued. “I’ll see to it that he doesn’t bother you anymore.”
11. “Let the king invoke the name of God,” said the woman, “so this self-styled vigilante won’t ruin everything, to say nothing of killing my son.”“As surely as God lives,” he said, “not so much as a hair of your son’s head will be lost.”
12. Then she asked, “May I say one more thing to my master, the king?”He said, “Go ahead.”
13-14. “Why, then,” the woman said, “have you done this very thing against God’s people? In his verdict, the king convicts himself by not bringing home his exiled son. We all die sometime. Water spilled on the ground can’t be gathered up again. But God does not take away life. He works out ways to get the exile back.”