1Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king`s heart was toward Absalom.
2Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, 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 a long time mourned for the dead:
3and go in to the king, and speak on this manner to him. So Joab put the words in her mouth.
4When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king.
5The king said to her, What ails you? She answered, Of a truth I am a widow, and my husband is dead.
6Your handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one struck the other, and killed him.
7Behold, the whole family is risen against your handmaid, 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 will they quench my coal which is left, and will leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth.
