Now Joab Ibn Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart longed for Absalom. 2Joab sent to Tekoa, and brought from there a wise woman, and said to her, Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing; and do not 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 in 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 prostrated herself, and said, Help, O king. 5The king said to her, What ails you? She answered, Indeed I am a widow, and my husband is dead. 6Your servant had two sons, and they two fought together in the field, and there was no one to separate them, so the one struck the other, and killed him. 7Now the whole family has risen up against your servant, and they say, Hand over him who struck his brother down, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the heir also. Thus they will quench my coal which is left, and leave to my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth. 8The king said to the woman, Go to your house, and I will give an order concerning you. 9The woman of Tekoa said to the king, My lord, O king, the blame be on me, and on my father’s house; and the king and his throne be guiltless. 10The king said, Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you any more. 11Then she said, Please let the king remember Allah your God, that the avenger of blood destroy no more, lest they destroy my son. He said, As Allah lives, there shall not one hair of your son fall to the earth. 12Then the woman said, Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king. He said, Speak. 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. 14For we must die, and are as water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises ways, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him. 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: and 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. 17Then your servant said, May the word of my lord the king give me rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil: and Allah your God be with you. 18Then the king answered the woman, Hide nothing from me that I shall ask you. The woman said, Let my lord the king speak. 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, he asked me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your servant; 20to change the state of affairs has your servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth. 21The king said to Joab, Behold now, I have granted this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom back. 22Joab fell to the ground on his face, and prostrated himself, and blessed the king: and Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favour in your sight, my lord king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant. 23So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. 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 did not see the king’s face. 25Now in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his good looks: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. 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, according to the king’s standard. 27To Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a beautiful woman. 28Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem; and he did not see the king’s face. 29Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king; but he would not come to him: and he sent again a second time, but he would not come. 30Therefore he said to his servants, Behold, Joab’s field is near mine, and he has barley there; go and set it on fire. Absalom’s servants set the field on fire. 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 is better for me to be there still. Now therefore let me see the king’s face; and if there be iniquity in me, let him kill me. 33So Joab came to the king, and told him; and when the king had called for Absalom, he came and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Absalom.