14 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah knew that the king’s heart went out to Absalom. 2 14:2And 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. 3 14:3Go to the king and speak thus to him.” So Joab put the words in her mouth.
4 14:4When 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.” 5 14:5And the king said to her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. 6 14:6And 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. 7 14:7And 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.”
8 14:8Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.” 9 14:9And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “On me be the guilt, my lord the king, and on my father’s house; let the king and his throne be guiltless.” 10 14:10The king said, “If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again.” 11 14:11Then she said, “Please let the king invoke the Lord your God, that the avenger of blood kill no more, and my son be not destroyed.” He said, “As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.”
12 14:12Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” He said, “Speak.” 13 14:13And the woman said, “Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in giving this decision the king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished one home again. 14 14:14We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God will not take away life, and he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast. 15 14:15Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid, and your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant. 16 14:16For the king will hear and deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the heritage of God.’ 17 14:17And your servant thought, ‘The word of my lord the king will set me at rest,’ for my lord the king is like the angel of God to discern good and evil. The Lord your God be with you!”
18 14:18Then the king answered the woman, “Do not hide from me anything I ask you.” And the woman said, “Let my lord the king speak.” 19 14:19The king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?” The woman answered and said, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, one cannot turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has said. It was your servant Joab who commanded me; it was he who put all these words in the mouth of your servant. 20 14:20In order to change the course of things your servant Joab did this. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all things that are on the earth.”
21 14:21Then the king said to Joab, “Behold now, I grant this; go, bring back the young man Absalom.” 22 14:22And Joab fell on his face to the ground and paid homage and blessed the king. And Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord the king, in that the king has granted the request of his servant.” 23 14:23So Joab arose and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. 24 14:24And the king said, “Let him dwell apart in his own house; he is not to come into my presence.” So Absalom lived apart in his own house and did not come into the king’s presence.
25 14:25Now in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. 26 14:26And when he cut the hair of his head (for at the end of every year he used to cut it; when it was heavy on him, he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head, two hundred shekels by the king’s weight. 27 14:27There were born to Absalom three sons, and one daughter whose name was Tamar. She was a beautiful woman.
28 14:28So Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem, without coming into the king’s presence. 29 14:29Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. And he sent a second time, but Joab would not come. 30 14:30Then he said to his servants, “See, Joab’s field is next to mine, and he has barley there; go and set it on fire.” So Absalom’s servants set the field on fire. 31 14:31Then Joab arose and went to Absalom at his house and said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?” 32 14:32Absalom answered Joab, “Behold, I sent word to you, ‘Come here, that I may send you to the king, to ask, “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still.” Now therefore let me go into the presence of the king, and if there is guilt in me, let him put me to death.’” 33 14:33Then Joab went to the king and told him, and he summoned Absalom. So he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom.
Absalom’s exile is an ongoing problem for David because, although Absalom is heir to the throne, David cannot bring himself to do anything to resolve the situation. Joab realizes better than David himself that this impasse must be resolved. He employs a wise woman from Tekoa to approach the king and indirectly make him aware that it is desirable for him to change his policy (2 Sam. 14:1–3).
At Joab’s instigation the woman presents a tale in which she is a widow, one of whose two sons has accidentally murdered the other and whose own life is now under threat because of his action (vv. 4–7). In this way she gains first royal protection for herself (vv. 8–10) and then for her remaining son (v. 11). With all due respect, the woman carefully moves from her case to David’s own somewhat similar situation. He should preserve the life of “his banished one” and recall him from exile (vv. 12–17).
David had once before been caught pronouncing judgment on a contrived tale only to find his verdict impacting his personal affairs (12:1–7), and he perceives that this story too has been brought before him with that end in view. He recognizes the hand of Joab at work, and the woman admits as much (14:18–20). So David summons Joab and grants him permission to bring Absalom back from Geshur (vv. 21–23), but the reconciliation is incomplete because, when Absalom reaches Jerusalem, David refuses to see him (v. 24).
The narrator inserts information about Absalom’s handsomeness and the size of his family (vv. 25–27) to mark the passage of two years in which Absalom remains unwelcome at court (v. 28). When Absalom tires of this state of affairs, he orders Joab’s crops to be burned to coerce him into petitioning the king on his behalf (vv. 29–32), and a reconciliation of sorts takes place (v. 33).
14:2 Joab obtains the services of “a wise woman,” one capable of employing her talents to achieve a desired purpose (cf. Jonadab; 13:3). Tekoa was a town 10 miles (16 km) south of Jerusalem, sufficiently far for the woman not to be recognized and have her cover blown. So that there is no discrepancy between her appearance and her cover story, she is to dress and behave like a widow who has been mourning for some time.
14:3 Contrary to what Absalom will later insinuate (15:4), David could be approached by ordinary citizens dissatisfied with the conduct of local courts or officials. By instructing the woman to approach David with a plausible tale, Joab adopts Nathan’s technique in chapter 12 but does so for political motives and does not speak directly to David’s conscience. Although the woman is provided with the basic details, she has freedom to improvise, especially when questioned about her situation.
14:4 Since, unlike Nathan the prophet, the woman has no status in court, she is careful to approach the king with due respect (cf. 9:6). “Save me, O king” is the first of eight speeches she addresses to David. (He responds seven times.) She requests the king, as the highest authority in the land, to remedy her situation.
14:5 By means of the formal question “What is your trouble?” (lit., “What to you?”), the king grants the woman permission to present her petition. She emphasizes that she is a widow in order to evoke sympathy as well as to explain why she appears on her own behalf.
14:6 Throughout the audience the woman courteously refers to herself as “your servant” (or “handmaid”) and nine times addresses David as “my lord.” Her story echoes that of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4: she had two sons, who “quarreled with one another in the field.” Because of the isolated location there was no one to intervene, and one of them killed the other. Lack of witnesses also meant that a charge of murder or manslaughter could not be proved.
14:7 However, the wider family demands vengeance (Num. 35:19–21). “Give up” implies that the woman is hiding her son. “Destroy” (also in 2 Sam. 14:11, 16) suggests a deliberate policy of exterminating the heir, in which case other members of the clan would inherit the property of the annihilated line. “They would quench my coal that is left” refers to the practice of igniting a fire using smoldering embers from the previous night. The woman obviously hopes that her remaining son will have offspring and continue the family name. There is thus a clash—not unlike David’s—between two responsibilities: bringing to account one who has taken the life of another and perpetuating the family line.
14:8 David as “the king” judicially assures the widow that she can return home without anxiety because he personally (“I will give orders”) will deal with her situation, but he does not spell out what he has resolved to do. In a case of manslaughter, he could have issued a judicial pardon.
14:9 The woman urges the king to be more specific. “On me be the guilt . . . and on my father’s house” (cf. 1 Sam. 25:24) assumes he is hesitating lest his administration incur bloodguilt by not punishing the killer.
14:10 David responds by promising that anyone who threatens her or her interests will be held to account. “Touch” probably implied interference with her legal position as declared by the king (cf. Gen. 26:11, 29; Josh. 9:19; Ruth 2:9).
14:11 Although David has dealt with the widow’s situation, he has made no specific provision regarding her son. So the woman explicitly asks for a binding decree. “Invoke” calls for a solemn oath before God that the “avenger of blood,” the close relative whose duty it is to bring a murderer to account (Num. 35:19–28; Josh. 20:3–5), will be inhibited from taking the life of her remaining son.
David complies with her request and guarantees his verdict under oath, “As the Lord lives” (cf. 1 Sam. 14:39). For “not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground,” cf. 1 Samuel 14:45.
14:12 Although the woman has apparently been granted all she has sought, she humbly indicates her wish to bring a further matter before the king and is given permission to do so.
14:13 In a manner analogous to Nathan’s “You are the man!” (12:7), the woman applies her story to David’s conduct relative to Absalom. He has deliberately (“planned”) refused to permit him to return and so has imposed loss on the “people of God” by depriving them of their next king. Moreover, David is acting inconsistently (“convicts himself”) between her affairs and those of the nation. He should “bring his banished one home again.” The parallels are not quite exact: technically, Absalom is in voluntary exile, and David has more than two sons. Even so, the woman’s argument is not without pragmatic force. Amnon is dead, and Absalom’s life should be protected not because he is free of guilt but in the interests of the nation.
14:14 The woman next cites a proverb: “We must all die” (lit., “To die we die”), an emphatic statement of the inevitability of human death. She supplements it with a comparison: “We are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.” Her point is probably that Amnon is dead, and nothing can be done to reverse that fact. David should not try to turn the clock back but should move forward realistically in terms of the current situation.
Although divine justice requires that sin be penalized, God still preserves life and provides for a banished person to return home (Num. 35:28). If God’s justice is tempered with mercy, then David should act similarly.
14:15 While David mulls over what the woman has said, she elaborates her argument. It is difficult to be certain if “say this” refers to verses 13–14 or to her earlier petition. Possibly the woman speaks ambiguously through fear she has ventured too far. While “the people have made me afraid” might refer to her clan, more probably it refers to public opinion about David’s situation. David could take it either way, but the woman holds out the hope that the king would “perform the request” (lit., “do the word”) she has set before him.
14:16 Certainly here the woman returns to her cover story. She had approached the king to free her family from the imposition of blood vengeance. Her praise of David’s willingness to act in her case obliquely urges him to act similarly in the case of Absalom. “Heritage of God” describes her family’s ancestral allotment, but an allusion to the Israelites themselves (1 Sam. 10:1) keeps Absalom’s situation in view.
14:17 The woman ends by flattering the king. She is sure his verdict will grant her mental and emotional tranquility. “Like the angel of God to discern [lit., “hear”] good and evil” (cf. 1 Sam. 29:9) attributes to David the ability to determine with heavenly insight the rights and wrongs of the case set before him. “The Lord your God be with you!” does not imply that she is not an Israelite. Rather she reminds David of the one to whom he is answerable for his action and oath (2 Sam. 14:11).
14:18–19 Meanwhile, David has perceived that the woman’s arguments are too politically informed and astute for her to be an ordinary petitioner. He has been manipulated before and suspects that this encounter has been arranged. If Joab knows the king (cf. comment on 14:1), David knows Joab equally well and detects his presence behind this shrewd scenario. He therefore challenges the woman: “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?” David’s perceptivity makes the woman realize that her flattery has not been totally without foundation. With a solemn oath she acknowledges that no one could hide anything from the king and that it was Joab who devised her story.
14:20 The woman explains that Joab adopted this stratagem to “change [lit., “turn around”] the course of things.” He is not threatening David but attempting to induce him to view Absalom’s situation from a different perspective. The woman again deploys a compliment, if not to change decisions then at least to provide a favorable atmosphere. For “like the wisdom of the angel of God,” cf. comment on 14:17. “All things that are on the earth,” or perhaps “the land”—it depends on the scale of her flattery—attributes to David an awareness of all that occurs throughout his kingdom.
14:21 David summons Joab, who was probably not very far off. Without revealing what he thinks of his tactics or how he himself now views Absalom, David gives Joab permission to bring Absalom back. David’s phrase “the young man Absalom” recurs four times in chapter 18 (vv. 5, 12, 29, 32). While it may be an affectionate form of address, it also reveals David’s failure to see his son for the adult he has become.
14:22 Joab’s obeisance to the king is not an initial greeting but a reaction to the royal verdict. To “bless” the king indicates prayer for divine blessing on him. He was far from certain that he would succeed and is greatly relieved that his plan has not backfired. “Today” may hint that Joab has tried unsuccessfully to raise the matter in the past.
14:23–24 When Joab escorts Absalom back to Jerusalem, arrangements are not what either had anticipated. David’s attitude has not completely changed. Absalom is required to “dwell apart” (lit., “turn around”; cf. comment on 14:20)—probably a form of house arrest—and forbidden to “come into my presence” (lit., “see my face”; cf. 3:13).
14:25 Background information about Absalom describes him, like his sister (13:1), as of “handsome appearance”—and he knows it. “From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him” depicts his perfect physique. Absalom looks the part of a king, but then so had Saul (1 Sam. 9:2; 10:23). Good looks are not a reliable guide to character (1 Sam. 16:7).
14:26 Absalom is proud of his luxuriant hair and makes an annual ceremony of trimming it. “Two hundred shekels” would be about 5 pounds (over 2 kg)—so great an amount that it might be regarded as hyperbole. “By the king’s weight” indicates use not merely of a royal standard of measurement but of one appropriate to such a regal figure.
14:27 In 18:18 it is recorded that Absalom has no sons, so the “three sons” mentioned here probably die young, which also accounts for their not being named. However, he also has “one daughter whose name was Tamar,” obviously named after her aunt whom she resembles as a “beautiful woman” (13:1). That she is already a “woman” indicates that she was named before Tamar was raped.
14:28–29 The narrative now resumes; “two full years” have passed after Absalom’s return (v. 24). He considers it intolerable that he remains barred from the king’s court, and twice he seeks to remedy the situation by sending for Joab to act on his behalf before the king. “But Joab would not come to him.” His attitude has changed; perhaps he has come to realize he cannot exercise influence over Absalom.
14:30–31 With a fine display of arrogance Absalom emulates Samson (Judg. 15:3–6) and resorts to commanding his servants to burn Joab’s field as the barley stands ready to be harvested. Joab loses no time in coming to complain.
14:32 Absalom points to Joab’s refusal to comply with his earlier invitations. He also expresses his frustration at not being better received after having come from Geshur. There he had at least been free to move about and had not been stigmatized by the king’s refusal to see him. He therefore wants Joab to arrange for him to be accepted formally at court. Absalom also issues the challenge, “If there is guilt in me, let him put me to death.” He does not, however, expect this to be acted on, because he considers his action against Amnon to be warranted by Amnon’s violation of Tamar.
14:33 There is no record of how Joab conveys Absalom’s demand to David or how the king receives the proposal. All that is stated is simply the outcome, that David “summoned Absalom.” Absalom’s obeisance before David is expected courtly etiquette, while “the king kissed Absalom” is a gesture of reconciliation. But with no record of any word spoken, this is apparently only formal recognition, with no warmth in it. Indeed, the threefold repetition of “the king” and not “his father” points to the tension remaining between them. Seven years have passed since Tamar was raped and five years since Amnon was murdered, but the story is not yet half told.
1 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
2 Septuagint, Dead Sea Scroll add So Joab's servants came to him with their clothes torn, and they said to him, “The servants of Absalom have set your field on fire.”
1 Cf. ibid.