2 Samuel chapter 14 Absalom returns to Jerusalem now Joab the son of Ziruya knew that the king's heart went out to Absalom

and Joab sent to Coa 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.

Go to the king and speak thus to him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. When the woman of

Toccoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and paid homage and said,

Save me, O king. And the king said to her, what is your trouble? She answered, alas,

I am a widow. My husband is dead, and your servant had two sons, and they corralled with one another in the field. There was no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed

him. And 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 air 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.

Then the king said to the woman, go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.

And the woman of Toccoa 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. The king said, if anyone says anything to you,

bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again. Then 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.

Then the woman said, please let your servant speak a word to my Lord the king. He said, speak.

And 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, inasm much as the king does not bring his banished one

home again. We 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

...