Dawn at Tekoa: a few stone houses and sheepfolds on the last ridge of the Judean hills, the bare wilderness falling away east in tawny folds toward a faint line of the Dead Sea and the mountains of Moab, under a calm, pale gold sky.

The Book of

2 Samuel 14

David longs for his banished son but will not act. Joab sends for a woman with a story.

33 verses≈ 8 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–4King in HebronThe house of Saul falls
5–6JerusalemThe ark comes home
7–10A house foreverGod's promise to David
11–12David's sinBathsheba and Nathan
13–20The swordAmnon, Absalom and ShebaChapter 14
21–24Last wordsSongs, heroes and an altar

Absalom’s Return to Jerusalem

Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart longed for Absalom.

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Joab

Joab

So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time. Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab put the words in her mouth.

In a plain hall of stone and cedar beams, the woman of Tekoa in dark mourning clothes lies facedown on the floor before David, seated on a plain wooden chair and leaning forward to listen, two courtiers standing by.

When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell facedown in homage and said, “Help me, O king!”

“What troubles you?” the king asked her. “Indeed,” she said, “I am a widow, for my husband is dead.

And your maidservant had two sons who were fighting in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him. Now the whole clan has risen up against your maidservant and said, ‘Hand over the one who struck down his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of the brother whom he killed. Then we will cut off the heir as well!’ So they would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on the earth.”

0:41

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

David

“Go home,” the king said to the woman, “and I will give orders on your behalf.”

The woman of Tekoa

But the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord the king, may any blame be on me and on my father’s house, and may the king and his throne be guiltless.”

David

“If anyone speaks to you,” said the king, “bring him to me, and he will not trouble you again!”

The woman of Tekoa

“Please,” she replied, “may the king invoke the LORD your God to prevent the avenger of blood from increasing the devastation, so that my son may not be destroyed!”

David

“As surely as the LORD lives,” he vowed, “not a hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.”

not a hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.

2 Samuel 14:11

The woman of Tekoa

Then the woman said, “Please, may your servant speak a word to my lord the king?”

David

“Speak,” he replied.

The woman of Tekoa

The woman asked, “Why have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself, since he has not brought back his own banished son?

2 Samuel 14:14

Now therefore, I have come to present this matter to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king. Perhaps he will grant the request of his maidservant. For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would cut off both me and my son from God’s inheritance.’

And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is able to discern good and evil, just like the angel of God. May the LORD your God be with you.’”

Question

Quick question

Joab did not go to the king himself. He sent for someone with a story.

From which town did Joab bring the wise woman?

David

Then the king said to the woman, “I am going to ask you something; do not conceal it from me!”

The woman of Tekoa

“Let my lord the king speak,” she replied.

David

So the king asked, “Is the hand of Joab behind all this?”

The woman of Tekoa

The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king says. Yes, your servant Joab is the one who gave me orders; he told your maidservant exactly what to say.

Joab your servant has done this to bring about this change of affairs, but my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that happens in the land.”

David

Then the king said to Joab, “I hereby grant this request. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.”

Joab fell facedown in homage and blessed the king.

Joab

“Today,” said Joab, “your servant knows that he has found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, because the king has granted his request.”

So Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. But the king added, “He may return to his house, but he must not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, but he did not see the face of the king.

Pray

The banished brought home

Thank God that He “devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him,” and that He has done it in Christ, who dealt with our sin instead of ignoring it. Pray for anyone you know who feels far from home and far from God, and ask for grace to seek real reconciliation, not just appearances.

Absalom Reconciled to David

Now Absalom lived in Jerusalem two years without seeing the face of the king. Then he sent for Joab to send him to the king, but Joab refused to come to him. So Absalom sent a second time, but Joab still would not come.

Midday on a terraced slope below Jerusalem's plain wall: a field of ripe golden barley burns with flames running through the stalks and gray smoke rolling up, while the next terrace stands untouched and Absalom's servants walk away with torches.

Then Absalom said to his servants, “Look, Joab’s field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire!” And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.

Joab

Then Joab came to Absalom’s house and demanded, “Why did your servants set my field on fire?”

Absalom

“Look,” said Absalom, “I sent for you and said, ‘Come here. I want to send you to the king to ask: Why have I come back from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there.’ So now, let me see the king’s face, and if there is iniquity in me, let him kill me.”

So Joab went and told the king, and David summoned Absalom, who came to him and bowed facedown before him. Then the king kissed Absalom.

Reflect

A kiss without a word

David brought Absalom home, and at last “the king kissed Absalom.” But neither of them spoke of what had happened. Is there a relationship in your life that looks mended but isn’t? Write down what honest word real reconciliation might need, and who should say it first.

You’ve experienced

2 Samuel 14

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A verse to carry with you

For we will surely die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life, but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.

2 Samuel 14:14

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