2 Samuel 14
14
2 Samuel 14
Absalom Returns to Jerusalem
1 #
2 Sam 13.39
Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s mind was on Absalom. 2#2 Sam 12.20; 1 Kings 20.35–43; 2 Chr 11.5Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman. He said to her, “Pretend to be a mourner; put on mourning garments, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead. 3#v 19Go to the king and speak to him as follows.” And Joab put the words into her mouth.
4 #
2 Sam 1.12; 2 Kings 6.26–28 When the woman of Tekoa came#14.4 Heb mss Gk Syr Vg: MT said to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance and said, “Help, O king!” 5#2 Sam 12.1–7The king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. 6Your servant had two sons, and they fought with one another in the field; there was no one to part them, and one struck the other and killed him. 7#Num 35.19; Deut 19.12; Mt 21.38Now the whole family has risen against your servant. They say, ‘Give up the man who struck his brother, so that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he murdered, even if we destroy the heir as well.’ Thus they would quench my one remaining ember and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.”
8Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.” 9#1 Sam 25.24; 1 Kings 2.33; Mt 27.25The 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.” 10The king said, “If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again.” 11#Num 35.19; 1 Sam 14.45Then she said, “Please, may the king keep the Lord your God in mind, so that the avenger of blood may kill no more and my son not be destroyed.” He said, “As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.”
12Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” He said, “Speak.” 13#2 Sam 12.7; 13.37, 38; 1 Kings 20.40–42The 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#Num 35.15, 25, 28; Job 35.15; Heb 9.27We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished forever from his presence.#14.14 Meaning of Heb uncertain 15Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid; your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant. 16For the king will hear and deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would cut both me and my son off from the heritage of God.’ 17#v 20; 2 Sam 19.27Your 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, discerning good and evil. The Lord your God be with you!”
18Then the king answered the woman, “Do not withhold from me anything I ask you.” The woman said, “Let my lord the king speak.” 19#v 3The 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 right or left from anything that my lord the king has said. For it was your servant Joab who commanded me; it was he who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. 20#v 17; 2 Sam 19.27In order to change the course of affairs 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.”
21Then the king said to Joab, “Very well, I grant this; go, bring back the young man Absalom.” 22Joab prostrated himself with his face to the ground and did obeisance 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#2 Sam 13.37, 38So Joab set off, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. 24#2 Sam 3.13The king said, “Let him go to his own house; he is not to come into my presence.” So Absalom went to his own house and did not come into the king’s presence.
David Forgives Absalom
25 #
Isa 1.6
Now in all Israel there was no one to be praised so much for his beauty as Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. 26#Ezek 44.20When 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#2 Sam 18.18There were born to Absalom three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar; she was a beautiful woman.
28 #
v 24
So Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem without coming into the king’s presence. 29Then Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. He sent a second time, but Joab would not come. 30Then he said to his servants, “Look, 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. 31Then Joab rose and went to Absalom at his house and said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?” 32#1 Sam 20.8Absalom answered Joab, “Look, I sent word to you. Come here that I may send you to the king with the question, ‘Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still.’ Now let me go into the king’s presence; if there is guilt in me, let him kill me!” 33#Gen 33.4; Lk 15.20Then Joab went to the king and told him, and he summoned Absalom. So he came to the king and prostrated himself with his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom.
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2 Samuel 14: NRSVUE
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New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
