Absalom’s Return to Jerusalem
Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart longed for Absalom. 2Sa 13:392Sa 2:181Ch 2:162Sa 18:332Sa 19:22Sa 19:4Pro 29:26 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. 2Ch 11:6Amo 1:1Rut 3:32Ch 20:202Sa 12:20Jer 6:1Neh 3:52Sa 11:26 Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab put the words in her mouth. 2Sa 14:19Exo 4:15Deu 18:18Isa 51:16Isa 59:21Jer 1:9Num 23:5
When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell facedown in homage and said, “Help me, O king!” 1Sa 25:232Ki 6:26-282Sa 1:21Sa 20:41Job 29:12-14Luk 18:3-5
“What troubles you?” the king asked her. 2Sa 12:1-3Jdg 9:8-15
“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. Deu 22:26-27Exo 2:13Gen 4:8 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.” Num 35:19Mat 21:382Sa 12:17Deu 19:12-13Deu 25:6Gen 27:45Gen 4:14
“Go home,” the king said to the woman, “and I will give orders on your behalf.” Pro 18:132Sa 12:5-62Sa 16:4Isa 11:3-4Job 29:16
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.” 1Sa 25:241Ki 2:33Mat 27:252Sa 3:28-29Deu 21:1-9Gen 27:13Num 35:33
“If anyone speaks to you,” said the king, “bring him to me, and he will not trouble you again!”
“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!” 1Sa 14:45Mat 10:30Num 35:191Ki 1:52Act 27:34Deu 19:4-10Num 35:211Sa 20:42
“As surely as the LORD lives,” he vowed, “not a hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.”
Then the woman said, “Please, may your servant speak a word to my lord the king?” 1Sa 25:24Act 26:1Gen 18:27Gen 18:32Gen 44:18Jer 12:1
“Speak,” he replied.
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? 2Sa 13:37-382Sa 12:71Ki 20:40-42Jdg 20:22Sa 7:8Luk 7:42-44 For surely we will 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. Job 30:23Heb 9:27Num 35:28Job 34:15Num 35:15Num 35:25Ecc 9:5Job 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.’ 1Sa 26:19
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 1of God. May the LORD your God be with you.’” 1Sa 29:92Sa 19:272Sa 14:201Ki 3:9Heb 5:141Co 2:14-15Job 6:30Pro 27:21
Then the king said to the woman, “I am going to ask you something; do not conceal it from me!” 1Sa 3:17-18Jer 38:14Jer 38:25
“Let my lord the king speak,” she replied.
So the king asked, “Is the hand of Joab behind all this?” 2Sa 14:31Sa 1:261Ki 2:5-61Sa 17:551Sa 20:31Sa 25:262Ki 2:22Sa 11:11
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.” 2Sa 14:172Sa 19:271Co 8:1-22Sa 5:23Gen 3:5Job 32:21-22Job 38:16-41Pro 26:28
Then the king said to Joab, “I hereby grant this request. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.” 2Sa 14:111Sa 14:39Mrk 6:26
Joab fell facedown in homage and blessed the king. “Today,” said Joab, “your servant knows that he has found favor with you, my lord the king, because the king has granted his request.” 1Sa 20:32Sa 19:39Exo 33:16-17Gen 6:8Job 29:11Job 31:20Neh 11:2Pro 31:28
So Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. 2Sa 13:37-382Sa 3:3 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 king. Rev 22:42Sa 14:282Sa 3:13Exo 10:28Gen 43:3
Now there was not a man in all Israel as handsome and highly praised as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head, he did not have a single flaw. Isa 1:6Deu 28:35Job 2:71Sa 16:71Sa 9:2Mat 23:27Pro 31:30Eph 5:27 And when he cut the hair of his head—he shaved it every year because his hair got so heavy—he would weigh it out to be two hundred shekels, 2 according to the royal standard. Ezk 44:201Co 11:142Sa 18:9Ezk 45:9-14Gen 23:16Isa 3:24Lev 19:36
Three sons were born to Absalom, and a daughter named Tamar, who was a beautiful woman. 2Sa 18:182Sa 13:1Isa 14:22Jer 22:30Job 18:16-19
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. 2Sa 14:30-31Est 1:12Mat 22:3
So Absalom sent a second time, but Joab still would not come.
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!” Jdg 15:4-51Ki 21:9-142Ki 10:6-72Ki 9:332Sa 13:28-29
And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire. 3
Then Joab came to Absalom’s house and demanded, “Why did your servants set my field on fire?”
“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.” 1Sa 20:8Exo 14:12Pro 28:131Sa 15:13Exo 16:3Exo 17:3Gen 3:12Jer 2:22-23
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. Luk 15:20Gen 33:4Gen 27:26Gen 45:15