13 The woman said, “But why have you plotted like this against the people of God? By speaking this word, he is guilty not to bring back his banished one.
14 For we must certainly die, and we are as the waters spilled to the ground which cannot be gathered. God will not take a life but devises plans for a banished person not to be cast out from him.
15 Now I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, because the people made me afraid, and your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king, perhaps the king will grant the request of his servant.
16 For the king will listen, to deliver his servant from the hand of the man who seeks to destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God.’
17 Your servant also thought, ‘May the word of my lord the king bring rest, for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king, to sense what is good and what is bad.’ May Yahweh your God be with you.”
18 The king answered and said to the woman, “Please do not withhold from me a thing which I am about to ask you.” The woman said, “Please let my lord the king speak.”
19 The king asked, “Was the hand of Joab with you in all of this?” The woman answered and said, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, surely one cannot go to the right or to the left from all that my lord the king has spoken. Yes, your servant Joab himself commanded me, and he put all of these words in the mouth of your servant.