1 Now Joab, son of Zeruiah, knew how the king felt toward Absalom.
2 Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman, to whom he said: “Pretend to be in mourning. Put on mourning apparel and do not anoint yourself with oil, that you may appear to be a woman who has long been mourning someone dead.
3 Then go to the king and speak to him in this manner.” And Joab told her what to say.
4 So the woman of Tekoa went to the king and fell to the ground in homage, saying, “Help, O king!”
5 The king said to her, “What do you want?” She replied: “Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead.
6 Your servant had two sons, who quarreled in the field, with no one to part them, and one of them struck his brother and killed him.
7 Then the whole clan confronted your servant and demanded: ‘Give up the one who struck down his brother. We must put him to death for the life of his brother whom he has killed; we must do away with the heir also.’ Thus they will quench my remaining hope and leave my husband neither name nor posterity upon the earth.”