Joab Attempts To Reconcile David And Absalom

After killing his brother, Absalom lived in exile in Gesur for three years.  During that time, David grieved the loss of both Amnon and Absalom, but he had accepted Amnon’s death.  He still longed to be with Absalom, almost to the point of going to Geshur to see him.  David’s cousin Joab was aware of David’s longing for his son.   He hired a woman to tell a story similar to Absalom’s in and effort to convince David to work things out with Absalom, in II Samuel 14:1-11.  “Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom.  And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead: And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth.

And when the woman of Tekoah spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king.

And the king said unto her, What aileth thee?

And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead.  And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him.  And, behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth.

And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee.

And the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father's house: and the king and his throne be guiltless.

And the king said, Whosoever saith ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more.

Then said she, I pray thee, let the king remember the LORD thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son.

And he said, As the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.”

Under the law a person who committed murder was to be executed without hesitation.  The woman’s story was that one of her sons had killed the other and now she was worried that if they executed him there would be no one to carry on the family name or genes.  She offered to accept responsibility before God for David’s allowing her son to get off.  David agreed to protect her son against the requirements of the law. 

This was exactly the issue that had held David back from going to Absalom.  When he agreed to save her son, the woman asked why he had not done the same for his own son, in II Samuel 14:12- 17.  “Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king.

And he said, Say on.

And the woman said, Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? for the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished.  For we must needs die, and are as water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid.  For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.  Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: therefore the LORD thy God will be with thee.”

She implied that David’s failure to forgive Absalom would make people afraid to come to him for help about other things.  The people would be more comfortable with him knowing he was willing to forgive.  Knowing Joab, after hearing her story and what she said,  David suspected Joab was behind it, in II Samuel 14:18-20.  “Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee.

And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.

And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this?

And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid: To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.”

The woman admitted that Joab had put her up to it, and recognized David was wise to recognize that fact.