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2 Samuel 14

Absalom’s return exposes the strain between royal justice and a father’s affection, while leaving questions of guilt unresolved.

Joab sees that King David’s heart is toward Absalom and recruits a wise woman from Tekoa to plead for his return. Following Joab’s script, she poses as a widow whose surviving son faces death for killing his brother. David promises protection, and she turns his ruling toward his own banished son. Absalom returns to Jerusalem but remains barred from David’s presence for two years. After he has Joab’s field burned, he gains an audience and the king’s kiss.

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1Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was toward Absalom.
2Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there, and said to her, “Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and don’t anoint yourself with oil; but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead.
3Go in to the king and speak like this to him.” So Joab put the words in her mouth.
4When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, showed respect, and said, “Help, O king!”
5The king said to her, “What ails you?” She answered, “Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead.
6Your servant had two sons; and they both fought together in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other and killed him.
7Behold, the whole family has risen against your servant, and they say, ‘Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the heir also.’ Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth.”
8The king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give a command concerning you.”
9The woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord, O king, may the iniquity be on me, and on my father’s house; and may the king and his throne be guiltless.”
11Then she said, “Please let the king remember the LORD your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son.” He said, “As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the earth.”
12Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” He said, “Say on.”
13The woman said, “Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring home again his banished one.
14For we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him.
17Then your servant said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. May the LORD, your God, be with you.’”
18Then the king answered the woman, “Please don’t hide anything from me that I ask you.” The woman said, “Let my lord the king now speak.”
19The king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?” The woman answered, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Joab urged me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your servant.
20Your servant Joab has done this thing to change the face of the matter. My lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are on the earth.”
21The king said to Joab, “Behold now, I have granted this thing. Go therefore, and bring the young man Absalom back.”
22Joab fell to the ground on his face, showed respect, and blessed the king. Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant.”
23So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
24The king said, “Let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, and didn’t see the king’s face.
25Now in all Israel there was no one to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. From the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no defect in him.
26When he cut the hair of his head (now it was at every year’s end that he cut it; because it was heavy on him, therefore he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, after the king’s weight.
27Three sons were born to Absalom, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar. She was a woman with a beautiful face.
28Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem, and he didn’t see the king’s face.
29Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king, but he would not come to him. Then he sent again a second time, but he would not come.
30Therefore he said to his servants, “Behold, Joab’s field is near mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire.” So Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.
32Absalom answered Joab, “Behold, I sent to you, saying, ‘Come here, that I may send you to the king, to say, “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still. Now therefore, let me see the king’s face; and if there is iniquity in me, let him kill me.”’”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
2 Samuel 14:14The woman appeals to mortality and God’s concern for the banished to persuade David to bring Absalom home.
2 Samuel 14:17Her praise of David’s discernment strengthens her appeal, even as Joab’s concealed role complicates the king’s judgment.
2 Samuel 14:2Joab’s instructions establish that the widow’s grief is a performance designed to influence David’s treatment of Absalom.
Where this chapter reaches

Numbers supplies the legal background of the avenger of blood, a role the woman invokes when seeking protection for her surviving son. Her praise of David’s ability to discern good and bad shares with 1 Kings the theme of wisdom needed for royal judgment.

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After reading the whole chapter

What does Absalom’s two-year exclusion suggest about the difference between returning home and restoring a relationship?

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How does knowing Joab wrote the woman’s speech affect your reading of her appeal to God’s mercy?

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Questions people ask about 2 Samuel 14

Who was the wise woman of Tekoa?

She is an unnamed woman whom Joab brings from Tekoa because she is wise. He tells her to dress as a mourner and supplies her speech. Her account of two sons is part of that staged appeal. The text gives no further account of her identity or background.

What does 2 Samuel 14:14 mean?

The woman compares death to spilled water that cannot be recovered, then appeals to God’s concern for those banished from him. She uses this claim to urge Absalom’s return before death closes that possibility. The verse belongs to her persuasive speech; it does not establish that guilt or justice can be ignored.

Why did Absalom burn Joab’s field?

Absalom had spent two years in Jerusalem without seeing David. He twice summoned Joab to seek access to the king, but Joab refused to come. Absalom then ordered his servants to burn Joab’s barley field to force a response. Joab came, carried his demand to David, and secured an audience.

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2 Samuel · 24 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).