Day 137 – 2 Samuel 14:1-11
Scripture Review
2 Samuel 14:1-11
Absalom has been away in Geshur for three years after killing Amnon.
"And Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom."
(2 Samuel 14:1)
Joab knows how to read the room. He perceives that David's heart is toward Absalom. David has not brought him home yet, but his soul is leaning that way. This is the same David who once ran from Saul and would not lift his hand against him. This is the same David who made covenant with Jonathan and later showed kindness to Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake. Mercy is not foreign to David.
"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:"
(2 Samuel 14:2)
Joab "sent" to Tekoah for a wise woman. Tekoah was a place south of Jerusalem, and Joab finds a woman there with enough wisdom and presence to stand before the king. But Joab does not send her as she is, he tells her to pretend. She is to put on mourning apparel, not anoint herself with oil, and look like a woman who has mourned a long time. In that day, oil was often connected with gladness and refreshment, so leaving it off helped her appear sorrowful. Joab is staging grief before David's heart.
"And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth."
(2 Samuel 14:3)
The Bible says he "put the words in her mouth." This is not her own plea. This is Joab's plan moving through her voice. A heart after God needs discernment. Not every moving story is clean just because it moves me. This reminds me of Nathan's parable in chapter 12, but there is a difference. Nathan came because the LORD sent him. This woman comes because Joab sent her. Nathan spoke truth to uncover sin. Joab is using a story to move David toward a decision. Both stories reach David's heart, but they do not come from the same kind of source.
"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."
(2 Samuel 14:4)
The woman comes before David with humility and cries, "Help, O king." David is king, so part of his office is to judge and protect. The cry for help reaches that part of him. Earlier, David sat before the LORD in 2 Samuel 7 and remembered how God had lifted him from the sheepcote to the throne. Now this woman bows before that same throne and asks for help.
"And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead."
(2 Samuel 14:5)
David asks, "What aileth thee?" He wants to know her trouble. She answers as a widow: "mine husband is dead." In Israel, a widow was considered vulnerable and needed protection.
"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."
(2 Samuel 14:6)
She's describing two sons fighting in the field. One smites the other and kills him. No one is there to break it up. The story reaches back to the old Bible sorrow of brother rising against brother, like Cain and Abel in Genesis. When brothers turn on each other, the whole house is affected.
"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."
(2 Samuel 14:7)
Her whole family wants the surviving son delivered up to die for killing his brother. She adds that if they kill him, they will also destroy the heir. That phrase "quench my coal which is left" means her last living hope will be put out. Like a little coal left from a fire, her surviving son is all that remains of her husband's name. If he dies, the family line is gone.
"And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee."
(2 Samuel 14:8)
David tells her to go home, and he promises to give charge concerning her. He is not ready to make the full oath yet, but he is already leaning toward protection.
"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."
(2 Samuel 14:9)
She is trying to remove David's fear of blame. The plan is working because she keeps drawing him toward stronger words of mercy.
"And the king said, Whosoever saith ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more."
(2 Samuel 14:10)
David strengthens his promise. If anyone speaks against her, she is to bring that person to the king, and he will not touch her anymore. David now places his protection between the woman and her accusers. Once David speaks, the woman has royal shelter.
"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."
(2 Samuel 14:11)
She brings the LORD into the matter. She asks David to remember "the LORD thy God" and not allow the revengers of blood to destroy her son. The revenger of blood had a serious place in Israel's justice, but she is asking David to restrain further bloodshed in this case. Then David swears, "As the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth." Now the king has bound himself with an oath.