When the woman from Tekoa went[a] to the king, she fell with her face to the ground to pay him honor, and she said, “Help me, Your Majesty!”

The king asked her, “What is troubling you?”

She said, “I am a widow; my husband is dead. I your servant had two sons. They got into a fight with each other in the field, and no one was there to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant; they say, ‘Hand over the one who struck his brother down, so that we may put him to death(A) for the life of his brother whom he killed; then we will get rid of the heir(B) as well.’ They would put out the only burning coal I have left,(C) leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth.”

The king said to the woman, “Go home,(D) and I will issue an order in your behalf.”

But the woman from Tekoa said to him, “Let my lord the king pardon(E) me and my family,(F) and let the king and his throne be without guilt.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 14:4 Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts spoke

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