The wise woman of Tekoa uses a crafted parable to persuade King David to bring his exiled son Absalom home. Second Samuel 14 is the pivot of the Absalom narrative - the most direct appeal to David’s mercy and the fragile first step toward a reconciliation that never fully arrives. It belongs to the Court History of Dav

Full sung version coming soon.

Lyrics

Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was towards Absalom And Joab 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

Go in to the king and speak like this to him So Joab put the words in her mouth When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground Showed respect and said, Help, O king

The king said to her, What ails you She answered, Truly I am a widow and my husband is dead Your 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

Behold, 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 The king said to the woman, Go to your house and I will give a command concerning you The 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

The king said, Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me and he will not bother you any more Then 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

Then the woman said, Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king He said, Say on The 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 For 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

Now therefore seeing that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king It is because the people have made me afraid Your servant said, I will now speak to the king It may be that the king will perform the request of his servant

For the king will hear to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son Together out of the inheritance of God And so the king brought the young man Absalom back

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2 Samuel 14 sung by Psalm Selah. The whole Bible, one chapter at a time.

Published 2026-05-22 · Last updated 2026-06-06
Written by Reid Wender, Editorial Director at Psalmody Press