“David Pardoning Absalom” by William Blake, 1803
2 Samuel 14 (NRSV)
Absalom Returns to Jerusalem
Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s mind was on Absalom.
“In the case of Absalom and the king, the relationship remained virtually deadlocked, neither side having the spiritual incentive to break it.”
–Joyce G. Baldwin
Just as Nathan’s story brought home the truth to David about his affair with Bathsheba, so Joab hopes this widow’s story will help soften David’s heart towards Absalom.
4When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance, and said, “Help, O king!”
5The king asked her, “What is your trouble?”
She answered, “Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. 6Your servant had two sons, and they fought with one another in the field; there was no one to part them, and one struck the other and killed him. 7Now the whole family has risen against your servant. They say, ‘Give up the man who struck his brother, so that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he murdered, even if we destroy the heir as well.’ Thus they would quench my one remaining ember, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.”
8Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.”
9The woman of Tekoa said to the king, “On me be the guilt, my lord the king, and on my father’s house; let the king and his throne be guiltless.”
10The king said, “If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again.”
11Then she said, “Please, may the king keep the Lord your God in mind, so that the avenger of blood may kill no more, and my son not be destroyed.”
He said, “As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.”
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woman in traditional widow garb in Greece
There were several factors that made this woman’s appeal successful.
- She was a widow, which would invite sympathy
- She lived at some distance from Jerusalem, which made it difficult to easily know or inquire of the facts of her case
- She was old, which gave more dignity to her story
- She wore the clothes of mourning to heighten the effect
- She brought a case of family estrangement to David
- She brought a case that was not too similar, lest it arouse David’s suspicions
But it was not right! David ignores the cause of justice for the sake of family sympathy and loyalty. In personal relationship it is a good and glorious thing to be generous with forgiveness and mercy when we are wronged. But David had a responsibility as the king and chief judge of Israel, and he was being sorely tempted to forsake that responsibility.
–David Guzik
12Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.”
He said, “Speak.”
13The woman said, “Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in giving this decision the king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished one home again.
Here the woman confronts David about the heart of the matter: his sin of not initiating reconciliation with his son. Absalom was estranged from his father and daily growing more bitter; this was a threat both to David himself and to the kingdom.
14We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished forever from his presence.
She says there is an urgency to seeking reconciliation. Once someone dies, the opportunity for making things right is gone. God will help the one who is seeking reconciliation, even as He Himself did for all of us sinners when He had Jesus bear our sins on the cross.
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Music:
“My Song Is Love Unknown” sung by the St. Martin’s Church Choir, with a lovely flute and oboe accompaniment.
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DWELLING in the Word 
