Thursday in Season after Pentecost

37Verse 37. Now Absalom fled and went to Talmai son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur. But David mourned for his son every day. 38Verse 38. After Absalom had fled and gone to Geshur, he stayed there three years. 39Verse 39. And King David longed to go to Absalom, for he had been consoled over Amnon’s death. 1Verse 1. Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart longed for Absalom. 2Verse 2. So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time. 3Verse 3. Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab put the words in her mouth. 4Verse 4. When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell facedown in homage and said, “Help me, O king!” 5Verse 5. “What troubles you?” the king asked her. “Indeed,” she said, “I am a widow, for my husband is dead. 6Verse 6. And your maidservant had two sons who were fighting in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him. 7Verse 7. Now the whole clan has risen up against your maidservant and said, ‘Hand over the one who struck down his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of the brother whom he killed. Then we will cut off the heir as well!’ So they would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on the earth.” 8Verse 8. “Go home,” the king said to the woman, “and I will give orders on your behalf.” 9Verse 9. But the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord the king, may any blame be on me and on my father’s house, and may the king and his throne be guiltless.” 10Verse 10. “If anyone speaks to you,” said the king, “bring him to me, and he will not trouble you again!” 11Verse 11. “Please,” she replied, “may the king invoke the LORD your God to prevent the avenger of blood from increasing the devastation, so that my son may not be destroyed!” “As surely as the LORD lives,” he vowed, “not a hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.” 12Verse 12. Then the woman said, “Please, may your servant speak a word to my lord the king?” “Speak,” he replied. 13Verse 13. The woman asked, “Why have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself, since he has not brought back his own banished son? 14Verse 14. For we will surely die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life, but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him. 15Verse 15. Now therefore, I have come to present this matter to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king. Perhaps he will grant the request of his maidservant. 16Verse 16. For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would cut off both me and my son from God’s inheritance.’ 17Verse 17. And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is able to discern good and evil, just like the angel of God. May the LORD your God be with you.’” 18Verse 18. Then the king said to the woman, “I am going to ask you something; do not conceal it from me!” “Let my lord the king speak,” she replied. 19Verse 19. So the king asked, “Is the hand of Joab behind all this?” The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king says. Yes, your servant Joab is the one who gave me orders; he told your maidservant exactly what to say. 20Verse 20. Joab your servant has done this to bring about this change of affairs, but my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that happens in the land.” 21Verse 21. Then the king said to Joab, “I hereby grant this request. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.” 22Verse 22. Joab fell facedown in homage and blessed the king. “Today,” said Joab, “your servant knows that he has found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, because the king has granted his request.” 23Verse 23. So Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. 24Verse 24. But the king added, “He may return to his house, but he must not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, but he did not see the face of the king.

20Verse 20. Immediately Saul fell flat on the ground, terrified by the words of Samuel. And his strength was gone, because he had not eaten anything all that day and night. 21Verse 21. When the woman came to Saul and saw how distraught he was, she said to him, “Look, your maidservant has obeyed your voice. I took my life in my hands and did as you told me. 22Verse 22. Now please listen to your servant and let me set a morsel of bread before you so you may eat and have the strength to go on your way.” 23Verse 23. Saul refused, saying, “I will not eat.” But his servants joined the woman in urging him, and he heeded their voice. He got up from the ground and sat on the bed. 24Verse 24. The woman had a fattened calf at her house, and she quickly slaughtered it. She also took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread. 25Verse 25. She served it to Saul and his servants, and they ate. And that night they got up and left.