2 Samuel 14:4–11

⁴So the Tekoite woman spoke to the king, and she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance. She said, “Help me, O king!” ⁵Then the king asked her, “What do you want?”^b And she said, “Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead. ⁶Your servant had two sons, and they both fought in the open field, and there was no one to part them.^c One struck the other and killed him. ⁷And look, all of the family has risen up against your servant, and they said, ‘Give up the one who struck his brother, that we may kill him in exchange for the life of his brother whom he murdered. We will also wipe out the heir,’ and so they would put out my embers which remain, by not preserving for my husband a name and a remnant on the face of the earth.”

⁸Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I myself will give the command concerning you.” ⁹The Tekoite woman said to the king, “On me, my lord the king, is the guilt, and on the house of my father, but the king on^d his throne is innocent.” ¹⁰The king said, “Whoever has spoken to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you again.” ¹¹Then she said, “Please may the king remember Yahweh your God, to prevent the increase of blood avengers who kill,^e so that they not wipe out my son.” He said, “As Yahweh lives,^f surely not one hair shall fall from your son to the ground.”