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.” ⁵And the king said to her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. ⁶And your handmaid had two sons, and they quarreled with one another in the field; there was no one to part them, and one struck the other and killed him. ⁷And now the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, ‘Give up the man who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he slew’; and so they would destroy the heir also. Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant upon the face of the earth.”

⁸Then the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.” ⁹And the 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 any one says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again.” ¹¹Then she said, “Pray let the king invoke the Lord your God, that the avenger of blood slay no more, and my son be not destroyed.” He said, “As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.”

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