A Wise Woman’s Tale

And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him. —2 Samuel 14:6

Joab knew Absalom felt betrayed by David.

Forced into exile, Absalom was cut off from the affairs of the state and his immediate family. He had only avenged the dishonor of his sister, which his father should have adjudicated in the first place. The longer their estrangement lasted, the more bitter Absalom became toward his father’s refusal to allow him to come home. Joab felt the time had come to attempt a reconciliation between the two. Seeking out a woman he knew from the town of Tekoah, just south of Bethlehem, Joab invented a parable he felt sure would bring forth from David a judgment applicable to the situation existing between himself and Absalom.

The woman would have to be subtle in the presentation of her case so David would not suspect it also pertained to him. Claiming to be a widow, she said her two sons had quarreled in the field one day, and one brother had killed the other.

The entire family demanded the woman surrender her remaining son so they might kill him to avenge the death of the murdered son. This would leave no family heir.

Their lineage and her dead husband’s name would cease to exist.

David promised her remaining son would be protected, even though the law clearly required death for the crime of murder.

The woman asked that any guilt for this pardon be on her head and not the king’s. David reassured the woman he would also protect her from harm.

Pressing him for more assurance, she got David to swear an oath before God that the life of her remaining son would be protected.

David had just mercifully pardoned a fictitious murderer for killing his fictitious brother. Why was he not treating his own son, guilty of the same crime, with equal justice? The woman called his attention to the similarity. Amnon was dead.

Nothing could change that fact. Why not restore Absalom to his family? God forgives the sinner. Why not David? David now saw clearly that the people of Israel wished Absalom to be forgiven and returned home. If God forgave David’s sins, why could David not forgive his son’s? Surely the Lord would honor the king for doing what was right and merciful.

“It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not” (Lamentations 3:22).