2 Samuel 14:4-11

New Catholic Bible

⁴ When the woman of Tekoa approached the king, she fell prostrate to the ground in homage and said: “Please help me, O king.” ⁵ The king asked: “What can I do for you?” She replied: “As you can see I am a widow. My husband is dead. ⁶ Your servant had two sons, and they fought with one another in the field. There was no one around to separate them, and one of them struck the other and killed him.

⁷ “Now the entire family has risen against your servant and demanded: ‘Give up the man who killed his brother, so that we can put him to death to atone for the life of the brother whom he killed. Thus we shall get rid of the heir as well.’ Should they do this, they will extinguish my one remaining ember and leave my husband neither name nor posterity on the face of the earth.” ⁸ The king said to the woman: “Return home. I myself shall issue orders on your behalf.”

⁹ Then the woman of Tekoa said to the king: “My lord, let the guilt be on me and on my father’s house. The king and his throne will be without guilt.” ¹⁰ The king replied: “If anyone says something further that is threatening to you, have him brought to me, and he will never trouble you again.” ^11 [a]Then she said: “May the king keep the Lord, your God, in mind so that the avenger of blood will be prevented from killing any further and my son will not be destroyed.” The king swore: “As surely as the Lord lives, not one hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.”