“Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was toward Absalom.” (2 Samuel 14:1)
The Story [Paraphrased]
Joab is the leader of David’s Army, close advisor, and friend. Joab’s history is not perfect. He had killed Abner, King Saul’s General, even though David had entered into a pact with Abner. Joab, by killing Abner had brought judgement on himself. (2 Samuel 3:39)
Joab needed something to move his status with King David upward. Joab realized that though Absalom had killed Amnon, and now a marked man, that David was still feeling affection towards Absalom. In Joab’s mind, if he can create a story that David could relate to, Joab would give David an escape and Joab a higher status.
Finding the Actress for the Role
“And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead:” (2 Samuel 14:2)
“All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women merely players” (William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II Scene VII)
The audience is this play is King David. The writer/director, some would consider is Joab. The actress is a wise old woman whose name is not known.
ACT I (A Sad Story)
[An old woman dressed as a widow who has mourned a long time, appears in the court of King David, she lays face down in the presence of the King.]
Old Woman: “Help, O King”
King David: “What aileth thee?”
Old Woman: “I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead. 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.
And, behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth.”
King David: “Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee.”
Old Woman: “My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father’s house: and the king and his throne be guiltless.”
King David: “Whosoever saith ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more.”
Old Woman: “I pray thee, let the king remember the LORD thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son.”
King David: “As the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.”
Old Woman: “Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king.”
King David: “Say on.”
Old Woman: “And the woman said, Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? for the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished.
For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.
Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid.
For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.
Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: therefore the LORD thy God will be with thee.”
King David: “Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee.”
Old Woman: “Let my lord the king now speak.”
King David: “Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this?”
Old Woman: “As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid.
To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.”
End of Scene
ACT II (Absalom’s Return)
[Joab and King David meet]
King David: “Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again.’
[Joab, like the Old Woman, falls face down before the King]
Joab: “To day thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant.”
[Joab fetches Absalom from his banishment back to Jerusalem]
King David: “Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face.”
End of Scene
Epilogue
King David had certainly worried about the fate of his children, nieces and nephews. Joab, through the Old Woman used this as a wedge to secure his position in King David’s court. Although Absalom is returned safely from his banishment, he is still not allowed to see King David, or work within the King’s court. That will all change.
Stay Tuned…
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