Yo'av ben-Tsru'yah knew that the king's heart was toward Avshalom

Yo'av sent to Teqo'ah and took a wise woman from there, and said to her, 'Please mourn and put on mourning clothes, and do not anoint yourself with oil, and be like a woman who has mourned many days over the dead.'

You go to the king and speak to him this word,' and Yo'av put the words in her mouth.

The Teqo'it woman said to the king, and she fell on her face to the ground and bowed down, and said, 'Help, the king!'

The king said to her, 'What is the matter with you?' And she said, 'Alas, I am a widow woman; my husband is dead.'

Your servant had two sons, and the two of them fought in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.

And look, the whole family has risen against your servant and said, 'Give the one who struck his brother, and we will put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed, and we will destroy the heir too,' and they would quench my coal that is left, so as not to set for my husband a name and remnant on the face of the ground.

The king said to the woman, 'Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.'

The Teqo'it woman said to the king, 'My Adonai the king, the iniquity is on me and on my father's house, but the king and his throne are innocent.'

The king said, 'Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you anymore.'

She said, 'Please let the king remember יהוה your Elohim, so the avenger of blood does not multiply destruction and they do not destroy my son.' He said, 'As יהוה lives, not one hair of your son will fall to the ground.'

The woman said, 'Please let your servant speak a word to my Adonai the king.' He said, 'Speak.'

The woman said, 'Why have you thought such a thing against the people of Elohim? And by the word the king has spoken, he is like one guilty, because the king does not bring back his banished one.'

For we must die, and like spilled water on the ground that cannot be gathered up, Elohim does not take away a life but thinks thoughts so as not to banish a banished one from Him.

Now I have come to speak this word to my Adonai the king because the people frightened me, and your servant said, 'I will speak to the king; perhaps the king will do the word of his servant.'

For the king will listen to rescue his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of Elohim.'

Your servant said, 'May the word of my Adonai the king bring rest,' for as an angel of Elohim, so is my Adonai the king to discern good and evil, and may יהוה your Elohim be with you.

The king answered and said to the woman, 'Please do not hide from me the word I am asking you.' The woman said, 'Please let my Adonai the king speak.'

The king said, 'Is the hand of Yo'av with you in all this?' The woman answered and said, 'As your life, my Adonai the king, no one turns to the right or left from all my Adonai the king has spoken, for your servant Yo'av commanded me, and he put all these words in your servant's mouth.'

To change the face of the matter your servant Yo'av did this thing, and my Adonai is wise like the wisdom of an angel of Elohim to know all that is on earth.

The king said to Yo'av, 'Look, I have done this thing; go bring back the youth Avshalom.'

Yo'av fell on his face to the ground and bowed down and blessed the king, and Yo'av said, 'Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your eyes, my Adonai the king, because the king has done the word of his servant.'

Yo'av got up and went to Geshurah and brought Avshalom to Yerushalayim.

The king said, 'Let him turn to his house, and my face he shall not see.' Avshalom turned to his house, and the king's face he did not see.

Now in all Yisra'el there was no man as handsome as Avshalom to praise greatly; from the sole of his foot to the top of his head there was no defect in him.

When he shaved his head—and it was at the end of year by year days that he shaved, because it was heavy on him, so he shaved—and he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels by the king's stone.

Three sons were born to Avshalom, and one daughter whose name was Tamar; she was a woman of beautiful appearance.

Avshalom lived in Yerushalayim two full years, and the king's face he did not see.

Avshalom sent to Yo'av to send him to the king, but he was not willing to come to him, and he sent again a second time, but he was not willing to come.

He said to his servants, 'See, Yo'av's field is beside me and he has barley there; go set it on fire.' Avshalom's servants set the field on fire.

Yo'av got up and went to Avshalom's house and said to him, 'Why did your servants set my field on fire?'

Avshalom said to Yo'av, 'Look, I sent to you saying, "Come here, and I will send you to the king to say, 'Why did I come from Geshur? It would have been better for me still to be there. Now let me see the king's face, and if there is iniquity in me, let him put me to death.'" '

Yo'av came to the king and told him. He called for Avshalom, and Avshalom came to the king and bowed to him with his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Avshalom.