The Tekoa Woman's Story (1-7)

As mentioned in the previous chapter, David’s longing to deal with Absalom was abated. Joab, on the other hand, assuming Absalom would be David’s choice to succeed him, devised a plan. David would not budge on his own and would never consider allowing Absalom to return home, so sinister Joab decided to have a woman from Tekoa pretend to be in mourning over a similar situation where one of her sons killed the other. The whole event of Joab is a continuation of Nathan’s prophecy that evil would arise out of David’s own house and cause division (2 Samuel 12:11).

When the woman came to David under guise, she told her story. No one was there to stop one of her sons from killing the other, and now her family was demanding the surviving son be handed over and executed, leaving her family without an heir. She then finessed her story to reveal the injustice of it all. Those wanting her remaining son to be executed were not wishing justice, but their greed was seeking to steal the inheritance (1-7).

The Tekoa Woman’s Verdict (8-11)

David dealt with the fictitious situation in three stages:  

• He told the woman he would give orders concerning the situation, likely meaning he would announce the murder was not premeditated.

• David then announced that no one was to touch the son without reprisal from the king. 

  The woman asked for the full request: for the avenger of blood to have no right before God to destroy her son (9).

• David finally invoked the name of the Lord in the protection of her son, sealing his decision (10-11). 

The Tekoa Woman’s Real Request (12-17)

The woman then made her true request, that Absalom be spared by the same reasoning and justice David had just pronounced over her son and be returned to Jerusalem. She warned that all men must be “spilled out like water,” meaning mortality was unavoidable. In the same sense that Amnon had died, Absalom could also die in exile, and David could die before he corrected his error. 

The Tekoaian woman appealed to David, for David knew God preserved life, and in the same way, He would work to bring someone out of exile (12-14).

The woman brought up her fictitious sons again, trying to make it seem that her main concern was her own case, but David was not duped. Instead, he began to suspect what was behind the woman’s odd circumstance and her panache in telling a story that suddenly appeared fabricated (15-17).

The Tekoa Woman’s Admission (18-22)

The woman admitted Joab had put her up to the story, and David, seeing through the guise and its shrewdness, granted Joab permission to bring Absalom back (18-22).

The Tekoa Woman’s Success (23-33)

Joab brought Absalom back to Jerusalem, where he lived before the city as a man of extraordinary appearance and was blessed with an attractive family, yet remained an outcast to David’s presence, in a sort of incomplete forgiveness (23-27).

After two years of exile from the king’s presence, Absalom called twice on Joab to request an audience with King David, but Joab ignored his request until Absalom burned Joab's field. Joab finally came to Absalom, who requested a status change. He either wanted to be executed as a murderer or be restored to the king’s palace. Joab agreed and convinced David that Amnon’s death was justifiable, so Absalom should have rightful access to his presence. David agreed, and Absalom was restored (28-33).